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First things first: This is a spoiler-free review. And if you're considering reading "Passage," don't read the Wikipedia article about it first; that article includes in passing a spoiler for the most significant plot twist in the book, about three-quarters of the way through the tale.

"Passage" focuses on two researchers (Joanna Lander and Richard Wright) of near-death experiences (NDEs), on their subjects and friends (especially a sharp-as-a-tack nine-year-old cardiac patient, Maisie, and Joanna's former high-school English teacher, now with Alzheimer's), on a charlatan NDE author, and on the NDEs themselves--what they might be, what they could represent, how they work. Joanna and Richard are stymied at almost every point not just by the difficulties of investigating a controversial and difficult-to-explain phenomenon but also by the myriad vicissitudes of daily life in a maze of a hospital and by uncooperative or unreliable subjects. Willis's trademark device (also on display in "Doomsday Book") of highlighting maddeningly frustrating people and situations (especially the difficulty scheduling subjects, subjects that are either too voluble or too laconic, and the warren of passageways in the hospital) is on full view in "Passage." Some have said that it goes too far, and I myself found it irritating here. But I think that Willis *means* for it to irritate us; our frustration means that she's been successful in reminding us of how often in our own lives thick things are at the mercy of thin ones. These annoyances are not only exasperating but also slow down the pace of the novel, especially in the middle. But I'm one of those who like good novels to be long ones--the more pages that are left, the longer I get to enjoy the read! (I'm reminded of 'Ali ibn al-Jahm: "If I find a book agreeable and enjoyable, and if I deem it to be beneficial, you will see me hour after hour checking how many pages are left, from fear of being close to the end. If it has many volumes with a great number of pages, my life is complete and my happiness total.") And it's not until late in the novel that we see that the frustrations are also part of a larger metaphor of paths trying to be taken, of messages trying to get through.

The length of the novel also gave me time to get acquainted with the characters so gradually that when the pace quickened later on I realized how very much I had come to care for them. I happened to read Ursula K. Le Guin's short and spare "The Lathe of Heaven" while I was reading "Passage," which is a Mahler to Le Guin's Sibelius in "Lathe." (In a famous exchange, Sibelius said that a symphony needed to be a parable; Mahler, known for his long symphonies, insisted that it needed to encompass the world. I love both Sibelius and Mahler, and each of them had a point.) Both novels are about a researcher trying (with, in each story, the aid of a machine) to understand and influence a difficult-to-characterize state of consciousness (in "Lathe," it's "effective dreaming"). And I loved "Lathe" and gave it five stars here on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ. But "Passage," partly because of Willis's skill but also partly because of its length, drew me in even more in some ways than "Lathe" did. "Passage" has its faults, but the ways in which Willis weaves together even initially seemingly unrelated threads into her grand pattern, and the eventual fates of her characters, are so far above a five here that my summed final grade has to be a five. It's not just Joanna and Richard; even the minor characters are sharply drawn. And very little gets past Maisie, who is an absolute delight. I can understand why Locus science-fiction critic Gary Wolfe writes that she "owns the spiritual center of the novel," although my vote is still for Richard and especially Joanna. (And I second Jo Walton's opinion that "[t]he chapter from Maisie's point of view after she has been lied to is one of the best things Willis has ever written . . .".) I feel as if I really know all these people, and I miss them already.

Just as in "Doomsday Book" and "Lincoln's Dreams," Willis also gives us fascinating historical detail (here, of the Titanic, the Yorktown, the Hindenburg, the Hartford circus fire, the Great Molasses Flood, and famous and not-so-famous last words). My reaction to what happens at and after the stunner three-quarters of the way through the story reminded me in all the right ways of how I felt at the end of her "Doomsday Book" (set largely in 1348 England during the Black Death)--in the words of Emily Dickinson, "After great pain, a formal feeling comes. The Nerves sit ceremonious, like tombs." And the ending of "Passage" ties up loose ends from one perspective but is satisfyingly ambiguous from another.

All in all, this is one of those books that I loved so much that I was sad to finish it, although I hope that it won't be the last time that I read it! A thoughtful book, with a compelling and believable plot (in part a mystery peppered with clues that were there from the very beginning and that I now want to go back to appreciate in context), artful exposition of its central metaphor (and a lovely incorporation of literary support for that theme from Joanna's memories of her high-school English teacher and from what comes from him despite his Alzheimer's), and vivid and unforgettable characterization. Highly recommended!