the butterfly effect on steroids

against a deadly flu and casual murder

Fiction, 2014

It’s been a hard few weeks for almost everyone I know, which I would like to reason with some astrological orbit or seasonal shift, but Mercury is no longer in retrograde, and the weather now has traces of the crispiness of a packet of chips. So if reasons fail, the only thing I can offer you—that I treat myself to—is a book so good that it dissolves reality while you are reading but leaves you with lingering warmth that makes the re-entry into your life easier.

Emily St. John Mandel has been on my radar for a while now, and over the last three days, I devoured two of her books—Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel—and spent my Sunday trying to track down Sea of Tranquility (with this specific cover). It was such a treat to read her work back-to-back because although each novel is a stand-alone with a completely different world and cast of characters, there are fleeting references to events or interactions with characters, and catching these clues feels akin to harvesting strawberries—rewarding yet laborious.

Station Eleven is the story of a world destroyed by a pandemic, the highly deadly Georgian Flu that wiped out most of humanity. In this world, we meet a group of Shakespearean performers called the Travelling Symphony, who wander through this post-apocalyptic landscape only to stop at a few towns and perform a play for the night before packing up and moving on.

The story is told like a collage and frequently flips between the past, present, and future to reveal the story of a delicate web of interpersonal connections that shape who we are. A famous Hollywood actor, a paramedic, a little girl, a son who never sees his father, and a woman working for a shipping company each have a role to play in how the lives of strangers around them unfold. Station Eleven is one of those books you read and marvel at for its technical prowess as much as its creativity. Oh, it’s also an effective distraction for whatever you are avoiding.

P.S. Thank you so much for your kind responses to my book club idea! Your emails were so thoughtful and encouraging. Now I actually have to figure out the logistics of this, but that’s my burden :)

Song - In A Week

Film - Nomadland