(3) I really liked 'Station Eleven' and rather liked 'The Glass Hotel' as well. I heard this praised as a literary mystery - perhaps my favorite genre so eagerly bought. A group of high schoolers in a band are entangled with one another in ways that are not apparent to our opening protagonist Gavin Sasaski. Ten years post-graduation and he is a young reporter in NYC from the Florida suburbs who doesn't really think about his high school girlfriend and bandmates much until he goes to cover a story about exotic wildlife in the swamps of Florida encroaching on the suburbs and his sister shows him a mysterious snapshot of a little girl that looks just like her. Thus begin Gavin's unraveling as he attempts to determine if Anna was pregnant at the close of high school when she drifted out of his life. What happened to her? What happened to the Lola Quartet?

Ultimately, the book is from all of the band members points of view, though Gavin remains the reader's center. The story was really not all that mysterious though it jumps around in time quite a bit, so there is that. But in the end, it is rather hum drum. There is very little redemption. Interesting that the things that are described as beautiful - the suburbs, a casino, malls - are typically though of as crass and ugly. Are the author's descriptions tongue and cheek? The book felt a bit dreamy and disorienting in that respect.

All in all, this was just above OK for me. Not my favorite of hers, but readable and entertaining. Not really a mystery either, so what felt like bait and switch disappointed me. ( )

some trademark mandel wild coincidences and jonathan alkaitis, the madoffesque ponzi scheme guy from the glass hotel gets a mention. no virus though. ( )

Emily St. John Mandel’s ability to weave together layers of story and characters really shows through in her 2012 novel, The Lola Quartet. A decade after high school, the members of a jazz band, The Lola Quartet, find themselves in different places in life, but none of them are very good. As the pieces of the puzzle Mandel writes begin to fall into place, the book becomes a bit of a thriller--but not quite. The Lola Quartet is about loneliness and desperation, and Mandel does an excellent job of capturing that noir feeling without making it too depressing. An interesting read for fans of hers looking to read her earlier work. ( )

It's the flawed characters I come for, and this book didn't disappoint. There were some unexpected connections to the Glass Hotel, and the themes of making bad investment and getting screwed by the economy reappear. ( )

This is the third book by Ms. Mandel that I have read this year and it is another fantastic read. I almost gave it 4 stars just to not give another 5 star review but this book earned the top rating. The titular quartet is a jazz combo formed in a high school in Florida and once again Ms. Mandel masterfully handles timelines, flashbacks, multiple characters, and multiple points of view to weave together an engrossing, at times frustrating, but always intriguing story. Everyone is operating with the knowledge they have, gee just like in real life, and so their ability to make decisions is hampered by incomplete facts. They also are all broken in different ways, hmm real life again, and as they do things to make their situations worse I found myself once again yelling at the book. For the record it did not answer. This is yet another book that puts me in places that I have never been. I had a great family growing up and was supported in all I did. It is heartbreaking to see the consequences of indifferent or destructive parenting rendered in fiction. As much as we might hope for a happy ever after, it doesn't always happen. I love falling into a story like this and these characters will stay with me. Even Gavin, who commits a workplace sin that is unforgivable to me. If you read the book and know me, you will understand. ( )