The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 23 August 2001
by Connie Willis
What happens after death is the greatest of mysteries. Religions are built upon guaranteeing that there is something beyond the End. But it is a touchy subject for fiction. An author takes the chance of walking a razor's edge between fantasy and religion, and skeptical pessimism. Connie Willis, who has proven herself an energetic and compassionate writer tackles this subject in this novel. At Mercy General Hospital, a dizzying maze of hallways and staircases, a busy and chaotic institution (a device she put to good use also in Doomsday Book), there are a handful of researchers trying to make some sense out of the Near Death Experience. Joanna Lander and Richard Wright are skeptics, scientists determined to figure out what is going on in the brain during the traumatic moments characterized by flashing lights and dark tunnels. They have set out on a research project that chemically reproduces the experiences, and they're trying to tie the resulting images together with the chemical processes in the brain. Meanwhile, there is a popular author lurking the halls. Maurice Mandrake believes that the NDE is the great spiritual message from the Other Side. (Frankly, this reader is skeptical about the objective spiritual meaning of NDEs, but cannot deny the potential for powerful subjective experience.) He interviews patients, leading them to believe they've met their dead relatives and received untold knowledge about the universe. He is a constant pest to Joanna and Richard, who are trying to avoid drawing their preconceptions into the scientific study they've undertaken. But this is powerful and dangerous ground. Joanna experiences bizarre associations in her NDEs, and puzzles over what they could mean. Their very reality is shaking the ground she walks on. Willis, on her own path to telling this edgy, tense, strangely fast moving story, turns some truly surprising twists in the tale. She treats her characters with great gentleness. Joanna has a genuine sympathy for the people she is interviewing, people in the most dire of physical stress. Willis is also exploring her own feelings about death and its disastrous imagery. Despite being an entertaining page-turner, the topic begs some serious thought that the author manages to evoke. She rarely pulls her punches, but does so in one crucial moment of the story, leaving this reader a little disappointed at the end. However, the vibrant chaos of Mercy General (a metaphor, itself, for the blind alleys of research), and the suspense of discovering a secret about the brain and about death, make this book entertaining, evocative, gentle and fun.
Also by Connie Willis: [Doomsday Book] [To Say Nothing of the Dog]