Thursday, 13 October 2011

World War Z (an oral history of the zombie war)

This was the book that salvaged those last cherished but restless poolside days at the end of my Summer holiday. I had exhausted all my reading material (books, magazines, hotel drafted news bulletins, you name it), had listened to all my Ricky Gervais podcasts twice over and after his shared collection of enticing snippets from Max Brooks World War Z  I was reluctantly forced to reach for Steve's available holiday book collection which consisted of that single choice. We rarely gush over the same book and I can recall only one other exception to that rule before WWZ  called "A fraction of the whole" by Steve Toltz. But that's for another day.

Max Brooks certainly knows his zombies, in fact if I didn't know better I would have thought he invented the concept... however he also seems to know the current economic, industrial, political, geographical, social and financial state of our world today and therefore turns a very unbelievable and historically humorous topic into something fearful and extremely realistic.

Brooks depicts how a global zombie invasion or the "greatest conflict in history" would affect the lives of our global population through testimonials told from a variety of people for a UN representatives postwar commission report. The UN report writer interviews various members of society including different intelligence organisation agents, army commanders, university professors, right down to individual members of the public which for me conveyed the most "relatable" trials and tribulations the every day common folk would face in such a crisis situation.

The reader gains a full insight into how the world would be affected as the disease spreads from town to country to continent and people are forced to abandon their homes and businesses for colder climes where zombies find it difficult to survive. Or where beaches and ports are swarmed by people trying to escape to the safer waters only to discover they are not safer at all. Some people go underground in the hope Zombies or zed's wont have the sense to follow in pursuit but again there is no  limits to where the walking dead will venture.

As the book is narrated in a somewhat interview style for the post war report not only are the gruesome details of the war itself recollected but the long struggle ahead in repairing the damage that is left behind by those long "dark year". The clearing of the waters, the re-population of nations and the ongoing fear that not all have been destroyed...

My main criticism of this book would be the emphasis was much more weighted on military accounts, where details of weaponry and military vehicles and organisations were far too elaborated and slowed the story up dramatically. I seemed to fly through the more personal accounts of one persons struggle as I found them interesting and tense and felt myself deliberating if that was me "what would I do?'. However the more armory based chapters were sometimes a struggle to get through due to military jargon used which I felt was unnecessary sometimes.

All in all this is a unique and thoroughly researched book which paints a picture of the disastrous effects of the dreaded zed's invasion. Just a little politically weighted for me.

The movie is currently being filmed just up the road in Glasgow with Brad Pitt and I'm pretty sure the movie will be a blockbuster hit so if you are one of those people who must read the book before seeing the film (i.e me) then I would definitely make World War Z a must read and see, if only just to prepare you a little if there ever is a zombie invasion... see Brooks even has me believing in them now!

No comments:

Post a Comment