Emily St. John Mandel’s latest novel, Exit Party, takes her fascination with interconnected lives, fractured timelines and speculative fiction into more ambitious territory. Having enjoyed Sea of Tranquility, I was looking forward to this book. There are similarities in the way Mandel moves between characters, time periods and seemingly unrelated events, gradually revealing the connections between them. However, Exit Party is a more elaborate undertaking, exploring not just different timelines but alternative versions of America.
The novel’s central idea is particularly interesting. One version of America has descended into chaos, with competing factions struggling for power, while another has survived by becoming an authoritarian state built around surveillance and control. Through the two central characters – Ari and her counterpart, Ibari, Mandel examines how different circumstances can lead the same person down very different paths. Mandel makes complex ideas accessible through the lives of ordinary people rather than lengthy explanations. Her writing also makes the book an easy read despite its ambitious structure.
What I particularly liked about Sea of Tranquility was how much Mandel managed to achieve in just 200 pages, without making the story feel rushed or the characters superficial. Exit Party has a larger canvas but the discussion on the two versions of America seems superficial. The settings sometimes feel more like backdrops for Mandel’s ideas than fully developed worlds. And because of this, the book ends up feeling somewhat like a delicious but an incomplete meal.
Ultimately, Exit Party is an engaging novel that combines mystery, speculative fiction and reflections on human nature. Not every element is equally convincing, but the interlocking stories kept me interested, and Mandel once again shows that speculative fiction can be a useful way of examining the world we inhabit. A very good read, even if it falls a little short of her previous novel.
Pros: Elegant writing, ambitious ideas
Cons: Underdeveloped world-building
