The Passage
By Justin Cronin
Orion, $39.99
Reviewed by Nicky Pellegrino

There’s been a lot of buzz in the publishing world about this sprawling, post-apocalyptic novel that’s being heralded as one of the year’s big releases. It’s certainly big in size – my review copy ran to 790 closely-written pages – but whether Cronin is a challenger to the likes of Stephen King remains to be seen. I suspect The Passage with its multiple story strands and its large chorus of characters is a far denser, more complex read and so might not have the same breadth of appeal.

The story is split into two distinct parts. The first tells of the coming of the apocalypse and is tautly written, compelling and convincing. In the jungles of Bolivia a virus is discovered which scientists are convinced will help prolong human life. They test it on violent death-row inmates who are thus turned into vampires. And we’re not talking super-rich, teen dream, glittering Twilight vampires here - these guys are nasty. Inevitably they escape and lay waste to America. A strain of the virus has also been tested on an abandoned little girl called Amy. When disaster strikes, she’s rescued by an FBI agent who spirits her away to safety in an abandoned mountain camp.

The second part of the novel is Cronin’s brave new world, an enclave of survivors in the southern Californian mountains who are protected from the marauding virals by a barrier of bright lights. This is where I think the story strays more towards overblown soap opera than dystopian vision. There are battles and love stories aplenty, there is heartbreak, tragedy and tales of derring-do, there’s a confusion of characters and the ongoing mystery of Amy. Who is she? What is she?  When a small band of survivors strikes out in a bid to raise help for the Sanctuary and its failing lights, the story becomes more action adventure and for me that’s when the whole thing jumps the shark a bit.

Diehard fantasy fans probably aren’t going to agree with me. And to be fair The Passage is inventive, entertaining and a powerful page-turner. Ridley Scott has bought the film rights so if you’re not keen on devoting entire days of your life to chewing through this big, fat epic you can always wait for the movie.

 Footnote:
Nicky Pellegrino,  a succcesful author of popular fiction, (her former title The Italian Wedding was published in May 2009 while her latest, Recipe for Life was published by Orion in April, 2010), is also the Books Editor of the Herald on Sunday where the above piece was first published on 14 June.. 

The following Booklover piece also appeared in yesterday's Herald on Sunday. 





Booklover 
Moss Patterson is the Atamira Dance Company’s executive director and choreographer. Photo by John McDermott.

The book I love most is…....The Prophet by Khalil Gibran. My dream is to visit the home of Gibran in the mountains of Lebanon.

The book I'm reading right now is…....The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright. I'm finding out more about the politics of the region of the Middle East. It’s a fascinating read connecting some of the dots in my head behind this great tragedy.

The book I'd like to read next is…....Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama. Michiko Kakutani, the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for The New York Times, described it as "the most evocative, lyrical and candid autobiography written by a future president.”

The book that changed me is....…Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou: Struggle Without End by Ranginui Walker. This raised my consciousness as a young Maori artist living in Aotearoa. It helped me to place myself politically. He is a hero to me.

The book I wish I'd never read is...… The Road by Cormac McCarthy. A post-apocalyptic nightmare, this  was a magnificent but terrifying read. McCarthy holds the reader with sublime simplicity but for the whole book I felt nauseated at the thought of what we could visit on our beloved planet.

Moss Patterson will have his dance works performed in Whetu this month at the Hamilton Playhouse and the Hawkins Theatre in Auckland.