Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility is a compact, complex romp through time and space. Beginning in England, 1912, she sends Edwin St. John St. Andrew (no relation!) to Canada after he embarrasses his parents at a dinner party for being colonialists in south Asia. (He was born a century too early.) His status as third son means he inherits no property from them, so he willingly takes their remittance, and proceeds to languish in the new world, eventually alighting on Vancouver Island, where he witnesses a strange phenomenon in a primeval forest. He sees a vast a train station-like interior superimposed on the majestic maple in front of him, accompanied by a low whooshing noise. This odd encounter, lasting only a second, serves as the core of Mandel’s story.
Stretching forward to the present day, then on to a moon colony in the 23rd and 25th centuries, she weaves in a pair of childhood friends who have lost their husbands to a Ponzi scheme, a wildly successful novelist on a book tour, and another aimless young man who finds a purpose in life at the Time Institute in 2401.
At that point, these stories, disparate in time and place, begin to coalesce as Gaspery-Jacques seeks out his sister Zoey and insinuates himself into her work. At the Institute, she is trying to disprove that all of human existence is merely a simulation in some massive cosmic computer. Gaspery trains for years to travel through time so he can investigate the origin of this theory.
The essence of Sea of Tranquility lies not in the speculative fiction bed in which she’s planted her tale. Rather, the people, their very human plans and foibles, are her interest. We learn nothing about the mechanics of time travel, except that an iPhone-like device and a large, undescribed machine are involved. The computer simulation question is another MacGuffin she uses to set the plot in motion, and then leaves suspended, unanswered.
Mandel’s writing reminds me of Kurt Vonnegut, who sometimes used the trappings of science fiction in service of his plots. His prose is equally succinct and readable. They both pare down their writing so the plot never stalls, without the use of artificial twists to pique a reader’s interest. Mandel goes him one further by expertly weaving her several stories neatly together, offering just enough information at key points to keep us informed and engaged.
A quick, immersive read.