World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie WarMax Brooks
Well, now, I'm just facing a whole bunch of fears lately, eh? (True, I'm doing so in bookish form, but I'd say that's just as good.) Not only have I forced myself to read about cockroaches, I’m continuing to stare down another big fear: zombies. My fear of the impending zombie apocalypse has been well documented, so I won't say anymore about it. Of course, unlike my fear of cockroaches (which causes me to run from anything that even remotely resembles one, like a caterpillar), my fear of zombies is the opposite: I don't run from zombies, I embrace them.
Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking: you can't embrace zombies; they don't exist. You aren't really making a giant leap here. To that I say: zombies simply aren't real right now. Just you wait.
So as part of love/hate of all that is zombie-ish, I'm always searching for anything zombie-related. Enter World War Z. I was a bit wary of reading something else by Max Brooks after unsuccessfully reading his previous work, The Zombie Survival Guide, a tongue-in-cheek explanation of how to survive the impending zombie apocalypse. Reading World War Z has reconciled me to The Zombie Survival Guide, which I now see in a different light (although I maintain The Zombie Survival Guide would be better as an appendix to World War Z).
Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking: you can't embrace zombies; they don't exist. You aren't really making a giant leap here. To that I say: zombies simply aren't real right now. Just you wait.
So as part of love/hate of all that is zombie-ish, I'm always searching for anything zombie-related. Enter World War Z. I was a bit wary of reading something else by Max Brooks after unsuccessfully reading his previous work, The Zombie Survival Guide, a tongue-in-cheek explanation of how to survive the impending zombie apocalypse. Reading World War Z has reconciled me to The Zombie Survival Guide, which I now see in a different light (although I maintain The Zombie Survival Guide would be better as an appendix to World War Z).
Fight or flight, you say?
I'm running like a little bitch
I'm running like a little bitch
Although I am usually a snarky devil, I have to say I enjoyed World War Z, and I was a little saddened to see that it received so many negative reviews. (While, ironically enough, The Zombie Survival Guide was lauded, something I just can't wrap my brain around.) So as I provide an overview to the book, I'll also try to knock down some of the charges levied against World War Z.
World War Z is billed as an oral history of the zombie war, so it's all told after the war has ended. Many critics have complained that this creates a lack of suspense -- but, people, we're talking about ZOMBIES here!! Does it really matter if we've won a war against them when it's all said and done? I argue that one's fear of zombies comes not from becoming one of them but rather from not becoming one of them. The zombies themselves lack the mental capacity to realize their lot; those fighting against them are all too aware of what they stand against.
Furthermore, as various personages (military strategists, smugglers, officials, random survivors -- you name it) relate the tale, they each return us to a particular moment in the war: for some, it's the initial appearances of the plague, which appears in isolated regions; later, during what is called "The Great Panic," large outbreaks occur. As the survivors relate the details of the moment, we forget that this is aftermath; we are, quite simply, in the moment, and so the complaint that there is no suspense is a little absurd.
Another critique is the lack of individual voice to distinguish one narrator from another. To be fair, there is something to this criticism, but I have to be honest and say that it didn't bother me while I was reading it. Another criticism is the unbelievability of some details, like, for example, the fact that certain military weapons don't work at all on zombies. (To that I say: um, zombies aren't real, so how do we know what would work on them? To say that a shrapnel bomb would most definitely take a zombie down and Brooks is an asshole for having zombies survive such an attack is more than a little pedantic, in my humble opinion.)
More cogent of a criticism is the fact that certain details contradict themselves (like, for example, how one narrator explains that zombies naturally decompose or starve or some such after a period of time, while another explains that if several zombies were locked up, they would emerge just as deadly in a few years). This is a valid criticism, but, to a person who enjoys zombie lit, one that is easily overlooked. (And, as reader Jeff so astutely points out, it's an oral history, so some contradiction among varying points of view is to be expected.)
Overall, I enjoyed World War Z. There were a few areas I admit to skimming (especially those concerning reconstruction after the end of the war), but it maintained my interest and it provided the zombie fix I was looking for.
In a nutshell: Engrossing and detailed, World War Z may not always be the most logically sound, but that's forgivable given the subject matter.
Bibliolatry Scale: 4 out of 6 stars
World War Z is billed as an oral history of the zombie war, so it's all told after the war has ended. Many critics have complained that this creates a lack of suspense -- but, people, we're talking about ZOMBIES here!! Does it really matter if we've won a war against them when it's all said and done? I argue that one's fear of zombies comes not from becoming one of them but rather from not becoming one of them. The zombies themselves lack the mental capacity to realize their lot; those fighting against them are all too aware of what they stand against.
Furthermore, as various personages (military strategists, smugglers, officials, random survivors -- you name it) relate the tale, they each return us to a particular moment in the war: for some, it's the initial appearances of the plague, which appears in isolated regions; later, during what is called "The Great Panic," large outbreaks occur. As the survivors relate the details of the moment, we forget that this is aftermath; we are, quite simply, in the moment, and so the complaint that there is no suspense is a little absurd.
Another critique is the lack of individual voice to distinguish one narrator from another. To be fair, there is something to this criticism, but I have to be honest and say that it didn't bother me while I was reading it. Another criticism is the unbelievability of some details, like, for example, the fact that certain military weapons don't work at all on zombies. (To that I say: um, zombies aren't real, so how do we know what would work on them? To say that a shrapnel bomb would most definitely take a zombie down and Brooks is an asshole for having zombies survive such an attack is more than a little pedantic, in my humble opinion.)More cogent of a criticism is the fact that certain details contradict themselves (like, for example, how one narrator explains that zombies naturally decompose or starve or some such after a period of time, while another explains that if several zombies were locked up, they would emerge just as deadly in a few years). This is a valid criticism, but, to a person who enjoys zombie lit, one that is easily overlooked. (And, as reader Jeff so astutely points out, it's an oral history, so some contradiction among varying points of view is to be expected.)
Overall, I enjoyed World War Z. There were a few areas I admit to skimming (especially those concerning reconstruction after the end of the war), but it maintained my interest and it provided the zombie fix I was looking for.
In a nutshell: Engrossing and detailed, World War Z may not always be the most logically sound, but that's forgivable given the subject matter.
Bibliolatry Scale: 4 out of 6 stars
4 comments:
Regarding the contradiction, it's an oral history - of course people are going to contradict themselves.
This is likely one of my favorite books - it succeeded in making me afraid of zombies, something I never expected.
Good point, Jeff! I'm going to edit my original post to include your idea. Thanks!
i will be running and screaming like a little bitch! Good review tho- and it is still selling like crazy off of my paperback favorites table
The audiobook of this is amazingly good. It's read by a large ensemble cast including Alan Alda, John Turturro, Henry Rollins, and freakin' Mark Hamill.
I have no idea how they got any of these people to participate, but perhaps they are all secret zombie fans.
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