There needs to be a Mandel conference so all of us who are obsessed with her work can get together and share notes. My favorite crossover is the fact that Gaspary from Sea of Tranquility lived in the same jail cell as Jonathan Alkaitis in Glass Hotel and scratched ‘no star burns forever’ in the wall next to his bunk. In GH, it’s mentioned that Gaspary went to the infirmary and never came back, which was a major plot point in SOT.
The Grand Central Terminal has been mentioned in almost all of her works. It might just be her love for New York, but to me, all her characters have at least passed through each other maybe once!! Even her short story (Mr Thurday) mentions it. Also, that short story just seems like a seed for the tree of Sea of Tranquility!!
obsessed with this! love emily and all her books and it’s so fun to see all the connections in one spot. for another one, either in the tv show or station eleven the novel, clark is referenced as having played violin in a punk band, which we can assume to be baltica!
I finished the short stories. Some more connections: 1) "Long Trains Leaving " is an autobiographical story about Mandel's travels between Canada and the U.S. before settling in NYC. The part of her story about her time in Montreal contains details that are at times identical to the characters who find themselves in that city in Last Night in Montreal, with some paragraphs being almost verbatim. 2) "Mr. Thursday" seems to have connections to both Sea of Tranquility and The Glass Hotel. The story features a character who travels through time to do some kind of research with orders not to change anything, which he finds hard to avoid doing. Another character, Rose, has a husband who's in prison for some unknown white collar crime, and at one point it's revealed that her real name is Tiffany. In The Glass Hotel, one of the characters involved in the Ponzi scheme has a wife named Tiffany. Not 100% sure, but I think Rose/Tiffany could be the same character in both stories. 3) "Drifter" seems to contain "alternate versions" of characters seen in The Singer's Gun. In the novel, there is a painter who the protagonist meets in Italy named Patrick whose wife Evie died of cancer. It's mentioned that they used to sell drugs to college students in Michigan. In the short story, the protagonist is a woman named Zoe, who's husband Peter has died of cancer. Zoe is an artist, and she and her husband used to sell drugs to college students in Michigan. Zoe travels the world, spending time in locations Patrick in The Singer's Gun had spent time in (Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk), and the story ends in Italy. The only story of hers I found that doesn't seem to have any connections is "The Chameleon Machine", which is a nonfiction piece where Mandel imagines some kind of device that looks and feels like a real book but is electronic, so that any book you want to read will appear on the pages of the book. There's no real "story", just Mandel theorizing about the feasibility of such a device.
I just read Mr Thursday. What a find! I can’t believe I didn’t already know about this story. Tiffany was the wife of Lenny Xavier, the main investor in the Alkaitis Ponzi scheme. He was a total dirtbag. Also, the Rose Loop was mentioned in Sea of Tranquility as a notorious misuse of time travel. Finally, there’s a scene in Glass Hotel where Vincent doesn’t go into the Bowling Green subway station because she suddenly has a vision she’ll die in there. Nothing bad happens in Mr Thursday, but obviously something strange is going on in that station. Also, the fateful yellow Lamborghini has a cameo in Glass Hotel, and it’s mentioned several times, so it’s clearly an Easter Egg.
Great video. I Love Mandel's books and the connections are always fun to spot. Here are a few more: 1) Gaspary Roberts, the "time detective" from Sea of Tranquility, is referenced in The Glass Hotel. To avoid spoilers, I'll just say that it involves the words "no star burns forever" etched into a wall. 2) The phrase "sweep me up". In The Singer's Gun, Anton reads in one of his mother's books that Kirkegaard's last words were "sweep me up". In The Glass Hotel, Vincent spray paints these words at school when she is a teenager. 3) The Russian novel Delirious Things. (I think this book is an invention by Mandel.) In The Lola Quartet, Sasha reads an English translation when she can't sleep. In Last Night in Montreal, Lilia reads from a Russian edition of the same book. 4) The violinist at the Oklahoma Airship Terminal appears in both Sea of Tranquility and in a flash fiction story of Mandel's called "The Violinist". The character as he appears in the short story doesn't quite match the one in the novel, but I just assume it's an "alternate" version. (You cant find this story online if you google the terms "The Violinist" and "this land press" together.) There are three (I think?) Mandel short stories that I plan to read sometime in the coming week. If I notice more connections, I'll put then in a new comment.
I just finished "the Singer's Gun" and I did not notice any connections there and she didn't mention one in the video. Is that the one novel that is not connected to the others?
Great video! 1. I was not aware Leon Prevant was mentioned in The Lola Quartet, could someone give me a page or chapter number to go looking back to find it? What IS mentioned across Station Eleven and Glass Hotel is the general field of shipping and the ghost fleet sitting off the shore of Malaysia as a thematic point of reflection for the characters. 2. There’s a connection between Last Night in Montreal and The Singer’s Gun that Mandel herself pointed out on a Q&A I attended once that I also adore: the design of Eli’s bed in chapter 43 of Last Night in Montreal is the same fishing boat, complete with antique figurehead, as the one that Anton’s father is restoring in the prologue of The Singer’s Gun. This connection is not particularly well-known among Mandel scholars (like me, lol) so I figured I’d point it out here!
There needs to be a Mandel conference so all of us who are obsessed with her work can get together and share notes.
My favorite crossover is the fact that Gaspary from Sea of Tranquility lived in the same jail cell as Jonathan Alkaitis in Glass Hotel and scratched ‘no star burns forever’ in the wall next to his bunk. In GH, it’s mentioned that Gaspary went to the infirmary and never came back, which was a major plot point in SOT.
The Grand Central Terminal has been mentioned in almost all of her works. It might just be her love for New York, but to me, all her characters have at least passed through each other maybe once!! Even her short story (Mr Thurday) mentions it.
Also, that short story just seems like a seed for the tree of Sea of Tranquility!!
Ooh that's a good one!
obsessed with this! love emily and all her books and it’s so fun to see all the connections in one spot. for another one, either in the tv show or station eleven the novel, clark is referenced as having played violin in a punk band, which we can assume to be baltica!
I finished the short stories. Some more connections:
1) "Long Trains Leaving " is an autobiographical story about Mandel's travels between Canada and the U.S. before settling in NYC. The part of her story about her time in Montreal contains details that are at times identical to the characters who find themselves in that city in Last Night in Montreal, with some paragraphs being almost verbatim.
2) "Mr. Thursday" seems to have connections to both Sea of Tranquility and The Glass Hotel. The story features a character who travels through time to do some kind of research with orders not to change anything, which he finds hard to avoid doing. Another character, Rose, has a husband who's in prison for some unknown white collar crime, and at one point it's revealed that her real name is Tiffany. In The Glass Hotel, one of the characters involved in the Ponzi scheme has a wife named Tiffany. Not 100% sure, but I think Rose/Tiffany could be the same character in both stories.
3) "Drifter" seems to contain "alternate versions" of characters seen in The Singer's Gun. In the novel, there is a painter who the protagonist meets in Italy named Patrick whose wife Evie died of cancer. It's mentioned that they used to sell drugs to college students in Michigan. In the short story, the protagonist is a woman named Zoe, who's husband Peter has died of cancer. Zoe is an artist, and she and her husband used to sell drugs to college students in Michigan. Zoe travels the world, spending time in locations Patrick in The Singer's Gun had spent time in (Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk), and the story ends in Italy.
The only story of hers I found that doesn't seem to have any connections is "The Chameleon Machine", which is a nonfiction piece where Mandel imagines some kind of device that looks and feels like a real book but is electronic, so that any book you want to read will appear on the pages of the book. There's no real "story", just Mandel theorizing about the feasibility of such a device.
Wow such amazing finds!
I just read Mr Thursday. What a find! I can’t believe I didn’t already know about this story. Tiffany was the wife of Lenny Xavier, the main investor in the Alkaitis Ponzi scheme. He was a total dirtbag.
Also, the Rose Loop was mentioned in Sea of Tranquility as a notorious misuse of time travel.
Finally, there’s a scene in Glass Hotel where Vincent doesn’t go into the Bowling Green subway station because she suddenly has a vision she’ll die in there. Nothing bad happens in Mr Thursday, but obviously something strange is going on in that station.
Also, the fateful yellow Lamborghini has a cameo in Glass Hotel, and it’s mentioned several times, so it’s clearly an Easter Egg.
Omg I've miss you! I keep checking your channel ❤
Thank you for this. I'm reading these in reverse order and was thrilled when I discovered the multiverse. I may have to re-read them when I'm done!
Great video. I Love Mandel's books and the connections are always fun to spot. Here are a few more:
1) Gaspary Roberts, the "time detective" from Sea of Tranquility, is referenced in The Glass Hotel. To avoid spoilers, I'll just say that it involves the words "no star burns forever" etched into a wall.
2) The phrase "sweep me up". In The Singer's Gun, Anton reads in one of his mother's books that Kirkegaard's last words were "sweep me up". In The Glass Hotel, Vincent spray paints these words at school when she is a teenager.
3) The Russian novel Delirious Things. (I think this book is an invention by Mandel.) In The Lola Quartet, Sasha reads an English translation when she can't sleep. In Last Night in Montreal, Lilia reads from a Russian edition of the same book.
4) The violinist at the Oklahoma Airship Terminal appears in both Sea of Tranquility and in a flash fiction story of Mandel's called "The Violinist". The character as he appears in the short story doesn't quite match the one in the novel, but I just assume it's an "alternate" version. (You cant find this story online if you google the terms "The Violinist" and "this land press" together.)
There are three (I think?) Mandel short stories that I plan to read sometime in the coming week. If I notice more connections, I'll put then in a new comment.
Wow, amazing detective work!
Loved this, only read two of her books so far, and now I am even more keen to read them all.
Yes yes yes!! Even before starting the video i know i love it 🫣🫣
This is excellent 😆
I just finished "the Singer's Gun" and I did not notice any connections there and she didn't mention one in the video. Is that the one novel that is not connected to the others?
Great video!
1. I was not aware Leon Prevant was mentioned in The Lola Quartet, could someone give me a page or chapter number to go looking back to find it? What IS mentioned across Station Eleven and Glass Hotel is the general field of shipping and the ghost fleet sitting off the shore of Malaysia as a thematic point of reflection for the characters.
2. There’s a connection between Last Night in Montreal and The Singer’s Gun that Mandel herself pointed out on a Q&A I attended once that I also adore: the design of Eli’s bed in chapter 43 of Last Night in Montreal is the same fishing boat, complete with antique figurehead, as the one that Anton’s father is restoring in the prologue of The Singer’s Gun. This connection is not particularly well-known among Mandel scholars (like me, lol) so I figured I’d point it out here!
These are such good links thank you for sharing!
I did a search within a the ebook for the words "Leo" and "Prevant" and got zero results.
Reminds me of how Stephen King books do this as well.
Ooh I didn't know that!
Please look after yourself Emma x
Hey there 😊😊😊hi