Review: Passage

New contemporary, near-mainstream outing for the celebrated author of To Say Nothing of the Dog (1997), etc. Joanna Lander, a clinical psychologist at Denver's Mercy General hospital, studies patients who've had Near Death Experiences (NDEs). Her biggest problem is Maurice Mandrake, bestselling author and self-appointed life-after-death expert; Mandrake keeps reaching the NDE subjects before Joanna does, inducing them to confabulate, rendering their accounts useless for Joanna's purposes. Worse, he keeps trying to enlist Joanna to his cause. Then Joanna meets neurologist Richard Wright: he's developing a scientific theory about NDEs, using an experimental drug to simulate NDEs while scanning activity in the brain. Joanna agrees to collaborate with Richard, and quickly identifies several of his subjects as Mandrake spies. Another subject abruptly quits, terrified of what she's experienced. So Joanna agrees to attempt the drug-simulated NDE herself. Like many of those she's interviewed, she experiences a long dark passage with a brilliant golden-white light at the end, and sees shadowy figures swathed in white. Are they angels, as Mandrake insists? In further NDE trips, Joanna explores beyond the door at the end of the tunnel—a place oddly familiar, in a way she can't quite recall. Other NDE reports seem to tie in with hers. But Joanna will find to her horror that the distinction between near death and actual death is by no means well defined, and that she's still at the beginning of a long, extraordinary, chilling, fascinating journey. Once again, Willis has developed an idea that bears all the authority of a genuine insight: disturbingly plausible, compelling, intensely moving, and ultimately uplifting.

Good read

Review: Passage

Really should be 3.5 stars. Just not my favorite of Willis's but like all her work it is carefully researched and plotted and full of engaging characters. Centers on two researchers exploring Near ... Read full review

Review: Passage

Another great book from Willis, though not my favorite of hers. The premise of the book was extremely interesting and I love the way she wrote the characters, but the whole time I was reading it just ... Read full review

Review: Passage

Disappointing, primarily in the surprisingly shoddy writing and editing. The story was fair, except that it should have taken 250 pages to tell instead of nearly 600. Read full review

Review: Passage

Connie Willis is such a good writer of endlessly chewable bubblegum sci-fi, so confident with her soap-opera tropes, that it might take you a while to realize how loopy her stories are. This one is ... Read full review

Review: Passage

Connie Willis has an excellent point in saying the topic of death is largely ignored by Western societies, as if it were somehow obscene or inappropriate. I admire that she decides to write about it ... Read full review

Review: Passage

I will repeat my original review of this book here: I cannot, in all good conscience, recommend this novel. You will most likely wind up staying up all night to find out how it ends, and I also don't ... Read full review

Review: Passage

Please read our full review at www.moonlightreads.com. Read full review

Review: Passage

I am of two minds on this book, as many readers were. On one hand, I vehemently agree that the book needed editing. All through the book she's letting us know what's happening - real life is imitating ... Read full review