Now is a Great Time to Read ‘Station Eleven’
The plot of Emily Mandel’s book doesn’t have much to do with COVID-19, but its deeper messages sure do
If you look on social media right now, you will most likely see people getting ready to either quarantine themselves, work from home, keep their kids home while schools are closed, or some combination of the above. You might also see people asking for recommendations for books to read, tv shows to watch, video games to play, or any other form of entertainment they can consume from the comfort of their own homes. In short, people are getting ready to isolate for a while.
That’s why I’d like to take a few paragraphs to recommend Emily Mandel’s Station Eleven. It’s a book about the end of the world, but that’s not why you should read it. You should read this book because it’s filled with touching stories of how people come together in the wake of disaster. It’s also deeply comforting, something many people could probably use right now.
In a fictional post-apocalyptical tale that runs much, much worse than anything in the news today, Mandel paints a beautiful picture of the best (and sometimes the worst) ways people try to carry on. It’s one of the best books I can think of for the present moment.
The story of Station Eleven kicks off with a sickness that is much, much worse than COVID-19. I want to be pretty clear on that front — this book has very little in common with today’s crisis in terms of magnitude or fatalities. This book is about the end of the world as we know it. That’s not something we’re facing right now.
But, though the sickness in Mandel’s fictional world kills essentially everyone it touches, it’s not the main focus of the book. While it rages through the world, Mandel tells the story of those who survive it. A few people are immune to its touch. A few others manage to completely cut themselves off from the world. As time passes, they slowly emerge from their hiding places and start to rebuild.
The story of Station Eleven is told through several different perspectives. There’s an EMT named Jeevan Chaudhary, a famous actor named Arthur Leander, and an actress named Kirsten who somehow survives the sickness and grows up in its wake. Their stories intersect in several interesting ways (that I won’t spoil here) as Mandel builds a complex story of how they all weather different crises in their own ways. Some of the individual tales take place long before everything strikes, lending valuable context and depth to the post-apocalypse.
Fundamentally, this is a story about how a few people survive a catastrophe. It’s meant to be a cross-section of survivors, covering a few ways that they outlast a furious disease that wipes out the rest of the world. It’s not about some grand plan to save everyone or rebuild society. Instead, it’s a warm, heartfelt story about how a few people keep going. In many ways, it’s a pretty slow book, despite its exciting subject matter. It’s more about the aftermath of a crisis than the crisis itself.
It’s not all pleasantries, though — there’s real, serious conflict in Station Eleven. One figure, in particular, threatens the new society of people after the apocalypse in pretty terrifying ways. But this struggle between good and evil isn’t the central message of the story. As interesting as it is, it’s almost ancillary. Conflict is just one piece of the larger narrative that Mandel builds.
The best reason to read Station Eleven right now isn’t that it’s timely, or even that it’s a good book. This is a great novel to check out right now (perhaps on an e-reader, so you can avoid stores or libraries) because it’s uplifting and encouraging. The greater world may have failed in the story of Station Eleven, but those who are left didn’t. They kept going, they persisted through hardship, and they built their own, new society.
The world is often a scary place, especially when there’s a virus spreading this quickly. And sitting at home, with few things to do, often leads to more anxiety or fear. That’s why Station Eleven is such a great book to read right now. It may not calm all your fears about the greater world at the moment, but it’s a welcome escape from the constant barrage of new information in the news.
And, much more importantly, it’s an encouraging tale of persistence and human will. There is a world after disaster in Station Eleven. There will be one here, too.
The views expressed are mine alone and do not represent the views of my employer or any other person or organization.
