Book Review

Author:Justin Cronin
Publisher: Hachette India
Language: English
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 784 pages
ISBN-10: 1409102304
ISBN-13: 978-1409102304

At a time when reality and the violence it perpetrates appear too gore and disturbing, it is only natural for the human being to seek suspended disbelief. At times, one wonders as to why Sci-fi, meta-physical, paranormal and plain fantasy novels still sell millions of copies when some of the real events have the power to shock and disturb us almost as much. Or, are they connected in some way? We as a civilisation have aspired for reality in every form of art. The post-modernist discourse has largely been along those lines. Our cinema, art, writing, everything started becoming more real. People like Jean-Luc Godard, Manuel Puig and Gustave Courbet; who mastered the concept of realism in their respective arts, found new audience and popularity that easily surpassed the numbers in their respective hey days.

But, then, something changed post 9/11. Suddenly fantasies, horror and other genres of suspended disbelief started breaking new grounds in acceptability. J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, who had long crossed their sell-by date, found millions and millions of new takers. New authors and their creations also came in the fray. Harry Potter and Twilight Saga catapulted authors in the league of multimillionaires. The suspended disbelief got the better off realism.

Justin Cronin's The Passage tries to find a place in the same polarized world. It is not that there hasn't been an attempt earlier to mix meta-physical and paranormal with sci-fi. But The Passage seems to mix these genres far more convincingly.

Justin Cronin is a gifted writer, but of the literary kind. His previous books Mary and O'Neil (2001) and The Summer Guest (2004) target a more mature mind with a definite literary bent. But then something happened in 2005, or at least that is what some of the people close to Cronin claim.  While taking a morning walk alongside Cronin, his then eight-year-old daughter, Iris, who I am told was one heck of a reader, suddenly turned to her father and said, “Dad! Your books are so boring.” A startled Cronin asked her what she wanted him to write about? “I want you to write about a young girl who saves the world from vampires,” Iris was supposed to have told her father. The foundation of The Passage was laid.

The Passage runs in 780 pages and at several places, the read will not be a breeze. Also, this is the first part of the trilogy, whose 2nd and 3rd books will come out in 1012 and 1014. The book  itself is divided into three sections, each of which is a book in itself. However, the best part about this trilogy is that every part has been meant to be written as such that it will tell a complete story in itself.

The book starts two decades in future as a closed group of US military scientists come up with the experimental sample of a drug made out of Bats that is expected to weaponise human beings. However, the person it is administered upon, tends to develop fingers and fangs and develop a taste for blood— all battish in short. The experiment is first done on 12 inmates condemned to death. However, an intriguing scientist wants it to be experimented on a child. That girl comes in the form of one Amy, a six-year-old child out of the wedlock, who was left in a convent by her mother.

The drama sets in the beginning of the novel as the readers are exposed to a set of e-mails that is being exchanged by the military scientist in a Bolivian Rain-forest and his handlers. Meanwhile, the FBI operative sent to pick up the girl, Brad Wolgast, develops a cold feet as he realises what future holds for her and tries to run away with her. They are apprehended and thrown into a  dungeon. Meanwhile the experimental “virals” get out of control and start doing what they were supposed to do, albeit in an uncontrolled manner.

The second part of the book opens in the post-apocalyptic era as most of the civilization is erased and the future of the world hangs between the “virals” and  a few daring souls.

What catches readers' attention in this novel are its undertones. Readers have branded this novel as an “anti-military experiments” saga that deals subtly with the state of affairs in the US. There are suggestion that it also plays a pro-Mormonism motif but that is open to interpretation. 

Cronin's greatest achievement comes in the form of narration that is sure to bind not only adults and young adults but also his regular readers who were accustomed with his more literary writings. One group that will see itself drawn to this book  are techies and gizmo freaks. Cronin's class lies in the details. The section where he deals with the post-apocalyptic world will leave everybody mesmerised. The only drawback is the loads of pages one has to pass through. Cronin could have definitely done with couple of hundreds of less pages.