Every once in a while a book comes along and totally blows you away. This is that book.
Station Eleven isn't out until September but I was lucky enough to get a copy due to a work placement I had with Pan Macmillan a month ago. However, I couldn't wait until then to talk about it and think that everyone who reads this blog should pre-order it right now! The plot of the book focuses on several characters and their relationships before and after a deadly disease called the Georgia Flu wipes out 99% of the human population. I know that dystopian novels aren't exactly hard to come by these days but I promise you that this is in a different league. That's not to say that I don't love those kind of stories (Hunger Games fangirls represent) but I like the approach that Mandel has taken with this book in that it focuses on a set of people rather than the problem at large, which is that civilization has collapsed and there's no way of rebuilding it. The concept is terrifying; there is no electricity, no phones, no cars and very few people to try and fix the problem. The only thing that these characters can do is live and try not to kill or be killed along the way. A common phrase used throughout the book is a quote from Star Trek: "Survival is inefficient," which leads us on to the Travelling Symphony. The Symphony are a group of people that travel through a deserted North America performing Shakespeare plays to anyone who is happy to welcome them in to their so called town. Considering that most of the population now live in disused fast food restaurants, the word "town" is probably an exaggeration. These characters are the crux of the book and it is through them that we see what life has now become for those that have survived. There seems to be nothing to live for but their audiences relish their visits and Mandel elegantly points out that if and when the end of the world does happen what is it that we're going to cling to? Our "stuff" or the people around us? There's also a rather questionable character called the prophet who is the perfect creepy character but I'm not going to say anymore about him because he's too important to the book and I don't want to ruin it for you! Much like Margret Atwood, Mandel has left the dramatics and fight for civilization to other authors and the big Hollywood blockbusters, which are often referenced in the book in the hope of making the characters feel better but this seldom works. She has examined what it means to survive in a world where technology and the ease that it brings to our lives is so natural that even the idea of being without it terrifies us. Every sentence in this book is gripping and thought provoking and even if you're not a sci-fi loving, dystopian genre addicted reader you will still thoroughly enjoy it and, hopefully, be desperate to pass it on!
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The blurb of this book may have you believe that you are about to enter in to a sexy murder mystery set in San Fransisco during the smallpox epidemic in 1876 where tensions are high and morals are low. However, as much as I liked the plot I feel that the mystery behind the murder comes second to the character studies that Donoghue conducts throughout the book. Usually I would prefer a murder mystery to be filled with twists and turns but I thoroughly enjoyed this approach, which is probably mainly down to the story being based on a real-life murder, and thought that all of the characters painted in this book were intriguing and infuriating in equal measure.
The main character is Blanche Beunon, a French burlesque dancer living and working in San Fransisco with her lover, Arthur, and his best friend, Ernest. Blanche is happy enough performing at the city's most infamous brothel night after night to adoring fans and taking home some extra post-show money (nudge nudge, wink wink) until one evening she is literally knocked over by a woman wearing men's clothes who is riding a high wheeler. This is Miss Jenny Bonnet and, unfortunately, the person at the centre of the murder (this isn't a spoiler, she gets killed about two pages in!) Jenny is a whirlwind and completely turns Blanche's life upside down, forcing her to ask herself questions that she has been avoiding for a very long time. The story flits between the month before the murder and the days after it, which means that the plot is constantly moving and we aren't bogged down by the characters' back stories as they are neatly interwoven in to the narrative and become important to the events surrounding the murder. As I mentioned, I think that the characters in this book are great, even the ones I despise, because they have been so well formed that at points I wanted to jump into the book and strangle them for the way they behave. I believe this shows just how good a writer Donoghue is. Jenny is without doubt my favourite character in this book; she marches to the beat of her own drum in a time when simply wearing men's trousers can land you in jail. She isn't afraid to speak her mind and do as she pleases, which is why it is so sad that things turn out the way they do. I really wish I could discuss the story more because I think that Donoghue is not only presenting us with a whodunnit but also a commentary on how women found it impossible to escape the roles they were forced in to, even when they realise they have done wrong and try to rectify the situation. But if I did that I would be spoiling a splendid book for you all so please pick up a copy and then we can talk and dissect it to our heart's content! I have recently returned from a very nice holiday in Mexico with two of my best friends, which not only involved a fair amount of cocktails but also a fair amount of reading between the three of us. We each brought very different books with us, which made me smile because even though we have lots of things in common I love that our reading interests can vary so much. However, the one book that got me thinking the most, even though I never read it, was Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
My friend (funnily enough her name is actually Rebecca) had to read it as part of her degree but, like most university texts, she had to rush to finish it and so wanted to re-read it in her own time. She promised me that she loved it and I'm sure she did but no matter what she thought about it I still have no desire to read it. And I feel a little guilty for thinking it. This has nothing to do with hurting my friend's feelings but the simple fact is I'm not a fan of classic literature. "WHAT?!" Cry the esteemed authors of the world. "BUT YOU WANT TO BE A WRITER!" Yell the publishers. "YOU OBVIOUSLY DON'T KNOW GOOD LITERATURE," shout the critics. This is what I imagine those people to say when I quietly admit, in my head, that I don't like classics all that much. The world has a rich history of fantastic writers and stories, some of which I love (shout out to Geoffrey Chaucer and 'ole Billy Shakespeare) but I don't like every single one of them and as an aspiring writer I feel a pressure that suggests to me that I should. I'm not sure where this pressure has come from, possibly from years of studying English Lit in school or reading book reviews and features in noted newspapers, but the more that society pushes this idea that we must read every book in the literary canon, the more pressure I feel that I'm failing to be a true lover of books. In reality, I think this is all rubbish. Yes, we should recognise the great writers of the past and, yes, we should encourage people to read those books but what if (God forbid) they don't like Jane Austen or any of her ilk? Should our first reaction be to condemn them or think "Fair enough, they're not everyone's cup of tea"? It's unrealistic for everyone to like every book that has ever been published and if a person prefers more modern books or books that don't tackle the deep issues of our society to the literature of yesteryear then who are they really hurting? At least they're reading! They're escaping their little corner of the world and discovering something new, which I truly believe can help us all in the battle for acceptance and equality. But political agenda aside, I am finally ridding myself of the fear of not being seen as a genuine literature lover and coming out from the cannon closet. I don't like women in frilly dresses who just stand around and talk. I don't like stories that, while filled with symbolism, move very slowly. And I don't like being told what I should read by anyone, esteemed journalist/critic/author or not. I like twisty plots with great characters and I'm sorry if that offends you in any way. Except that I'm not, I'm just being polite. |
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