- Paperback: 608 pages
- Publisher: Voyager (18 Jun 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007118252
- ISBN-13: 978-0007118250
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.6 x 4.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,014,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Most of us would rather not spend a lot of time contemplating death, but the characters in Connie Willis's novel Passage make a living at it. Joanna Lander is a medical researcher specialising in Near Death Experiences (NDEs) and how the brain constructs them. Her partner in this endeavour is Richard Wright, a single-minded scientist who induces NDEs in healthy people by injecting a compound that tricks the brain into thinking it's dying. Joanna and Richard team up and try to find test subjects whose ability to report their experiences objectively hasn't been wrecked by reading the books of pop-psychologist and hospital gadabout Maurice Mandrake. Mandrake has gained fame and fortune by convincing people that they can expect light, warmth, and welcoming loved ones once they die. Joanna and Richard try to quantify NDEs in more scientific terms, a frustrating exercise to say the least.
The brain cells started to die within moments of death. By the end of four to six minutes the damage was irreversible, and people brought back from death after that didn't talk about tunnels and life reviews. They didn't talk at all... But if the dying were facing annihilation, why didn't they say, "It's over!" or, "I'm shutting down"?... Why did they say, "It's beautiful over there," and, "I'm coming, Mother!"
When Joanna decides to become a test subject and see an NDE firsthand, she discovers that death is more and less than she expected. Readers are in for some shocks as Willis reveals the secrets and mysteries of the afterlife. Unfortunately, several running gags--the maze-like complexity of the hospital, Mandrake's oily sales pitch and a tiresomely talkative World War II veteran--threaten the pace of the story near the middle. But don't stop reading. We expect a lot from Willis because she's so good, and Passage's payoff is incredible--the ending will leave you breathless, and more than a little haunted. Passage masterfully blends tragedy, humour and fear in an unforgettable meditation on humanity and death. --Therese Littleton, Amazon.com
Review
‘A compelling story on an irresistable theme … a profound and haunting parable’ LOCUS
‘Passage masterfully blends tragedy, humour and fear in an unforgettable mediation on humanity and death’ Amazon
‘Deep matters are discussed whilst a gripping story unwinds…a remarkably good and unsettling book…the ending alone should have you thinking for years to come.’ SFX
‘Once again, Willis has developed an idea that bears all the authority of a genuine insight: disturbingly plausible, compelling, intensely moving, and ultimately uplifting’ Kirkus
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Willis on track for another Nebula?,
By A Customer
This review is from: Passage (Paperback)
Just when you think Willis can't get any better... After the harrowing scenes of her Doomsday Book, and the perfection of her eclectically comic To Say Nothing of the Dog, along comes Passage, a neat combination of hard science (an analysis of neurotransmitter activity during NDEs, or Near Death Experiences), romance (a reworking of the mutually respectful colleagues syndrome we encountered in Bellwether) history (the sinking of the Titanic), comedy, and philosophy. That Willis pulls this mix off is a tribute to that deft style of hers, based as it is on impeccable comic timing, elegant character sketches, and and a dignified approach to the tragic underpinning of life. This book doesn't shirk details of ER activity, fatal illness, loss, excruciatingly embalmed bodies, coma, murder, yet what sticks in the mind are the comic scenes - our heroine, Joanna, eternally in flight from the fiendishly drawn Mandrake, the charalatan spiritualist, or snacking from the impossibly plentiful pockets of her colleage Richard Wright (so nearly Mr Wrong) when she finds the hospital cafeteria shut yet again (a running gag throughout the novel). Or what we notice is the indomitable spirit demonstrated by characters such as the child heart patient, Maisie, whose ghoulish relish for events of mass destruction such as the Hindenberg disaster, and hatred of the 'Pollyanna Disney' approach to life makes her a refreshing juvenile lead in Willis's cast.To reveal how Willis brings both the body and the mind of her book - both plot and thought - together in perfect symmetry would be to spoil the surprise. But literature, as one of Willis's characters remarks, is all about making connections, and this is a book in which you do, to paraphrase Forster, 'only connect'. It's a revelation. Try it.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An exercise in metaphor,
By Rod Williams (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Passage (Paperback)
Willis first came to my attention with her short story ‘The Sidon in The Mirror’ which I still continue to believe is one of the finest SF short stories ever written. Since then she has established herself as a consummate writer of diverse styles and subject matter. Amongst other things she has an innate talent for the comic potential of situations which for the most part blends seamlessly into this mystery of science and metaphysics surrounding research into near-death experiences (NDEs). Joanna Lander is a serious researcher into the phenomenon, based in Mercy Hospital where she is paged when patients have been revived in order to interview them about anything they may have experienced while they were technically ‘dead’. The hospital backdrop is peppered with vibrant interesting characters and the text and dialogue laced with Willis’ laconic wit. Willis, who has used the subject of Hollywood in previous work, employs her extensive knowledge of films here to great effect. Willis also attacks the concept of the New Age/Religious Fundamentalist/Paranormal/Pop Guru culture - personified by the odious Maurice Mandrake, author of ‘The Light at The End of The Tunnel’ – and other aspects of pop psychology. The novel is perhaps over-long and Willis rather over-eggs the pudding in her obsessive and relentless descriptions of the hospital and its maze of stairwells, walkways and corridors. There are rare moments when the comic incidents seem at odds with the all too serious subject matter, but these lapses are few. She has managed to create a work about Death which is funny, tragic, poignant and ultimately uplifting. It’s also a contemporary portrait of American society entering the Twenty-First Century, and makes some very sound points about the US’ attitude to Death, children, Science and Religion.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
way out of her depth,
By
This review is from: Passage (Mass Market Paperback)
I think Connie Willis' Doomsday Book is one one of the best sci-fi novels ever; I think To Say Nothing of the Dog is splendidly entertaining, but this... I'm sorry, no. There are two problems, both fundamental. One is the subject matter and its treatment: Ms Willis hasn't thought it through and she is way out of her depth (and it is too important a subject to be dealt with lightly). The second is the technical execution. As a film screenplay, it would be brilliant, we even have the obligatory Hollywood schmaltz. But her deliberately repetitive technique, which worked well in moderation in Doomsday Book, is here taken to such extremes that it is in parts almost unreadable.
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