Episode #296 - One Book We Can't Wait For You To Read

[Sue]

I haven't read any Emily St. John Mandel but I am sooo excited about Station Eleven. I remember first hearing about it on the episode after Book Conference that Ann mentioned and have been hearing nothing but great things ever since. Four days until I can get my hands on it. Unfortunately, I promised myself I'd get to the ARC of We Are Not Ourselves I received from the one and only Roxane Gay a few months ago, as soon as I finish Nobody Is Ever Missing and The Spinning Heart, both picked up at a favorite indie bookstore in Mystic, CT on our way home from summer vacation.

After listening to the podcast, though, I may have to break my promise...oh, so many books, so little time!

[[deleted user]]

I was very intrigued by it when I saw someone (was it Marta?) clutching it (advance copy) in Asheville. It may be my next book after Bone Clocks.

[Kalen]

Two thumbs up to Station Eleven.

[Diana]

Excuse my ignorance, but can you tell me how to get this podcast? Thank you.

[Sue]

http://booksonthenightstand.com/podcasts

Diana wrote: "Excuse my ignorance, but can you tell me how to get this podcast? Thank you."

[Michael]

If you use iTunes, you can also subscribe that way:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/b...

[Readnponder]

Diana wrote: "Excuse my ignorance, but can you tell me how to get this podcast? Thank you."

Diana -- you will love it! I started listening at about episode 25. Then went back and downloaded episodes 1-24. Didn't want to miss a minute. Hope you enjoy it as well.

[Claire P]

I HATE dystopian, post-apocalyptic visions of the world. And yet I am 102 pages into Station Eleven, and I am loving it. I should have known that if both Ann & Michael are recommending something, resistance is futile!

[Denise]

I don't read dystopian,etc., either. But perhaps I will give this one a try.

[Carol]

I'm 80+ pages in and debating. There are characters I've grown to like but on the whole I'm struggling. Will let you know.

[Janet]

I read this a while ago and I have to say that I still think about this book...it's unusual for a book to stay with me like that.

[Diana]

I just finished it and although I found the first half riveting, the second half seemed to suffer from just a little of the mid-point slowdown that novels sometimes have a hard time overcoming.

Like Denise, et al., dystopia is not my thing. However, I will say that Station Eleven is incredibly inventive and basically well written. Incidentally, I thought the graphic novels, of which only glimpses were revealed, stood alone on their own. I can imagine a related, collectible, very short graphic series based on Dr. Eleven....perhaps just the two issues mentioned in the book. If I were Emily St. John Mandel, I'd be calling the good people at Subterranean Press already!

[Sue]

I'm just over a third of the way through and my mind is already blown. Jennifer Egan came to mind as I was reading and then I saw that Emily St. John Mandel said A Visit from the Goon Squad was a direct influence on the book.

I love the telescoping, almost kaleidoscoping, structure of the book - how a complete story blooms out of a tossed off line somewhere else in the story, the multiple POV's, the non-linear narrative, the depth of the characters, the layers of mystery.

The way ESJM takes so many threads and weaves them slowly, but so tightly together into a compelling storyscape is something I find astonishing.

One of the blurbs talks about the joy of falling down ESJM's rabbit hole of imagination and it does feel like that. It really is a joy.

I was very disappointed by California, which I read shortly before starting Station Eleven. I found California flat and dull, where Station Eleven by comparison feels so much more alive to me.

I heard George Saunders say, about narrative voice, that the voice can be anything, as long as there's humanity behind it, and I think that's really true, here.

I don't think I'll be able to stop talking about this book, either, and can't wait to read ESJM's earlier work.