Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel -- a very good read
The inside-back of Ms Mandel's book jacket reads that she's a staff writer for The Millions. I'm sure the readers of this publication appreciate this, but I for one would love for her to write more novels. Thankfully, her new one is due this October of 2020.
Station 11 is one of the best books I've read recently. It reminds me a bit of The Walking Dead. And like The Walking Dead, I find myself telling people, yeah, it's a zombie show, but it's not really a zombie show. Similarly, yes, Station 11 is a post apocalyptic novel, but it's not really a post apocalyptic novel. It's so much more. It's about art, and love, friendship and survival.
The travelling orchestra/acting company has a quote painted on its caravan: "Survival is insufficient." It's a quote from a Star Trek Voyager episode.
At the risk of sounding ageist, two things strike me most about this book. One, how is someone so young, so wise and insightful into all stages of life? Her lynchpin character is a fifty year old, famous Hollywood actor who dies on stage while performing King Lear (not really a spoiler; you'll reader this on the inside jacket and it happens at the very beginning of the novel. His story is beautifully interwoven throughout the entire novel. This brings me to my second point. Mandel is a gifted storyteller especially when it come to plotting.
The interweaving follows the stories of around a half a dozen characters whose lives connect both before and after the event which wipes out most of civilization.
For a more comprehensive read on the plot, check this out:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20170404-station-eleven
Here are some of my favourtie quotes.
Hell is the absence of people you long for.
No one ever thinks they're awful, even people who really actually are. It's a sort of survival mechanism.
No more Internet. No more social media, no more scrolling through litanies of dreams and nervous hopes and photographs of lunches, cries for help and expressions of contentment and relationship-status updates with heart icons whole or broken, plans to meet up later, pleas, complaints, desires, pictures of babies dressed as bears or peppers for Halloween. No more reading and commenting on the lives of others, and in so doing, feeling slightly less alone in the room. No more avatars.”
He found he was a man who repented almost everything, regrets crowding in around him like moths to a light. This was actually the main difference between twenty-one and fifty-one, he decided, the sheer volume of regret.”
He's successful in interfacing with the clients we already have, but as for new clients, it's low hanging fruit. He takes a high-altitude view, but he doesn't drill down where we might actionize new opportunities" (That reminds me of a consultant I once knew :)
One final note: it was very disconcerting reading a novel where the world was wiped out by a flu while we, in real time, are facing a coronavirus outbreak.
The travelling orchestra/acting company has a quote painted on its caravan: "Survival is insufficient." It's a quote from a Star Trek Voyager episode.
At the risk of sounding ageist, two things strike me most about this book. One, how is someone so young, so wise and insightful into all stages of life? Her lynchpin character is a fifty year old, famous Hollywood actor who dies on stage while performing King Lear (not really a spoiler; you'll reader this on the inside jacket and it happens at the very beginning of the novel. His story is beautifully interwoven throughout the entire novel. This brings me to my second point. Mandel is a gifted storyteller especially when it come to plotting.
The interweaving follows the stories of around a half a dozen characters whose lives connect both before and after the event which wipes out most of civilization.
For a more comprehensive read on the plot, check this out:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20170404-station-eleven
Here are some of my favourtie quotes.
Hell is the absence of people you long for.
No one ever thinks they're awful, even people who really actually are. It's a sort of survival mechanism.
No more Internet. No more social media, no more scrolling through litanies of dreams and nervous hopes and photographs of lunches, cries for help and expressions of contentment and relationship-status updates with heart icons whole or broken, plans to meet up later, pleas, complaints, desires, pictures of babies dressed as bears or peppers for Halloween. No more reading and commenting on the lives of others, and in so doing, feeling slightly less alone in the room. No more avatars.”
He found he was a man who repented almost everything, regrets crowding in around him like moths to a light. This was actually the main difference between twenty-one and fifty-one, he decided, the sheer volume of regret.”
He's successful in interfacing with the clients we already have, but as for new clients, it's low hanging fruit. He takes a high-altitude view, but he doesn't drill down where we might actionize new opportunities" (That reminds me of a consultant I once knew :)
One final note: it was very disconcerting reading a novel where the world was wiped out by a flu while we, in real time, are facing a coronavirus outbreak.
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