People are talking about 2014’s ‘Station Eleven’ again
Awell-loved actor, Arthur Leander, collapses on the stage at the Elgin Theater in Toronto during a production of "King Lear." Paramedic Jeevan Chaudhary rushes to help him — but he and the other responders are unable to. Arthur succumbs to a heart attack.
As Jeevan moves in a questioning, sullen daze through the streets of Toronto, his friend Hua, who works at hospital tells him frantically to get out of the city, fast. A flight came in from Moscow and the passengers on it are suddenly filling up the hospitals and are dying one by one. We find out not much later that they have the “Georgia flu” and it will soon wipe out 99 percent of the world’s population.
The story shifts mostly from characters in the world just prior to the Georgia flu and to characters in Year 20. All these characters are directly connected to, or a but a degree of separation, from Arthur Leander.
We follow 28-year-old actress, Kirsten Raymonde—who was in the King Lear production just prior to “Year Year Zero. Zero.” She is now part of a troupe of performers known as the Travelling Symphony. They move about on trucks converted into horse drawn wagons. . They do concerts and plays but mostly, stly, they do Shakespeare. Kristen can an throw knives, she goes on patrol with her troupe mates, raids empty houses and apart from looking for or any useful items, she keeps an eye out for any kind of memorabilia abilia relating to Arthur.
She also holds among her prized possessions, two “Dr. Dr. Eleven” issues which were ere given to her by Arthur. “Dr. Dr. Eleven” is a comic book k about a scientist who lives s in a space station along g with other earthlings who have escaped an alien takeover of the planet.
“Station Eleven” was written by Emily St. John Mandel and published in 2014. But I only heard about it the last time I stepped out to meet friends for anything. The book has gotten attention again lately, not just because the author has come out with a new novel called “The Glass Hotel,” but because we live in such unusual times — streets of major cities are mostly empty, people are getting sick, there is a sense of uncertainty. The next pandemic many scientists expected would happen is upon us and the world will not be the same after.
Emily St. John Mandel has wonderfully woven together the lives of the characters, she has written something that is a good mystery but also a thriller — members of the troupe go missing, a character called “the Prophet” ups the danger for Kirsten and company.
I kept thinking, this really would make a good series. It turns out HBO Max has acquired the rights late last year.
Stay safe everyone, even the tiniest ways of helping at this time means a lot. And oh, don’t be a jerk to others on their supply runs.