Mandel tackles existentialism in “Station Eleven”

“Station Eleven”

By: Emily St. John Mandel

Grade: B+

What if an incurable, fast-acting and extremely contagious virus began infecting everyone and only gave patients two days to live, at most? What would the remnants of our world look like to those people with the foresight — or luck — to survive it?

In her 2014 book, “Station Eleven,”Emily St. John Mandel deviates from her normal repertoire of mystery novels, such as “The Singer’s Gun” and “Last Night in Montreal,” and takes on the post-apocalyptic world. But unlike the dystopian tales of Margaret Atwood’s “Handmaid’s Tale” or George Orwell’s “1984,” which both focus on life after the altering event, Mandel hones her character arcs before and after the event, fluctuating her time frame from the past to the present.

“Station Eleven” takes place during a time not far removed from the present. The story begins on the eve of an outbreak of the Georgian Flu. Flashing forward 20 years and subtracting the majority of the world’s population, the book follows a theater troupe called The Traveling Symphony who ventures through upper North America, providing entertainment to the new towns of the earth.  Most of these towns are born out of the infrastructure of the last world, with the most maintained city being the Museum of Civilization, which spawned from Toronto’s airport.

The narrative works to interrelate all five of the characters’ arcs by tracing their lives before, during and after the epidemic. The story begins with Arthur Leandry, a famous middle-aged actor playing King Lear on the eve of the outbreak, who dies on stage before from a heart attack. Readers meet Jeevan Chaudhary, an ex-paparazzi photographer-turned-paramedic-trainee, after he learns of the forthcoming viral spread from his friend over the phone. Kirsten Raymonde, while performing the role of Cordelia, the youngest of Lear’s three daughters, performs various roles with a troupe of traveling actors and musicians in Shakespearean plays. Then there’s Clark Thompson, Arthur’s collegiate roommate from acting school, who lives through the viral incubation process waiting for a flight out of Toronto’s airport.

“Station Eleven” is full of endearing surprise as well as terrifying, suspenseful terror. The troupe, in performing Shakespearean classics, tries to impart past wisdom in a new age to inspire survivors of the present.

The novel also touches on fame, and the lasting impression people leave post-mortem. Arthur wishes for people to remember him as an actor that achieved fame in his films, but not as a man who could not keep a spouse. The ways people remember Arthur after his death situate him as the centerpiece of the story, tethering the rest of the characters’ storylines to his past actions and experiences. The novel shows that even in complete disarray, people’s lives intersect in profound and unexpected ways.

Things go unappreciated until they are taken away from us. Yes, this notion is cliche, but it serves Mandel’s story.She is interested in the question of whether a culling of a population becomes a necessary evil in the furthering of the human species. Through her cultural critique on current societal values of relationships between people, she weighs through her prose whether the destruction of humanity is a terrible event, or becomes a spark for a new start to humanity.

I don’t think the answer is concrete and direct, but Mandel points at both sides of the spectrum.  She does leave bold hints that our post-modern sensibilities, our attachment to our smartphones and technology, leave our past passions of art and culture lost and forgotten.