Review: The Passage

Title: The Passage

Author: Justin Cronin

Publisher: Ballantine

Genre: Thriller/Dystopian

Rating: Meh.  3 out of 5 stars.

This book was a chore, much like reading the Grapes of Wrath in high school was a chore. I saw enough promise in the beginning to start the book–Amy is a very interesting character with a very interesting life. The virus looked promising. I also liked the allusions to aliens and God and religion.

Then it became a zombie/vampire apocalypse novel with too large a cast of characters and too great a time span for me to care about anyone. And it had WAY too much information. I think if this book had been half the size, it would have been a decent book. But this was like a door weight, and it didn’t need to be.

The plot really meanders. I think if it could have focused more on Amy and then Peter, it would have been better. There’s a decent story here, but it’s buried in words, and I found myself skimming a lot to get through it. I couldn’t keep track of half of the survivors at the camp, much less care what became of them. It didn’t help that relationships between men and women in the book are stiff and formal, almost side notes to everything else going on.

So if you like lots and lots of words . . . eh, go for it. I won’t be reading this author again.

Ever hear of generational theory?

I’m feeling off lately. I’m getting surgery next month, home life is chaotic, and the slow pace of writing is frustrating me. Not to mention the fact that the news seems so depressing these days. Talks of truce between the Ukraine and Russia but people don’t have faith it will last. An Arizona woman recently killed in the whole ISIS mess. And don’t forget cyberterrorism!

Generational theory (first outlined by Howe and Straus) says that there are four “Turnings” in a cycle that covers four generations, or about eighty years. Each generation is shaped by the circumstances of their birth, and also affects the generations following them. Trends swing back and forth during the span of this cycle, from a more restrictive, controlling society to a looser, more permissive one. Each cycle begins with a more stable, conservative “High,” then a cultural “Awakening,” a turbulent “Unraveling” and finally a “Crisis” which resolves to start another High and another cycle.

Right now, according to Howe, we’re in the 4th Turning. This Turning is when the big events occur–the last 4th Turning started with the Great Depression and extended through World War II.  The 4th Turning before that was the Civil War, at least for the U.S. And the 4th Turning before that was the Revolution.

So having read a lot about this, I listen to the news and wonder if the next big conflict is about to begin. There’s Europe and the threat of economic collapse, and Russia trying casually take back the Ukraine. That mirrors pre-World War II Third Reich a little closer than I’m comfortable with. Then there’s the Middle East, particularly Syria. One extremist group may not be able to draw the whole world into a conflagration, but they’re certainly pissing off quite a few countries. Somehow it feels like more than sabre rattling this time. I guess only time will tell.

Perhaps it’s the writer in me that listens to these stories and imagines the larger story of it all, feeling like society has been moving through Act II for some time and is gearing up for Act III and a giant climax. That all the economic struggles, the political struggles, the environmental struggles will all suddenly crash down on us. Maybe to be resolved.

Or not.