Passage

Rating:
Summary: In a word, dull
Review: It's a very sad thing when the best thing you can say about a novel is that the quotes at the beginning of each chapter are really interesting. And they are - Willis' collection of various people's last words has all the poignance and beauty that are sadly lacking from the parts of Passage that she actually wrote.

Passage is about a psycholgist, Joanna, and a neurologist, Richard, who are attempting to conduct scientific experiments into the nature of near-death experiences. This admittedly fascinating premise is buried under Willis' poor writing. A sizable portion of the novel has to do with the impossibility of navigating the hospital where Richard and Joanna work. I admit that this difficulty later reverberates in the book's great revelation, but that doesn't make you feel any better about reading page upon page of characters going up stairs, down elevators, across footbridges, and so on and so forth. And if they're not getting lost, the main characters spend most of their time trying to avoid a host of secondary characters who will talk your ear off if they so much as catch a glance of you - an attempt which they naturally fail at, so the reader is exposed to an endless supply of war stories, psychic experiences and disaster tales, most of which have absolutely no bearing on the plot. It's great that Willis manages to make her readers feel the protagonists' pain, but I don't think a writer should be actively encouraging her readers to skip whole pages of her book.

Even worse, Joanna and Richard are never very fully fleshed out. Most of Richard's dialogue involves naming a lot of neurotransmitters - | don't know about the rest of you, but once a word has passed its tenth syllable, I give up. Joanna, the most rounded character in a very cliched cast, is likable, but not much more than that. You never get a sense of who she is or in fact whether she has any personality traits to tell her apart from any other female-scientist-who-grounds-herself-in-science-but-also-relies-on-her-intution-and-is-kind-to-animals-and-small-children character out there. Unfortunately, Joanna spends most of the book interacting with a host of characters so annoying that it's hard to even notice her there - a group including the worst instance of a wise, dying yet precocious child I have ever encountered. Most of the reviews I read found this character, Maisie, to be quite charming, but I really couldn't stand her.

And finally, Willis makes several truly offensive characterisation choices, such as the mother of said dying child, who is described as an airhead who has less of a grasp on her six year old daughter's condition than the child does. I suppose Willis had to make her so unlikable because otherwise there would be no excuse for Joanna supplanting the mother figure in Maisie's life, but am I the only one who is offended by the notion that the mother of a child dying of a heart condition deserves so little sympathy? Also, the bereaved sister of a woman who was brutally murdered is painted as a ghoul just because she is a fundamentalist Christian, again, so that the dead woman's friends, including someone who has known her for less than six weeks, can be described as feeling the greatest pain over her death. This isn't just offensive, it's lazy writing - the author is telling us to dislike certain characters because she needs them out of the way.

That's not to say that there aren't positive elements in Passage. Willis' idea on what near-death experiences actually exist for is both interesting and chilling, and about two thirds of the way into the book there's a plot twist that is quite gutsy. And as I said before, those quotes are really interesting (along with a lot of good stuff about the Titanic.) However, a few good spots do not a good book make, and Passage is a very bad book.

Rating:
Summary: Haunting and affecting
Review: Connie Willis is one of those authors who write books that you just can't stop thinking about when they're over, and _Passage_ is no exception to the rule. I couldn't put it down while I was reading it, and now, although I finished it several days ago, it still haunts me.

_Passage_ is not an easy novel in terms of subject matter. It's about death and its characters are people who live with death on a day to day basis, both the death of the body and the death of the soul: hospital workers, critically ill patients, Alzheimers sufferers and their caretakers. The two main characters are involved in a research project to study Near Death Experiences. They hope to find that the NDE is some sort of survival mechanism and that by unlocking its mysteries they will be able to come up with a treatment to bring back people who have "coded" -- that is, experienced the cessation of circulatory and respiratory function -- in the four to six minutes before brain death occurs. What they find is by turns intriguing, fascinating, humourous and terrifying.

Some writers use character as a vehicle to point out their stands on social, political or moral issues. Willis tends to do just the opposite: for her the issues and plot serve to elucidate character and that is part of what makes her work so absorbing and readable. It is impossible not to believe that her characters are real people and care about them, from the likable ones right down to the truly obnoxious. The diversity and reality of the characters acts in huge part to make her stories very, very real. Although I knew I was reading fiction I was completely able to believe it.

Though not as outright funny as some of her other work, _Passage_ does present the absurdity of life as well as its more serious aspects. There were few, if any, belly laughs, but there were numerous "groaners," where you though, "Yep, I can totally get that -- ain't life that way." This served to lighten what was at times an almost overwhelming read.

Among other things, _Passage_ is a book about symbol and metaphor; unlocking the underlying metaphor of the NDE is central to the plot. Even the setting -- a hospital with such a complex map that getting from one floor to the next becomes an adventure into the unknown -- is a metaphor for the whole, and Willis carries it off with great skill.

People who like obvious plots and simple stories may not like this book. But for a novel with lots of twists and turns and a story that unfolds bit by bit to its disturbing cinclusion, _Passage_ can't be beaten.

Rating:
Summary: Powerfully moving
Review: I know it's a cliche, but I really couldn't put this book down. When I finally finished the last page, all I could say was, "Wow."

Passages is a powerfully moving book, provided you are open-minded enough to hear some alternative views on NDEs. I didn't think it was too long. I LIKE long books, as long as they are well written, because I can be with the characters that much longer.

I do get slightly annoyed when suspense is created because we know something the character doesn't... and that happens here several times. I'd much rather be as surprised as the character when they arrive at the truth. But that doesn't detract from the terrific plot and characters, and the profound theories on NDEs that Willis introduces.

Yes, the Titanic figures heavily in the story, but even the characters in the book are annoyed by Titanic overload, and Willis explains it all satisfactorily by the end.

I loved the ending, which is left open to your own interpretation.

All in all, a fantastic book. Much better then "To Say Nothing Of The Dog," which I thought rambled and meandered too much.

Rating:
Summary: every other Connie Willis book is better
Review: Just as another reviewer said, this one dragged a lot compared to her others. I enjoyed it, definitely, and would recommend it to Willis fans, but it should certainly not be the first Connie Willis book you read. She has written such wonderful books! This one contained a lot of good stuff, but it did go on and on, and, unlike those of her other books, many of this one's apparently extraneous details turned out to indeed be extraneous, unless I was missing something. I love the way Connie Willis can bombard you with details that seem like fluff at the time and then turn out to be extremely important and vital to the plot, so it was disappointing to find this book to be far less tightly constucted.

Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing...
Review: I can't even begin to explain why this book captivated my attention so thoroughly. But it kept me reading feverishly during every spare moment I could muster, and despite it being a thickish book, I finished it in less than a week. The novel thoughtfully explores the ideas about life-after-death and what happens to you when you pass on...it turned out to be extremely thought-provoking and intriguing. I ended up talking my book club into reading it, and we universally thought it was a very good read and an interesting story.

Rating:
Summary: There are more things in heaven and earth, horatio...
Review: I only grabbed this book because I loved TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG and will admit that I was a little disappointed when all the references to The Titanic started, but this initial disappointment was very quickly dispelled. What starts out as an exploration of near-death experiences becomes so much more. A recent overload of Titanic [junk] aside, this book has an attention to the details of this tragedy (not to mention the Hindenburg disaster and a whole slew of others) that no other novelist would dare attempt. I am actually very curious about how much of the details offered are the creation of the author and how much is documented.
I don't want to give any of this novel's numerous surprises away so I'll just recommend it. Wholeheartedly. I have not read a novel that I enjoyed this much in quite some time.

Rating:
Summary: Nobody expects the Titanic Inquisition
Review: As usual, Connie Willis' writing is outstanding, and the plot kept me turning the pages. I am continually impressed with how each Willis book explores new themes, uses new structures, and challanges the reader with new ideas. There is little repetitive in Willis' writing. While this book was not the overwhelming joy of TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG (and deals with much darker topics), the book really held my attention; I can see why it made the Hugo nomination list.

I really like the touch of providing an alternative interpretation of the standard elements of a "near-death experience". Willis shows how they could be combined to create a different set of images without ignoring any of the classic elements. The plot turns around a pyschologist type who wants to understand what people really experience in such experiences and a neuroscientist who wants to explain what is happening in the brain during an NDE. It is really science fiction, even though it could have been a Robin Cook medical thriller. (Only the last short chapter feels like fantasy for me.)

One of the few repeated elements in Willis' fiction is a well-captured characterization of a little girl who's reactions is critical to making you care about the people in the story. (I'm beginning to think these are as typical of Willis as the "Old Man" was in Heinlein novels). She treats this character with skill and uses the character well to move the plot forward and to provide sort of a happy ending. Structrually, the book reads very much like 3 related novellas, and they each have individual themes and styles. Of the three, I liked the middle story best, after the psychologist experience her own drug-induced NDEs, and as she tries to make sense of them. I think that Willis does an interesting job of presenting that difficult issue of "experiential evidence", as opposed to verifiable experimental evidence.

I give the book less than 5 stars, on an admittedly personal scale, because it doesn't quite live up to its promise for me. Too much of the book led me to think the book was raising questions about the meaning of death, even though the book provides internal warnings that it is more about the methods of medical research. Despite those warnings (and given what a good writer Willis has always been), I was expecting a conclusion addressing some of the broader themes of the work. None-the-less, this is a solid 4-star book, well worth anyone's reading. It would probably appeal to an audience for medical thrillers as well as SF fans.

Rating:
Summary: very impressive
Review: I was skeptical when I first got into the book and there was all these Titanic references everywhere, and afterlife references, but it got really interesting just a few chapters into it. When Willis threw the curve ball about 2/3 of the way through the book - I couldn't put it down afterward - I had to see how the heck she was going to finish it! This was probably the biggest pageturner of the last dozen or two books I've read.

Rating:
Summary: Another fine novel from a talented writer
Review: I am not a big reader of science fiction anymore, but I read every book that Connie Willis releases.

Why? great characters, inventive plots with enough twists to ensure that you will be left guessing till the very end and a great writing style which conveys a sense of fun,

This book is a departure from Ms Willis normal subject of time travel, chosing instead to explore near death experiences - what are they? a glimpse of the afterlife, the final firing of the brains synapse as it dies, or something much more interesting. And to explore this mystery she creates a cast of characters who are intelligent, sympathetic and believable.

Recommended, read this book and then go read "to say nothing of the dog"

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, Frustrating Novel
Review: I wonder if, once a writer becomes successful, their work tends to be edited less. I know this must be the case with Stephen King, whose books get longer and more disheveled every year. It also seems to be the case with Connie Willis, a writer whose work I adore.

Like her earlier novels, Passage is based on a great idea, and has some of the best characterization you'll find. NDE research is intriguing and has the potential to produce life-changing findings. Willis brings her characters alive on the page and makes you care about them. To use the cliche, "I laughed, I cried, I was moved." Yet I was frustrated by this book. After the shattering plot twist 2/3 of the way through the book, the rest was anticlimactic. In fact, because the characters at the end of the book are trying to solve a mystery that the reader already knows the solution to, the last third was tedious and redundant. The book felt like it was about 100 pages too long.

There were other sources of frustration for me in reading this novel. The narrative in the last third is broken into chapters which are interleaved with an NDE, and I wasn't ever sure when the NDE was supposed to have occurred: immediately after the "plot twist" --- or was it an actual "after-death experience"?

Also, as another reviewer has described, the book itself is a metaphor for the NDE, with a labyrinthine hospital, a never-open cafeteria, and idiosyncratric research subjects all having their counterparts in elements of the NDE. This was clever on Willis' part, but I found the seemingly endless descriptions of the hospital corridors and stairwells and elevators to be confusing and distracting. At one point I even considered getting a sheet of paper to draw a map of the hospital but then decided that no novel should require me to work that hard.

Perhaps Willis could have structured the book differently to make it stronger. How about this: the entire book (except for the very end) is told from Dr. Richard Wright's perspective. That way the medical detective work at the end would be more compelling. The readers wouldn't get to know Vielle or Kit or Maisie as well as they do from Joanna's perspective, but that would give us an opportunity to get to know them better in the second, post-"plot twist" section, as Wright's character is more fully developed. In my imagined new narrative structure, the mystery is solved just in time to save Maisie, but then there is an epilogue or coda which describes Joanna's NDE (post-plot twist), with Willis' original ending at the conclusion of the book.

In summary, 4 stars because of concept and characterization, but it would have been 5 if it had had a less confusing narrative structure. In any case, a good read, well worth a few hours of your time. Thanks, Connie.