"World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War," by Max Brooks (Crown Publishing, 2006), is the follow-up to his bestseller "The Zombie Survival Guide" (Three Rivers Press, 2003), but in "World War Z," Brooks uses the zombie motif in a much more important way than is traditionally accomplished in other zombie fiction.
He credits George Romero (director of "Night of the Living Dead," "Day of the Dead," "Dawn of the Dead," et al) as an inspiration for his work. Yet Brooks, in my opinion, reaches further into this subgenre and creates a greater work of fiction by using the zombie to make an important statement about the human condition.
The novel purports to be a record of interviews conducted by a journalist following an apocalyptic war with the zombies. These are the recorded memories of people who survived those times and what they experienced. Hundreds of millions of zombies were formed by hundreds of millions of other zombies attacking human beings anywhere and everywhere and causing the near-extermination of the human race. Countries were evacuated, governments collapsed and reformed, and a whole new way of waging war had to be learned.
There are many individual stories in the book and many of them could be considered short stories by themselves, but taken together they remind one of "American Psycho" or the movie "Starship Troopers." The stories are gory, exciting, and interesting, yet their real purpose is to provide a social commentary. Horror is the vehicle, but social change is the purpose.
If "American Psycho" was all about the narcissism of the 1980's, and "Starship Troopers" was all about the propaganda that supports unnecessary wars, then "World War Z" is all about how we eat each other alive on a daily basis and think nothing of it. The theme of the novel is fictional zombies, but Brooks' zombies become a symbol for the dog-eat-dog mentality that is a very real and prevalent in our society today.
Key to the symbol of the zombie is the fact that their brains must be destroyed in order to kill them. It's no wonder, really, because the zombie disease--the dog-eat-dog mentality--resides in the minds of people. And it proves to be a contagious mentality inasmuch as the more people treat each other badly, the more they want to treat each other badly.
Toward the end of the book, Brooks' character, Jessica Hendricks, is a good example of the underlying occult motivations of a zombie mentality, and our reaction to her shows that the zombie virus is alive and well in all of us. In a thinly veiled reference to the existence of the radio personality, Howard Stern, she says:
"He was doing his usual thing--fart jokes and insults and adolescent sexuality--and I remember thinking, "This man survived and my parents didn't." No, I try not to be bitter."
Of course we can sympathize with her, but it's that very sympathy any of us would have that reveals the zombie contagion. For what she's really showing us is a thought process whereby it's perfectly okay to loathe another person simply because they exist. He should be dead and her mother should be alive--but this bitterness, in my opinion, ultimately becomes the zombie mentality, because justifiable as it may be, it is mindless and cruel in its implications. After all, those who love that radio show host wouldn't want to lose him either.
One imagines Max Brooks might have found inspiration from The Cranberries in their 1994 song, "Zombie." The lyrics thereof describe almost the exact mentality he describes in WWZ. Of course, instead of a fictional zombie war, Dolores O'riordan sings about the real decades long war between the British and Northern Ireland. In her song, and in his book, the bottom line is created: The human race is infected with the very contagious disease of inhumanity.
One walks away from this novel understanding the seeds of ultimate apocalypse live within the brains of each and every one of us--and that must be eradicated at all costs. That kind of brain must be destroyed. Inhumanity is inherent to the mind of man, but ultimately human beings have the ability to change their minds. And when we pull away from the fictional aspect of this theme and moral, we realize that the best way to destroy a zombie brain is simply to change our own minds.
"World War Z" is a story rich in symbolism, irony, humor, horror, gore, excitement, and tragedy. It's a no-miss book for any lover of horror, and certainly any zombie aficionado. It pushes the boundaries of what even the godfather of zombies, George Romero, has established, and serves not only to entertain us but also to enlighten us. It's one of those books that put the "great" in great fiction.
"World War Z" is soon to be a major motion picture by Plan B. Entertainment and comes out in 2012. It stars Brad Pit and is directed by Marc Forster. It will be quite something to see what they make of this story. I hope they retain its depth as well as its action and ghastly horror.
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| More from Max Brooks: | Fully illustrated and exhaustively comprehensive, The Zombie Survival Guide is your key to survival against the hordes of undead who may be stalking you right now. | Part survival narrative, part bloody horror tale, part scientific journey into the boundaries between truth and fiction, this is a Bigfoot story as only Max Brooks could chronicle it. | The riveting story of the highly decorated, barrier-breaking, historic black regiment—the Harlem Hellfighters | The first official Minecraft novel! Max Brooks tells the story of a hero—stranded in the world of Minecraft—who must unravel the secrets of a mysterious island in order to survive. | In the thrilling sequel to Minecraft: The Island, a stranded hero stumbles upon another castaway—and discovers that teamwork might just be the secret to survival. |
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Chapter transition isn't as fluid as I wanted it to be. Audiobook would probably be better.
Actual rating: 3.5Reading this book was fun because I was buddy reading this with 3 others from different nationalities and this is a book about the zombie apocalypse around the world.Narration:What was difficult with buddy reading this was the lack of chapter numbers because in its place we have locations around the world instead. No chapter numbers but instead we're given the country and city where the interview is being held. Yes, interview. This book is written in interview formatbut it's the interviewee who speaks most of the time with the interviewer/author interjecting only occasionally or not at all. This adds realism to the story but there are times when I would just gloss over some words especially when the author goes into more details on the military tech things that I don't really care for. Some people will find that truly enjoyable though.It was a fun but confusing experience because some were reading through an audiobook and I was on an ebook so we couldn't have a page number as a marker. Keeping track of where everyone was was easy when we started but as we got further it started being difficult because there are multiple visits on the same country/city mostly US and China so saying "I just passed Denver, where are you guys reading now?" will be met with "Which Denver? The 1st one or the 2nd one?".Now one problem with that is, I can't really recall much of what happened in that city/country when it comes up again. Not always, but there are times I catch myself wondering what happened there again? The constant jumping from one country to another is fun and it adds to the sense of a true zombie apocalypse unlike other zombie stories where it's actually only happening in one country being passed as happening around the world (ew). The downside is making it hard to track on what was happening on where, individually speaking. But as a whole it's not that confusing... but the lag of connecting things is there for me.This is not the kind of book you can just stop in the middle and smoothly continue whenever. I find that I have to finish a whole "chapter" or else I would be confused when I get back to it. What country am I in again?Setting:As I've mentioned, the zombie apocalypse is happening around the world and we are treated to happenings to many countries. Not all, but it's enough for me to have a sense of "worldwideness" unlike other stories that claim to be a universal event but were actually only in one country.What was missing though is zombies in the desert. I can't recall us going in the desert for this book hmmm. But that doesn't take away anything from the story. We have cities and country sides, we have mountains and seas, we have winter and summer. The author has really covered a lot which for me is worth the title World War Z.Theme:What was recurring and really jumped out for me was blame and responsibility, and the guilt that followed. I really liked that the author, in some instances, paralleled it with the Holocaust.Characters:This is where most my problem lies with this book and is why I won't rate it higher. I can't remember most their names.Why?Probably because sometimes they all sound like the same person. To be fair, some of them had only a few paragraphs but even those with longer exposure I can't really recall much. I usually just refer to them as "the blind Japanese guy" or "the guy in the castle" or "the pilot girl". I think this is part of the reason why I can't remember fully what had happened in which country; I don't have a name to relate it to for continuity.Granted the author has made them describing their experience fun to read about but sometimes I just want a character to hold on to and follow. I think the interviewer would have been the best option to do that but no, he just suddenly appears where the interviewees are and they start talking. They being the interviewee most of the time. The interviewer feels so detached ironically after that intro about the human factor. (My first highlight if you want to know what I mean.)We know what the interviewees are feeling but as for the interviewer? He's just there.Side note: Animals are also mentioned (not all but they're there) and I highly appreciate that the author covered that too because in this world, it's not only humans that are affected but also every single life form.Final Thoughts:This is a great book for buddy reading and discussion and is a great zombie book. What would've made it a better experience for me is if the interviewer was more involved instead of just an occasional interjection to the interview. Over all, it was a fun and insightful read I would recommend to those looking for a good zombie read.A very close 4 stars for me.This work would also probably be great as an audiobook. There's this audiobook that really put effort into having different voice actors/accents for each character interviewed and I feel like that would be an awesome experience. Unfortunately it's not available in my country...
Top reviews from other countries
Cliente de Amazon
Humanity criticism nicely done.
Reviewed in Mexico on December 14, 2020
Phil Cha
Maximillian Brooks is a Genius. A good "toilet" book
Reviewed in Canada on March 22, 2019