La mer de la tranquillité

On prend grand plaisir à voyager avec Emily St. John Mandel. D'abord avec ce qui pourrait sembler, au premier regard, des nouvelles qui se situent à différentes époques du passé et du futur ; puis, dans un second temps, à avancer dans un récit qui fait le lien entre toutes. Les lignes de temps se croisent et s'emmêlent avec délicatesse. Le récit est rondement bien mêlé, et bien que j'aie trouvé la prose un peu trop sommaire dans les premières pages, j'ai également perçu une amélioration du style au fur et à mesure de la narration.

Was easy to read - that's what I needed at this time, and enjoyed the characters and plot. A great author.

I liked the intertwined storylines and i thought the characters were well drawn and sympathetic. The only problem I had was the idea of the continuation of culture over hundreds of years. it rang false to me.

I found this touching and hopeful, I liked how poignantly the characters were drawn, and the themes of kindness and the vicissitudes of life.

My main complaint was that I think the simulation theory stuff was basically an unnecessary macguffin and didn't add to the themes (at least as far as they interested me).

I didn't think I'd love this book as much as I did. It was a fascinating story, with very compelling characters. I love the references to Station Eleven (and I'm hearing that there's even more with Glass Hotel that I haven't read yet). The pandemic is woven into the story in a very sensible way that really spoke to me. My only criticism is that it's too short. Some characters and storylines really should have been more developed. Maybe in future books, as it seems that the author is slowly building a more or less shared universe.

I liked the story of isolated humans trying to find meaning in their lives, all tangled together and touched by the miraculous. It left me feeling hopeful and reassured.

Nice short book. Nothing groundbreaking but adequately conveyed it's purpose.

A breezy, fun(ish, given some of the subject matter) read. The resolution of the book hinges, somewhat, on a twist that is revealed near the end, and I must confess that I was finding the book far more satisfying up to the point that the twist was revealed. It just felt a bit too “plotty” to me in a book that otherwise revels in nice details.

Fantastic to a point I did not expect. Very meta, and covers aspects that took me by surprise. I rarely read the descriptions of books written by authors that I have read before, and here it totally paid off. If you have read the previous two works by this author, you will like where this book takes you.