Passage

Rating:
Summary: Provocative and compelling
Review: _Passage_ is one of the most human books that I have ever read. I couldn't put this book down -- it captured me from the instant I opened it. The story is fast-paced and compelling -- I literally held my breath at certain points in the book. The main characters are people whom I would like to know in my life. The plot twist is daring. Put aside any preconceptions about the subject matter, and enjoy the ride.

Rating:
Summary: A strong start, but it crashes near the middle...
Review: Reading the glowing reviews of this book from other readers, I started to wonder if we had indeed read the same novel. This is the first of Connie Willis' books I've read, but if this is indicative of her other books, it will probably be the last too.

The two stars I gave it in my rating are simply because, for the first half of the book, I was spellbound. Then something happened... Suddenly, I felt like I was reading a completely different book. The continuity seemed lost, and I kept getting the feeling that Willis really wasn't sure what she wanted the second half of the book to be about; it seemed tacked on. In the first half, there were hints of things to come... and they never materialized.

Also, I found the angle at which the subject matter was tackled a little disturbing. Yes, it is a heavy subject; I didn't have a problem with that. The problem I had was the constant put-downs of any character who didn't share the doctors' purely scientific views. Yes, Mandrake was terribly annoying and somewhat over-the-top in his views, but while reading the story, I began to wonder if the author wasn't just as bad... she almost seems to be using this book as a personal agenda to promote her beliefs. In addition, I felt that many, many pages of scientific explanation could have been cut out (for the layman, hearing about beta-endorphins and cortisol levels for paragraphs on end can get boring).

After reading this LONG (nearly 600 pages) book, I felt cheated. I kept reading, hoping that the author could recapture the magic and excitement from the first half. Instead, all I found was a disjointed series of images and events. All in all, I was very disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: In a cooler... like beer
Review: Other reviewers have suggested that this is darker than Willis' other works. Compared to "To Say Nothing About the Dog", this is true, but Doomsday Book (or "How I survived the Plague in 15th Century England") was hardly a light read.

Truly this book has the power to disturb, and to provoke the reader to question what death holds for us, what we believe happens to us. Also, Willis is amazingly adept at writing unpredictable story lines and weaving many complex plots into a coherent whole.

This story does suffer from a few flaws. The most interesting characters tend to be secondary, while the primary characters do feel... flat at times. (Maisie excepted -- I want to see her in another book!) There are annoyingly contrived blocks of dialogue from characters who talk non-stop. Unfortunately, it's not just the other characters in the book who suffer when they do this. And there are at least two spots where the book just seems to lose steam while it tries to carry the story forward.

Not nearly as much fun a read as To Say Nothing, not quite as dark as Doomsday Book, and not Willis' best work. Still, this is better than 90% of anything else you'll find out there.

Rating:
Summary: Tedious and predictable
Review: Based on a very weird premise, Willis tries for tension but achieves only tedium. The characters are not plausible, the plot is too easy to predict, and the whole is unsatisfying.

I just hope I never have a near-death experience. I wouldn't want to run into any of the cardboard characters in this book.

Rating:
Summary: Like a noise that just stopped ...
Review: PASSAGE shows the frustrations and dangers of death-related medical research brilliantly. If you've ever studied or been intrigued by near-death experiences, then read this book. You'll gain valuable insight into the flaws that exist in pop culture books on the subject.

Willis really makes you wonder how accurate current literature on NDEs is ... it's awful to think that people would manipulate those who've had NDEs for their own religious agenda.

I don't mean to imply that the NDE is purely physiological ... in fact, I hope it is not ... but the subject needs to be approached scientifically ... and the plight of Joanna and Richard describes how frustrating it can be when science crosses into the spiritual realm.

Please read the book, but bear in mind that it is like reading two different novels. The first one essentially concludes after the so-called page 417 "twist".

The "second" novel -- more of a mystery -- begins there. I think if readers will keep this in mind, they will not sing the over-long blues that so many other reviewers have mentioned. (This forum's critiques consistently state that the book is 100 pages too long.)

The two protagonists are not as three-dimensional as I would've liked, but they are well-balanced by the lovable Maisie, and the not-so-secondary characters of Alzheimer-stricken Briarly and his niece Kit. Maisie, though, steals the show.

(I do wish that Joanna's fundamentalist sister had been brought in early and used often. She would've been a great antagonist.)

Unlike many others, I found the humor and the satire refreshing. This is, after all, a heavy subject and it needs a counterweight. I assure you that you won't look at near-death experiences, scientific research, or the TITANTIC the same way again.

And folks, keep in mind that this is a NOVEL. Like all good science fiction, it makes you think, but it's also for entertainment. All the hand-wringing over believability about the hospital corridors and Richard's endless supply of food should be taken in the spirit of things, not as an indictment of its literary quality.

I HIGHLY recommend this book ... (but Connie -- if you're listening -- not so many dialogue tag-line descriptions next time, okay? As a writer myself, I found that troubling).

Keith

Rating:
Summary: Typical Willis but darker than others
Review: If you like Connie Willis, you'll like Passage. If you've never read her, I'd suggest Doomsday book if you like history and the plague or To Say Nothing of the Dog if you like comedy and the Victorian era. Then come back to Passage. It's very dark compared to her other stuff, which you may like-or not. It feels darker than Doomsday to me because it's set in modern day and is more accessible. We don't have to worry about plague (....) but near death experiences could happen at any time, to anyone. Regardless, it's classic Willis, which means that it's superbly written and really tightly interwoven. everything fits together, everything works and it's all there but you won't put it together till she lays it out. and then you say, how could i have missed it? if you like mystery, comedy, great characters, intriguing plots, anything Titanic related, or death experiences, read Passage.

Rating:
Summary: CQD
Review: Connie Willis has established a fine reputation within the science fiction field for her satires, her mixtures of finely-detailed, fully researched history and the speculative, and her treatment of emotionally charged thematic material. This book is not only no exception, it should enhance her reputation even more.

The basic scientific point of departure here is the 'near death experience' (NDE), the 'light at the end of the tunnel' that many people have related in one form or another after close brushes with death. Joanna Lander is investigating the phenomenon from the psychological point of view and Richard Wright from the bio-chemical aspect. Dr. Wright has discovered a chemical that allows the apparent simulation of an NDE, and teams with Joanna as an expert interviewer for his test subjects. Due to a lack of suitable test subjects, Joanna eventually decides to try it herself, starting down a long road that leads by Pompeii, the Hindenberg disaster, the Great Molasses Flood, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and for a large portion of the book, the Titanic.

Willis' main characters are exceptionally vivid. Most of the book is told from Joanna's point of view, and it is very hard not to get drawn in to her slow spiral to near-obsession with NDE's and the Titanic. Maize, a young girl with a major heart problem, will endear herself to you within two pages, possibly because of her unflinching, almost gleeful interest in the most horrible disasters of all time. Within the secondary characters we find all the usual Willis trademark intentional caricatures, from the snake-oil self-aggrandizing Mr. Mandrake, to the super-gullible matron of Mrs. Davenport, to the over-protective mother of Maize, to the over-talkative not-totally-truthful WWII veteran Mr. Wojakowski. These characters are mainly good for sticking pins in, along with some sharp spikes directed at hospital bureaucracies (and hospital buildings!), depicted here as so far removed from reality as to be almost surrealistic.

But the satire is truly secondary to the main thrust of this book, which is a real investigation into not only what death is and what may lie beyond it, but what living is all about, even in the face of accident, pain, and tragedy. Along the way are some very interesting thoughts about how long-term associational memory works. The title of this review is an example: I had seen those three letters before, and recognized them the first time I encountered them in the book, but I couldn't remember when or where I had learned about them or what they meant. Later in the book when I saw them in context, I said "That's where I saw them!" (they have to do with some of the messages that were sent by the Titanic). Willis does a good job of explaining why this type of memory problem occurs, and also why certain 'coincidences' seem to occur (numbers players will not be happy with this).

True to form, Willis' historical research is impressive, not just about details of the Titanic disaster, but several others as well, and her chapter titles of the last words of famous people are extremely interesting. My favorite was Beethoven's: "I shall hear in heaven".

This book may be just a smidgen less excellent that her Doomsday Book, but both are high powered, emotional looks at the business of both living and dying, at religion and belief, at heroism and banality, and will find a secure lodging in both your brain and your heart.

Rating:
Summary: Not Willis' best, but better than most speculative fiction
Review: "Passage" suffers from the same major problem that plagued Willis' book "Bellwether"-they both run a joke or a character trait into the ground through endless repetition. The hospital that serves as the main setting for "Passage" is always under construction and so any time a character goes from one place into the hospital to another, the reader is treated to a discourse on the detours required. In addition, the oily charlatan Mandrake never wavers from his one message, not does the veteran Wojakowski-every time they are brought on the scene, the dialogue is essentially the same. This extreme repetitiveness makes parts of the book drag on and the mid-section could have been edited down to a few pages.

That said, the book takes several interesting turns and it has the guts to leave many important questions unanswered. It is a book to get readers to think about death/dying/afterlife and not one to provide resolution. The central conceit (simulating near death experiences through drugs) was well explored and had enough zest on its own to pull me through a few hundred slow pages. While not Willis' strongest work, still intriguing enough to cause me to daydream about it a week after I finished the last page.

Rating:
Summary: Yet another GREAT IDEA poorly executed
Review: Although I finished this book, which in similar circumstances I often don't, I submit this review as a warning. I am currently unemployed and have too much time to spare. I do not recommend this book to readers more pressed for time. Even though the notion of an inquirery into the nature of Near Death Experience is a compelling one.

I found the novel wordy and extremely repetitious in the beginning. An example of the tedium; The Dr.'s voicemail is full so he hears an indefinite fragment of Joanna's message agreeing to work on his project. He spends A PAGE dithering, trying to determine if she agreed to or not from the fragment while WE ALREADY KNOW. Okay we're reminded of this as a metaphor near the end of the book, but the length seems so unnecessary! Also I believe a better writer could convey THE IDEA that Joanna and Dr. Wright do things over and over and argue chemical and psychological theory in circles without showing them doing things over and over and arguing in circles again and again.

Except for the kid the main characters were flat. Joanna, the driven career women; the doctor obsessed with his research; the flirtatious assisting nurse, and the bossy black ER nurse. The plight of the secondary characters Briarly and Kit was touching and the subject of Alzheimer's effectively handled.

Yet the originality of where Joanna found herself after coming out of the tunnel into the light compelled me to keep reading. An ultimately frustrating experience, since I found some of Joanna's theories why her NDE took her where it eventually did, inane and the final outcome of her journey silly. Indeed, the clever apt-ness of Joanne's NDE metaphor, with relentless signaling by many means and frantic efforts to escape, astutely characterized as "the mirror image of death" by Briarly is by far the novel's best conceit. But its ingeniousness is the novels undoing. It renders those NDEs of Amelia, even Maisey's circus in a blimp, and especially Dr. Wright's (Star Line headquarters, for goodness sake) pedestrian, even clumsy and unbefitting the premise by comparison. I can't think of another metaphor that bares comparison myself and since the author apparently couldn't it renders the basic idea of the novel untenable.

Richard Powers does this sort of story: A band of highly motivated scientists exploring the cutting edge of science, much better. Especially in The Gold Bug Variations and Plowing the Dark, which is thematically (virtual reality rather than NDE) very similar. One of the themes of Brain Storm by Richard Dooling is brain research, a book I enjoyed a lot.

Rating:
Summary: Superb
Review: I've written about 30 books myself, and I found Passage to be excellent! One of my favorites... A mix of mystery, suspense, and even humor. Passage asks questions and opens door to the unknown.