Kirsten was a child actress in the
days before the collapse. She was
performing in King Lear, a non-speaking role as a younger version of Cordelia,
when the famous actor playing Lear died of a heart attack at the beginning of
the fourth act. We pick up her story
years later. Kirsten is now a member of
the Traveling Symphony going from town to town and performing Shakespeare and
orchestral pieces on alternating nights.
Since the Georgian Flu hit electricity, order and gasoline are
non-existent. Survival is foremost on
everyone’s minds, but it is now a time when surviving may not be enough. Or as the lead caravan of the Symphony reads:
Survival is insufficient. (And yes, that
was quoted from Star Trek, a member of the Symphony was a huge fan.)
Probably not the most comforting
read with Ebola and enterovirus being so prominent in the news these days, but
at least these diseases don’t have the over 99% causality rate of the Georgian
Flu in Station Eleven. This is a story
telling of the moments before and the years after everything changed. How life is becoming the new normal and how
it’s not all bad. And there is one heck
of a glimmer of light at the end to leave you with some hope, unlike many “the
world has ended” books.
This is also an amazingly well
crafted book to be slowly savored.
Characters reoccur and their storylines tie in together in ways you
can’t predict and don’t see coming. What
is Station Eleven? Well, it has nothing
and yet EVERYTHING to do with the story.
You’ll just have to read it to find out.
