pagesofjulia

1. I am charmed and seduced by her most recent novel, Station Eleven. It is hypnotic.

2. She has five different people available for contact on her website (for representation; speaking; and publicity in the US, Canada and the UK). They are named Kelsey, Katherine, Kate, Kate, and Kate. Surely she had to have done that on purpose??

3. The title line for her short bio piece on the same website is: “St. John’s my middle name. The books go under M.” She has a sense of humor and c’mon, librarians and booksellers.

Dear Emily St. John Mandel,

I have a dear friend named Liz, and she is who recommended that I read your latest book. Liz is still batting 1000 with her recommendations to me, which is unprecedented and very impressive; nowadays her recommendations often move straight to the top of my very long list. She recommended I listen to the audiobook of Station Eleven, and so I am.

I am entranced by this world you’ve created, which is so closely related to but also so far apart from our own. I love the world within the world, of Station Eleven; I love that we meet the artist behind that world just a step behind entering it ourselves. I really appreciated the detail of the doctor calling from the emergency room near the beginning of the book. Dahlia is outstanding, and her speech got me thinking just as it did Clark. I was fascinated by Jeevan’s story at the start and, at nearly halfway through, I am anxious to know: will we go back to check in on him and find out his fate? When I checked in with Liz, I found that both she and her partner Steph had the same reaction: they wanted to hear more about Jeevan.

I haven’t even finished your book yet, but I know it has to end. And Liz says she doesn’t feel that this should be the end of the world you’ve imagined; she wants you to write more. Because I trust Liz, and because I love the first almost-half of this novel and know I will feel the same way, I want to say: please keep going. I know you have three earlier novels for me to go back and discover, but I’m not sure that’s enough.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks, and all my best,

Julia

Filed under: musings | Tagged: authors, Liz |