Passage: A Novel

Reading this book was a profound experience for me. It scared me, made me cry and made me hug it when I was done. It was one of the few books that ever gave me nightmares, and it really made me think. But be warned, it also made me cry and cry and cry. Some of that crying was good though even if I was sad. This book is about two researchers doing work on Near Death Experiences, or NDE. One of them, Joanna Lander, is interested in the similarities all people have in NDE's, the other, Richard Wright, is interested in what chemical reactions in the brain causes them. They work together on a study that involves using a drug that simulates the same conditions on your brain as in an NDE but doesn't actually kill you. They think perhaps this research will come up with a drug that can act as a NDE and pull a dying person back from the brink. Because Joanna works frequently interviewing people who are terminal and have had many past NDE's this is especially important. Because of a shortage in people for the study Joanna ends up being a subject. She has the same NDE each time, which, oddly enough, places her on the Titanic just as it's about to sink. She knows something, something from an old English class is acting on her brain to try to her something about the nature of the NDE but she can't figure it out. And then something happens. This book is scary in that it points out so clearly we don't know what happens after death. We have religion yes, and speculation and other things. We have ideas of angels and reincarnation to comfort us, but ultimately we don't know. And when we die, we are alone. Always alone. This book was almost a spiritual experience with me. It's written quite sparsely, but that's its beauty. It forces you to make all the connections yourself. This book isn't really sci-fi, it's basically just fiction. I recommend it to everyone and happily rate it five stars.

Despite the length of this and some of her other works, Connie Willis proves herself, in Passage, to be a writer for whom less is truly more. The plot of this book is relatively simple: Joanna Lander, a psychiatrist who researches Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) at the tortuous Mercy General Hospital, teams up with a young and brilliant neurologist named Richard Wright who has taken NDE research to the next level by administering drugs that simulate the near-death state. Together, they hope to uncover an explanation for why the mind sees strange visions for the several minutes before brain-death occurs, in order to better be able to revive patients. When most of the research volunteers turn out to be crackpots and lunatics, Joanna begins undergoing the tests herself in order to further the project. The rest of the book deals with what she sees during the sessions and the seemingly fruitless search for an explanation. Willis fills this simple plot arc with a series of deliberately caricatured minor characters such as the credulous Mr. Mandrake, publisher of works with names like "Messages from the Other Side," who goes about the hospital trying to make sure patients' NDEs match up with his pre-conceived notions of the afterlife. Even the more sympathetic minor characters, like young Maisie Nellis, a girl with a severe heart condition, tell stories that are largely repetetive. It is almost possible to predict exactly what each character will say to another by halfway through the book. All this, I'm convinced, is intentional: through the use of repetition, garrulous and unvaried minor characters, and by harping on themes like the confusing tortuousness of the hospital and Dr. Wright's continual reading of brain scans, Willis builds the tension and cluastrophobia to the breaking point. She keeps the reader hooked by slowly, stubbornly ceding details about Joanna's own NDEs and repeatedly moving important information just out of the characters' -- and the reader's -- grasp. She then proceeds to shatter this tense situation with a plot-twist all the more unbelieveable due to the claustrophobic repetition used up to that point; from there, you will not be able to put the work down until the very last page. I've read many books and this is one of the few that I have willingly sacrificed hours of sleep for. Willis puts a lot on the line: she sets up a situation in which she basically needs to settle questions of faith and doubt, materialism and spiriutalism, life, death, and the afterlife in order to effect a satisfying resolution. The book is actually philosophically exciting, which is unusual in a "thriller." And, somehow, she manages to write a satisfying conclusion both on the level of characters and ideas -- not to mention bringing out some of the rich and beautiful prose for the first time; the writing everywhere else is terse and minimal, like the book as a whole. I suppose I needn't add that I highly recommend this novel. It is a sat

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, b

It's hard to tell whether Connie Willis is writing the same book everytime, or whether each one is very different. Maybe both, but they're always "novels of ideas." Twenty pages into this one, I found myself wading through a molasses of biochemical jargon and thought, "I'll never be able to finish this." But then I got into the metaphorical parallels between the hospital and the TITANIC (all those passages . . .), between death and Alzheimer's (which is "dying by pieces"), and between the courage of a very young, slowly dying patient and the courage of those who stay behind on a sinking ship ("grace under pressure," as someone once said). And not only did I finish -- after the absolutely gripping shocker on page 417, I had to stay up until 2:00 in the morning to find out what happened. (Don't attempt to read that chapter and what comes after unless you have a few hours available in a quiet room by yourself!)Willis is always a master of characterization as well as language. Dr. Joanna Lander, the clinical psychologist researching near death experiences, is Connie's best sort of sympathetic but very human protagonist. Dr. Richard Wright, the endocrinologist who recruits her to help with his own experiments in inducing NDEs, is absolutely believable. The smarmy and selfrighteous Maurice Mandrake is, unfortunately, also believable -- but why does everyone always refer to him as "Mr. Mandrake"? Vielle the ER nurse and Maisie the disasterologist and Kit the numbed caregiver and Mr. Brierley who teaches everyone and Mr. Wojakowski the yarn-spinner of the YORKTOWN, all make up a beautifully realized supporting cast. The humor threaded through this lengthy exploration on the metaphor and symbolism surrounding death will keep you on an even keel. And the ending -- which carefully does *not* answer all the reader's questions -- is perfect. In fact, the last couple of chapters show Connie as the literary near-genius she can sometimes be. You almost wonder if she died and sent this manuscript back from the Other Side. I put this one right up there with "Lincoln's Dreams" and "Doomsday Book."

Drew, in his review, complained that reading PASSAGE was close to having a NDE. I think he was more right than he realized, in saying this. You might find the "tedious" parts of the book more intriguing if you test my hypothesis that that's EXACTLY what it is supposed to be for us.The endless passageways in Mercy General are a metaphor for the neural pathways in the brain, as well as for the passageways one goes through in a NDE. (Or perhaps I should say, the passageways in a NDE are a metaphor for the the neural pathways in the brain.) Note that Mercy General was once three hospitals, merged into one (I think that's in ch 2.) - and the brain has three parts, cerebellum, cerebrum and amygdula, imperfectly merged together. Also, the shut down cafeteria, the closed off passageways, the white-out conditions that block out the world outside the hospital - all of these are a metaphor for the brain after heart-death but before brain-death. This also explains why there's is all that stuff about beepers being turned off, and voice-mail messages getting erased, as well as why ER has an dysfunctional communications center.Remember, as the English teacher keeps on saying, it's all a metaphor.