![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I am way behind in reading this book. The furor has passed, at least until later this year when the buzz about the movie's 2013 release gets into full swing and we undoubtedly get a reprint with a still from the movie on the cover. I am not sad about that because I think that despite its slow start, World War Z is a damn good book. Like Alden Bell's The Angels are the Reapers, World War Z is a surprising and compelling read. I wasn't prepared to like the book as much as I did.
World War Z is the thinking man's zombie narrative. Brooks does a marvelous job of incorporating class, economic, cultural, and political considerations into the narrative, creating a richness of story that engages the heart and the mind. It is a global story and Brooks constructs the world and events around the recognizable. Existing national conflicts, PTSD, survivor guilt, fanaticism, capitalism, truth, lies, and the "let's blame it on Africa" game all get equal time. Human behavior is the highlight of the story, the zombies are almost negligible, a MacGuffin, if you will. To put it very simply, the true heart of this story is the people. The way that they respond in crises, how they respond to each other, how they survive. World War Z doesn't shy away from the evil things that men do, the greed and the selfishness. It also does not shy away from the goodness and the self-sacrifice. It does a really good job of avoiding caricatures, instead allowing the characters to be flawed, multifaceted, and deeply affected by the novel's events. The good and the bad collide and, like with any true community event, the perspectives and what they mean are ever changing.
I was initially put off by the first person POV, (the narrative is constructed as a UN report and written interview style)but again, it works. In fact, it works with astounding success. The voices are very individual. Another thing that I really loved about this book is the way that Brooks identifies and stresses the fact that the human story is a global story. For better or worse. A great read and I can't recommend it enough.
World War Z is the thinking man's zombie narrative. Brooks does a marvelous job of incorporating class, economic, cultural, and political considerations into the narrative, creating a richness of story that engages the heart and the mind. It is a global story and Brooks constructs the world and events around the recognizable. Existing national conflicts, PTSD, survivor guilt, fanaticism, capitalism, truth, lies, and the "let's blame it on Africa" game all get equal time. Human behavior is the highlight of the story, the zombies are almost negligible, a MacGuffin, if you will. To put it very simply, the true heart of this story is the people. The way that they respond in crises, how they respond to each other, how they survive. World War Z doesn't shy away from the evil things that men do, the greed and the selfishness. It also does not shy away from the goodness and the self-sacrifice. It does a really good job of avoiding caricatures, instead allowing the characters to be flawed, multifaceted, and deeply affected by the novel's events. The good and the bad collide and, like with any true community event, the perspectives and what they mean are ever changing.
I was initially put off by the first person POV, (the narrative is constructed as a UN report and written interview style)but again, it works. In fact, it works with astounding success. The voices are very individual. Another thing that I really loved about this book is the way that Brooks identifies and stresses the fact that the human story is a global story. For better or worse. A great read and I can't recommend it enough.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-17 04:49 am (UTC)From:All of that said, with the changes that I am anticipating that they had to make for the movie, I am not excited to being going to see that movie.