World War Z

Novel, Max Brooks, 2006

This is a unique book.  If you are looking to try something a little different, here it is.

World War Z is a series of interviews about what happened when the Earth that we know and love was overcome by a devastating zombie apocalypse.  It's implied that this happened right around our current time (2000s ish).  The "editor" interviews people from all around the world about their experiences and thus chronicles the initial outbreaks, the ensuing chaos as more and more people are infected, and how humans eventually rally to fight and bring about the resolution of the war against the zombies (this isn't a spoiler--the opening pages let you know it's been about ten years since the end of the war).

Brooks works very hard to capture the details of what it would really be like to have an all-out zombie apocalypse on our hands.  The interviews show how different countries' militaries were prepared (or not) for the formation of active armies and massive stocks of weaponry, what strategies civilians took to try to save their own lives, even what happens to the economy in a state of global warfare.  It is a truly impressive feat of imagination, and Brooks' interviewees are fully-fleshed out to deliver all his horrifying details--even requiring footnotes where the "editor" explains the acronyms and other post-apocalypic-critical knowledge.  (Side note: this footnote business was very annoying on my Kindle--I recommend picking up a hard copy.)

Some of my favorite interviews were with an American business tycoon who invented a "cure" for the zombie disease and then moved to Antarctica with his riches, a Japanese computer nerd who has to rappel his way down his high-rise building to escape, and a man who runs a shelter for the dogs who were trained for zombie combat.

As much as these individual and widely varying interviews are fascinating, they also create the book's major weakness--it's very hard to build momentum or engagement in the novel as a whole when it functions more a a series of short stories.  There starts to be a certain dreariness in hearing about the same thing over and over again even though the telling varies each time.  About 75% of the way through the book I had to drag myself through each interview, even though if I had been reading them as stand-alone pieces I probably still would have enjoyed them.  (It did pick up again towards the end, happily.)  There's also a lot of technical military talk that's a little dry for my tastes, but I'm sure other people enjoy all those details.

Still, definitely worth a read (or a skim, if you get bored partway through).  And, in continuing with the theme of every book I read these days, it's going to be a movie in 2012!  With Brad Pitt!  And that girl from The Killing!  I do like her.