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World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War By Max Brooks
A quick glance over past reviews, and you might think that The Angry Piper has a soft spot for zombie books, and you’d be right. Last year I wrote reviews of both Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend and Stephen King’s Cell. Now Max Brooks has come out with World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, and has single-handedly raised the bar on not only zombie fiction, but horror fiction in general. World War Z may just be the best zombie book I’ve ever read, because deep down it’s not really about zombies. World War Z is a collection of interviews and first-hand accounts of people who, at an unspecified time in the near future, have survived a global outbreak of the living dead. By all accounts it was a close call for humanity, as the zombies came within a hair of utterly destroying the human race. From the outside, one might think this book is nothing more than repetitive testimonials of desperate last-standers barricading themselves in lonely farmhouses and shotgunning zombies. It’s not. In fact, if anything, World War Z is surprisingly short on this kind of tale. That’s because even with the best intentions, after a while zombies will, if you’ll pardon the expression, lose their charm and cease to be scary. In World War Z, the ever-growing zombie horde serves as a pervasive antagonistic presence, nothing more; representing what could just as easily be another worldwide plague, an all-too-real disease like AIDS, SARS, Ebola or Avian Flu. Predictably, in the wake of global infestation, world order breaks down. Some countries attempt to suppress news of the outbreak, some point fingers at longtime rivals, some close their borders and go into lockdown mode. Entire nations are completely overrun. Borders are redrawn. Religions see the righteous hand of an angry God guiding the waves of undead. The wealthy retreat to their (supposedly safe) ivory towers. “Miracle cures” are promised, but never delivered. And people die—lots and lots of people die. Of course, they don’t stay dead for long. Brooks brilliantly makes the reader a part of his tale. The book is presented as an oral history dictated by people who have survived the Zombie War and intended to be read by people who have survived the Zombie War; in other words, us. To that end, there is no single protagonist in World War Z. We do not read about the plight of one specific character, or even a group of characters; rather, the accounts span the world. The disaster is viewed through the eyes of people from all walks of life: doctors, soldiers, housewives, opportunistic smugglers, scientists, businessmen, politicians and feral children. The wide range of accounts brings the Zombie War to life (pardon the obvious pun) as a shared experience. Put simply, in World War Z, we’re all screwed. Despite being an account of humanity’s near-destruction, the book is not without humor. Although he never names names, Brooks routinely skewers some very recognizable people, like the “little rich, spoiled, tired-looking whore who was famous for just being a rich, spoiled, tired-looking whore.” Or the “political comedy guy” who was “snorting blow between the air bags of this teeny Thai stripper.” These brief, smirk-inducing moments are effective in that they enhance the novel without bringing it to the level of campy zombie films. Yet in the end, World War Z is a horror book, and Brooks adroitly captures the terror, despair and utter hopelessness his characters feel when facing a relentless and endlessly multiplying enemy. Because of the very nature of the living dead, comrades and loved ones today may be enemies tomorrow, as those who fall prey to the zombies become zombies themselves. Soon, humanity is pushed to the brink of extinction as every death serves only to swell the ranks of the undead. There are fewer and fewer places to find safety; and those still living need to find food, water and the basic necessities of life, all things zombies can do without. Good thing World War Z is fiction, right? Sure. The dead don’t really rise. But when people can’t—or won’t—talk to each other and find common ground, humanity’s chances for survival in the face of disaster fade quickly. Take a look at what’s going on—what has been going on for years now—in Darfur, Sudan. Want something a little closer to home? Witness the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a political blame-game that continues to this day, while the areas hardest hit have still yet to recover or even receive badly-needed aid. Think we’ve gotten better since then? Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives spent an entire week arguing and debating a resolution that, in the end, accomplished nothing: we’re still at war, and people are still dying. Although the book is undoubtedly a “zombie book” and will appeal to horror lovers and George Romero fans alike, make no mistake: the real horror in World War Z is not the hordes of shambling undead. It’s us.
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