Bibliofreakblog

World War Z by Max Brooks

There are several things I like about this book.  First of all, Zombies.  As a Millenial, I am immediately drawn, like a zombie to pulsating brains, to all things zombie, ninja, and pirate.  Other generations may like these things, too, I know, but there seems to be some great obsession among my generation.  God knows why.  It’s just thing that we do.  I mean, debating the best escape routes from whatever building you are in can take hours if you are surrounded by modern teenagers and twenty-somethings, and may actually only be settled by consulting Max Brooks’ Zombie Survival Guide.  Gen-X may have had Vampires and Baby-Boomers may have had aliens and the bomb, but zombie obsession has taken a hold of young people today.  Again, I am unsure as to the reason, except for the obvious (which if you are not a Gen Y member, may not be obvious to you, so please ignore that self-absorbed remark). 

The thing that makes this book so noteworthy is its incredibly well-thought out  plot. Beside the objection some (probably non-millenials) will have that zombies are not real, nor could they ever be, this book is based in logic.  Brooks’ zombies are along the lines of 28 Days Later, in that it is a zombie plague or infection.  The plague spreads to all corners of the world via black-market organs from China. Entire swaths of North America become desolate apart from a few mobs of feral children.  On the west coast, in particular, white-collar workers become obsolete and end up working for the maids, plumbers, electricians, etc. who they used to employ (biting political statement, no?). 

World War Z is written in an oral history style, which is how it can be so all-encompassing.  “Interviewees” give vignettes, adding to the rich fabric of the war.  Many of these characters are not heard from again, but some do reappear to offer more details.  The so-called editor of this history travels across the world, interviewing soldiers, doctors, even the astronauts who stayed in space in order to maintain satellite networks.

Take that astronaut’s tale for example.  Brooks gets in all of the technical aspects of his story in order to maintain the logic of the story without sacrificing the humanity of the character.  The astronaut, Terry Knox, the Aussie Commander of the international space-station is on his death bed, literally, due to having spent too much time in space.  He tells of eating the test animals they had aboard to stay alive up there long enough, and of watching the battles from orbit.  Any jargon he uses is explained with footnotes, but even without knowing what the acronyms stand for, it’s a compelling read.

Not only are the stories of individuals presented, but the stories of nations themselves unfold throughout the book. 

• The U.S. government moves to Hawaii.  
• China plays politics, refusing to join forces with other countries.  
• Pakistan and India blast each other with nuclear weapons.  
• Israel invites all Jews, Palestinians, and even the so-called lost tribe of Israel from Ethiopia into its borders before declaring quarantine, effectively shutting itself off from the plague. 

As tales emerge, details are disputed, deeds rehashed, and opinions clash.  It is so complete, so human, both brutal and eloquent, heroic and sickening, that I for, one, often forgot that I was not reading the truth (and that’s not even considering my penchant for zombies).  I was so absorbed in this book, rooting for some, shaking my head at others, it was many times as if I was there (a term I use with reservation, due to the cliché, but cannot transmit my feeling to words otherwise).

Buy World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War on Amazon

If you like this book/author, you might like:

(my reviews in blue)

Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection by Don Roff and Chris Lane
Rant by Chuck Pahlaniuk
Please Kill Me: The Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
History Is Dead: A Zombie Anthology edited by Kim Paffenroth
Day by Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne
The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
The Good War: An Oral History of World War II by Studs Turkel
Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse by Stephen King
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales
The Road by Cormac McCarthy 
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance – Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Green
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Seth Grahame Green
The Zombie Survival Guide: How To Live Like A King After The Outbreak by Etienne Guerin DeForest
Zompoc: How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse by Michael G Thomas and Nick S Thomas
Zombocalypse Now by Matt Youngmark

Other works by Max Brooks: 

The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead
The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks