Traditionally
the library's Read-Around-the-Clock Book Club meets on the month,
day, and hour that coincides with a certain number in the title of a
featured book. Since the library is closed on November 11 and unable
to meet at 11:00, the club's discussion will take place at the
library on November 10 at 11:10 a.m. This date and time was chosen
to compliment last month's selection of Wendy Wax's novel
Ten Beach Road.
Read-Around-the-Clock will feature books with eleven or 11 in the
title but will also include a Skype visit from author Wendy Wax whose
book was highlighted in October. All are invited to visit and share
any book they have read with either a ten (10) or eleven (11) in its
title. Even if you haven't read anything lately that fits this
criteria, come out and discover new (or old) books. Discussing books
and ideas is a great opportunity to socialize and keeps your mind
active.
Station Eleven graces the
library's wall clock, to represent novels that tell time, as a book
that includes the number (11) eleven in its title. This book is a
science fiction novel written by Emily St. John Mandel, a native
Canadian, and was the winner of the Sir Arthur C. Clarke Award and
the Toronto Book Award in 2015. The Sir Arthur C. Clarke Award is
given to the best science fiction novel of the year published in the
UK. This book also garnered a lot of attention as a finalist for the
National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and for the Baileys
Women's Prize for Fiction.
Station Eleven takes place in a
post-apocalyptic world where survival includes the necessity of art.
My first assumption was that the title reflected a place, but I soon
realized as I began reading this book that Station Eleven is
the name of a comic novel, that within the course of the story takes
on significant meaning to the characters. The story floats between
two periods of time; before the disaster and after the fall of
civilization due to a pandemic outbreak of bird flu.
While reading I also began to recall a
time in 2005 when H5N1, a strain of avian influenza was discovered in
Africa and considered a significant pandemic threat. At that time
the United States Senate appropriated 4 billion dollars to be used
for developing a vaccine against this bird-flu virus. Global deaths
resulting from the spread of H5N1 were predicted to reach 150
million. Studies now show that though there have been deaths
determined as a result of H5N1, these cases are rare and isolated.
The World Health Organization continues to research and monitor the
spread of this virus and the Center for Disease Control issues the
precaution to avoid wild birds and potentially infected domestic
poultry.
Mandel's dystopian novel seemed all the
more plausible, knowing about discovery of avian influenza today. I
was horrified by the thought that air could be so contaminated that
breathing became fatal! After the polluted air dispersed, those who
miraculously survived began leading a nomadic life. There were
various bands of survivors, including a traveling symphony of
musicians and actors whose purpose was to offer distraction from the
bleakness of the post-apocalyptic world. One character in the story
started a Museum of Civilization at the airport where he was stranded
when the outbreak started. The museum represented life before year
Zero with artifacts that included everything from cell phones and
drivers licenses to laptops and stilettos. One band of nomads was
led by a self-appointed prophet who preached that he was chosen to
repopulate society. He took multiple wives by force and manipulated
his followers by having them kill those who didn't believe.
New York Time Bestsellers reviews
Station Eleven as a novel that is “steeped in the anxieties
of our era: pandemics, environmental catastrophes, energy shortages,
civil unrest.” This book is a gripping story that you won’t
want to put down and leads to a great discussion on how each of us
might respond to unfortunate circumstances such as the end of the
world as we know it.
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