Monday, March 05, 2012

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War


I'll get straight to the point, I loved it.  If you're a zombie fan, you have to read World War Z.  If you're not a zombie fan, I'd still recommend this book.  Max Brooks creates compelling characters who speak about how they suffered and survived the Zombie War.  Their stories are our future.  Many of the characters reference World War II, Castro and allude to President Obama and Nelson Mandela.

In the Blame section of the novel, there is a lot of talking about the recent American administration and recent wars.  The characters don't name anything specifically, but it seems that Brooks is referencing the Gulf/Afghanistan/Iraq and possibly also the previous Bush administration.  I think there are some serious comments made about big business's preconceptions of the American people (its consumers) and capitalism. 

You shouldn't think of World War Z as just another zombie book.  Brooks' writing is amazing.  The characters each have their own voice and there are a lot of characters.  Their stories are similar, yet different, changing with their age, status in life and cultural background.  I think some serious research went into finding out about the different cultures of the world.  The quality of the writing was just brilliant.  I don't know if I can say enough good things about this book.

spoilers
The social commentary is brilliant.  Universal healthcare.  Cuba having the most desired economy.  The Chinese civil war in the midst of the Zombie War.  The fake drug.  I could keep going on and on, but this is a blog not a book report or essay.

I also have to mention that I loved the surprise at the end of the Redekker section.
No more Spoilers

Apparently there is a movie coming out this December.  I wonder how the book is going to translate onto screen. In flashbacks?  There are so many characters and locations, how did they pick what to keep and what to leave out?  I'm excited and nervous about the movie.

In the end, I just want to say, read it.  Read it!

2 comments:

  1. Yay, I'm so glad you liked this one. I LOVE this book, but it's hard to convince non-zombie fans to give it a try.

    I'm excited for the movie. I'm not sure how they're going to tell the stories but I can't wait. I hope they do the scene with the was feral child/now feral adult telling what happened.

    I also want to check out the audiobook. It won some awards AND it got some big names to read on it (Alan Alda, Carl & Rob Reiner, Henry Rollins, John Tuturro, etc)

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    1. I haven't ever listened to an audiobook, it just never seemed like something I would like, but this one has me interested. If you get it, I'd like to know what you think.

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