Passage
By Connie Willis
Reviewed by Gordon Kearns
The 780 pages of Connie Willis' Passage play out mostly in a hospital like the house that Jack built, with corridors that go nowhere, elevators that only travel between selected floors; locked unlabeled doors; connecting passages to limited areas, stairways blocked by maintenance crews who forget to take down the yellow tapes after their work is finished, and a cafeteria that never seems to be open. It's a frustrating maze, even for those who work there every day - even more frustrating when in a desperate hurry to get from here to there (the old cliche, "You can't get there from here," is SOP).
Psychologist Dr. Joanna Lander's field is NDE's (Near Death Experiences). She interviews patients who've just "coded" (died) but were revived. Her goal is to make some logical sense out of their eerie experiences. Her nemesis is Mr. Mandrake, one of those "Light at the end of the tunnel" theosophist types, who is constantly trying to plug his books, and who also interviews NDE's, but with leading questions designed to elicit the responses he wants. Among Joanna's regular interviewees is Maisie, a precocious nine year old with a rapidly deteriorating heart condition, who has often "coded." Maisie is waiting the long wait for a heart transplant, and may not live to get it. Maisie is obsessed with disaster tales: The Titanic, the big Hartford circus fire, Pompeii, etc. Early in the story Joanna joins up with Dr. Richard Wright's interesting project of inducing NDE's chemically and plotting the subjects' brain activity when experiencing them. In the course of the book a cadre of core, equally important characters evolve, who join together in the search for answers: Joanna, of course; Dr. Wright; Maisie; Vielle (Joanna's closest friend - an ER supervisor); Mr. Briarley (Joanna's old high school lit teacher, now in the grips of Alzheimer's); Kit (Mr. Briarley's lonely niece - and devoted care-giver) - along with various significant subjects of Dr. Wright and Joanna's project.
When one of the subjects suddenly pulls put of the program, Joanna volunteers to "go under," figuring the experience will help her better understand her clients' typically vague descriptions. She goes under several times, each time pushing the limits farther. She senses an eerie resemblance of her NDE world to the sinking of the Titanic, including detailed descriptions of boat sections and the people on board. And she notices how her subjects seem to have reflected similar feelings. The story follows her dogged search to get to the bottom of the phenomenon. In fact, her mad dashes through the hospital maze very much reflect the Titanic passengers' last desperate attempts to find a means of survival. Maisie and Kit help her do the necessary researching of the Titanic and other disaster chronicles. Three quarters of the way through the book, when Joanna finally has a line on the answer and we sense the story about to dive into the conclusion, author Willis throws a dramatic tragic twist at us - undoubtably, the most emotionally wrenching sequence I've ever experienced in all my readings.
Connie Willis has a penchant for giving value even to secondary supporting characters. I loved Vielle, Kit, and especially little Maisie. Each is a saint in her own way, living the life that she's handed in the best way she knows how, asking no quarter and dreaming no impossible dream. But Joanna joins another Willis creation, Kivrin from Doomsday Book, at the very top of my list of favorite heroes in all literature. She's eminently human - sometimes cranky, sometimes impatient - but always, always devoted to her task, her responsibilities; and always, always devoted to her friends, and empathetic to any human. No matter her hurry, no matter how critical the circumstances, she never shuts a friend off; no matter how often Maisie pleads, "No, wait. I want to show you ..." Joanna always responds, "All right: just two more minutes - then you have to rest" ... and again and again. And, like Kivrin, she carries her devotion to her task, her responsibilities, and the needs of her friends way past the time ... anyone could expect of her.
Most reviewers loved the book. A few were impatient with its length, and the confusing by-paths of Joanna's desperate search, and the constant frustrating hospital maze. Willis has a fascinating writing style. The story always moves at a steady pace; her words ease the action along without any hitches. Humor abounds. Tragedy abounds. I admit I did cry real tears.
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