Station Eleven | Emily St. John Mandel
The Glass Hotel | Emily St. John Mandel
In Station Eleven, a lethal virus has decimated the global population and the world as we know it today has collapsed. Small bands of survivors roam deserted countryside; the story follows an itinerant band of Shakespearean actors and symphonic musicians knows as The Travelling Symphony as they travel what was once western Michigan, fleeing the wrath of a local cult leader known as the Prophet.
The Glass House tells the story of a different sort of collapse. After decades of lies and lavish spending, a financial investor's massive Ponzi scheme comes crashing to the ground. The consequences of the collapse ripple out from his life to his staff, his family, his investors and the effects are catastrophic, particularly for his partner, Vincent, whose life takes a wholly unexpected turn.
Both stories are deftly woven, skipping back and forth across multiple time lines, following a handful of different protagonists, and using several motifs in common: the mysterious and unseen world of the shipping industry, graphic novels, what it means to make art, young women who meet rich older men and experience a rags-to-riches-to-rags chain of events. Even more intriguing, the author uses several of the same characters in both novels, exploring what might have happened in their lives if circumstances had been different.
Mandel's work is layered and rich, elegant and not to be hurried through. satisfying but not necessarily sweet. In the end, her stories and characters may be about resilience, as much as anything else, and that ensures their enduring beauty.
* * * * *
Did I love reading Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel? Yes, absolutely. Here's why:
Emily St. John Mandel sets her stories in beautiful parts of the world - Vancouver Island, New York City, Toronto, and the shores of Lake Michigan, to name a few - that resonate with me. And she deftly uses her settings to enhance the mood of the story, alternating between remote wilderness and world-class cities with great success.
“I've always had a weakness for places where it seems like time slows down.” - The Glass Hotel
Her plots skip about - using different timelines, shifting locations, and changing from one protagonist to the next - in a way that keeps me on the edge of my seat and draws me deeper into the story.
She links ideas from one book to the next, apparently because she finds those concepts - such as the real-life "ghost fleet" of shipping vessels abandoned off the coast of Malaysia - so interesting that they apparently bob about in her brain and insert themselves into her imagination over and over again as she writes. And the happy coincidence is that much of what fascinates her fascinates me too.
“A memory, but it's a memory so vivid that there's a feeling of time travel, of visiting the actual moment.” - The Glass Hotel
I love Mandel's explorations of "the counter life;" that is, what might happen in a person's life if they made different choices, if circumstances were different. Sometimes these alternate pathways are explored within a single character - a man serving life in prison develops a rich fantasy of himself living free - or by transporting characters from one book to another, where they find a different destiny. And playfully, Mandel experiments with ghosts as another way to explore what might have been. I am here for all of it.
“I stood looking over my damaged home and tried to forget the sweetness of life on Earth.” - Station Eleven
I'm fascinated by the concept of collapse, and the accompanying shock that one would feel when suddenly finding oneself in a whole new world. Station Eleven features global collapse, as 99.99% of the world's population dies off in a snap; The Glass Hotel tells a story of financial collapse that affects hundreds of investors whose considerable life savings are wiped out overnight.
“Dr. Eleven: What was it like for you, at the end?
Captain Lonagan: It was exactly like waking up from a dream.”
Captain Lonagan: It was exactly like waking up from a dream.”
- Station Eleven
But on a smaller scale, Mandel experiments with personal collapses, like drug addiction, prison sentences, failed marriages, and death. In doing so, her writings remind me what a miracle it is to wake up every morning and face a world that I know and understand. Her books make me grateful for my life; what a wonderful gift.
* * * * *
Hey! Wanna read more about the books I've read in 2022? Check these out:
* * * * *
For a full list of books I've read in the past few years, click here:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please comment...I'd love to hear from you!