One Man's Opinion: STATION ELEVEN by EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL

 

‘She’d once met an old man up near Kindardine who’d sworn that the murdered follow their killers to the grave, and she was thinking of this as they walked, the idea of dragging souls across the landscape like cans on a string.’

I’ve been watching a lot of ER recently. Last week I experienced for the second time the death of Dr Mark Greene. I was reminded just how powerful the scenes are and how nicely handled it all is. Clever writing and great production.

As Mark does his best to come to terms with his impending death, he is also struggling with his relationship with his daughter. When considering the final piece of advice to pass on before he leaves, he settles on ‘be generous’. It’s a beautiful moment and a profound offering.

That has all been floating around with me for a while and was certainly at the back of my mind while I read the most wonderful novel, Station Eleven. It’s a work about a world-changing pandemic written way before our 2020 experiences that takes us through the build up to the event its consequences.

There’s so much to love and I will not come close to doing it justice in my own reflections.

The opening is breath-taking. On stage is King Lear, played by Arthur Leander, who is about to have a heart attack and die. He’s at the centre of a web of characters through which the story will be told. There’s Jeevan, a would-be paramedic who leaps upon the stage in an attempt to save his life; Kirsten, a young girl who appears in the play and whose mother hopes has a great future in acting; Clark, Arthur’s oldest friend; Miranda, his ex-wife and the creator of the comic of the title; and Tyler his only child.

After failing in his attempt to save Arthur, Jeevan learns of the dangers of the Georgia flu. He’s ahead of the game in this respect and does what most people seem to do in worrying situations – panic buy and seek out those who are most important. The whole episode is utterly compelling, the tension ever-present, the need to know where the story will take them all-consuming.

From there we flash backwards and forwards in unexpected ways. For a while, I was disappointed it didn’t go in the direction I’d hoped, but I soon realised that what I wanted from this book, and perhaps any novel, was being provided for in spades and that I just had to trust Emily St John Mandel with her vision.

I’m not greatly informed when it comes to post-apocalyptic or dystopian fiction. Even so, I’ve tried to write a bit of it and was pleased with my efforts. This, however, does what all good work does and steps out of the genres to encompass everything.

The world of the post-Georgia flu is created in ways that it’s easy to imagine. What’s makes it stand out so strongly is the journey of each of the characters. We get to know their history, but more importantly to me, grow to understand the ways in which they come to terms with their own mortality. A pandemic is good for one thing and that’s forcing people to reflect upon what is important. The characters in this novel leave trails for us to follow as we contemplate our own pasts, presents, futures and demise.

I have a whole list of things I want to focus on now that I’ve finished. It’s the kind of story that will have you asking and answering questions throughout. Much as I’d like to list some of my conclusions, I think that would be foolish. Read the book for yourself and make decisions of your own. The one I feel it is okay to share is the rekindled desire to read great fiction – life really is too short to spend too much time with the chaff.

Station Eleven has a little bit of everything. Profundity. Poetry. Surrealism. Tension. Heartbreak. Joy. Hope. Humour. Violence. Tenderness. You name it, I’m sure it’s in there. Not that these things make it dry. This story is alive. The characters are vivid. Their journeys are immense and I’m glad I sat along with each of them for the ride, no matter how turbulent each was.

Aces all round for this. My favourite read in quite some time.

One Man's Opinion: LIGHTNING by ED McBAIN

 

When lightning strikes, I imagine it hurts. A lot. It certainly does in this novel by Ed McBain.

Here we have two main cases running through the book as the detectives of the 87^th Precinct have their hands full.

Across the city, the bodies of young female athletes are being hung from lampposts and a repeat rapist is terrorising a set of chose individuals with his constant returns. The overall impression that I was left with following the read was that I had been much more involved with the victims of this story than many others, feeling their pain and anguish much more readily than I might normally. There’s no gallows humour to cover the sadness that comes along with the destruction of young lives and the nature of the power imbalances weighs heavily.

As the story unfolds, all of those involved have an uneasy feeling that the Deaf Man is behind the hangings – who else would taunt and probe the detectives in this way? There’s a fabulous set of scenes where each of the cops imagines the Deaf Man’s involvement, which also give us another, as always, appreciated window into their personal lives.

Among the chaos of the crimes, we spend time with more of the women of the precinct. Annie Rawles is a beautiful tough nut who works with the rape squad. She also happens to be sleeping with Cotton Hawes. Eileen Burke is a decoy from special forces and she is sleeping with Kling. They’re heavily involved and it’s the experience of their case from their perspectives that adds a huge amount of emotional power and tension to Lightning.

Other than the main events, there are some fantastic sub-plots to keep a reader entertained. Meyer is experimenting with a wig and the reception is mixed. There’s also a reappearance for the always repugnant Ollie Weeks to stir the pot while helping to progress the case. Best of all, there’s a glimpse into Teddy Carella’s life. She’s thinking about getting back into work after years of being a stay-at-home mother. For someone of her intelligence and experience, that should be no problem; unfortunately the world isn’t that straightforward and this cameo throws petrol onto misogynistic flames that have been flickering from the off.

It really is a cracker and could easily have been told as two separate stories, but the fact that they are woven together adds power to the whole, two excellent plots coming together to form a giant.

One Man's Opinion: WHERE THE BONES LIE by NICK KOLAKOWSKI

I was really pleased to get an ARC of Where The Bones Lie by Nick Kolakowski. It's a story that will be familiar to many a fan of vintage noir, more specifically to the Private Eye of the Hollywood variety. It shares many of the tropes that might be expected in the genre and manages to provide hommage to what has gone before while carving out something fresh and new. 

Dash Fuller is falling flat on the comedy circuit while attempting to create a new and clean life for himself, when up pops an old acquaintance. Manny is a high-end lowlife fixer who will sort out the complications of studios and those involved in the celebrity industry if they're prepared to pay him enough. 

Dash is flat broke and is in no position to say no. In spite of his better judgement, he sets out in search of a couple of big players who have disappeared off the radar to carry on their bizarre lifestyle. 

Almost in parallel to this, a young woman is desperate to find out what happened to her father, a shady dude who disappeared many years earlier and whose body has recently been found in a lake after the water level dropped significanlty. She enlists Dash's help and off they go to try and unlock the skeletons from their closet. 

The cases allow us an insight into a fascinating world that provides a great backdrop against which the book unfolds. 

The good news is that it's a tense and fun read that will entertain anyone who likes a complex PI story where layers are stripped off painfully until all that's left are the bare bones of the truth. 

The better news, at least in my opinion, is that there may well be more to come. It definitely feels like a series opener and I think that it's likely that the next tale will be even stronger and richer - Dash Fuller is someone who is deep and will take some getting to know and I have a sense that the more of him that is revealed, the more we're going to want to stick around.

Go check it out.