Station Eleven

Dazzling.Much of the discourse around Station Eleven centers around the concept of a traveling performance troupe trying to preserve culture in the aftermath of the fall of humanity. That's true; indeed, it's the reason I picked up the book in the first place. But Station Eleven is much more than that. Mandel skillfully weaves in and out of storylines that take place before her fictional pandemic and at various points during it. This timeline-jumping component of the narrative has earned the book comparisons to [b:Cloud Atlas 49628 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1563042852l/49628.SX50.jpg 1871423], but in truth, Mandel manages the plotwise and thematic connections between timelines much better than David Mitchell did, and she does so by staying focused and by not overplaying her hand.In spite of the inherent horror of the pandemic premise (this one's a timely read right now, during COVID-19), there is a serenity and beauty that pervades the entire novel. Plot elements can be a bit slow-going, but Mandel's world-building could not have been rushed. Her understated prose is extremely effective at immersing the reader in the world she has crafted. Even so, many motifs and allusions enrich the work. Shakespeare, Yeats, Star Trek, Sartre, and the Book of Revelation are all there.It's a bit surreal to think that this novel was published in 2014. At one point a character ponders the existence of an alternate universe in which the pandemic he lived through didn't destroy society as completely. I read this passage and realized, despite our hardships, how fortunate we are to be living in that alternate universe.A couple of minor qualms with the writing style: Mandel's insistence on referring to certain musicians by their chair in their ensemble grows grating, and I say this as a musician. Then again, there are already a lot of names to know, and perhaps she didn't want to confuse the reader further. The liberal use of sentence fragments seems welcome at times but is at other times distracting.Station Eleven very nearly reaches five-star territory for me, but not quite. Still, a magnificent work.