“Have you ever made a decision in a moment of panic and then regretted it for the rest of your life?”

One of the characters in Emily St. John Mandel’s novel, The Lola Quartet, asks this question near the end of the book. As soon as I read it, I realized that it’s actually the theme of the whole novel. Part literary fiction, part noir thriller, The Lola Quartet held my interest throughout, even if it’s not quite as good as Mandel’s better-known work, Station Eleven, which I reviewed here eight years ago; I am told that Station Eleven was also made into a television miniseries, but I haven’t watched it (probably I should do so).

These two novels have some characteristics in common:

• The narrative is non-linear, though in neither case are readers left on their own to figure out what is past, what is present, and what is future. There are hints, some explicit, some implicit.
• There is no single protagonist.
• Neither novel fits the usual framework of any particular subgenre.
• Music plays a major role in both stories.

The Lola Quartet reads a bit like a coming-of-age novel, although all but one of the six main characters has already “come of age” except in flashbacks. (And why, you ask, are there six main characters, not four, when the title explicitly refers to a quartet? Well, I guess you’ll just have to read it to find out, but I think I can safely reveal that the title refers to a jazz quartet that four of the characters had formed back in high school.)

It also reads a bit like a traditional Greek tragedy — traditional except for having multiple protagonists. Everyone has a tragic flaw, always some form of hubris. If you like your heroes to be perfect, don’t read this book. If you like realistic characters with flaws, do read it. But first go back and read the quotation at the top of this post,

Categories: Books