World War Z
Max Brooks
In World War Z, the narrator is one step removed from the horror, unlike in Night of the Living Dead, which traps the viewer in a house surrounded by ghouls. It presents a global analysis of the zombie war and the strategies of varied cultures, the military, politicians, and individuals. As a result, the reader’s perspective shifts throughout the book from above the horizon line to close immersion. The end product is a technical marvel, both fascinating and exciting.
World War Z is a faux documentary, and each of the fictional journalist’s interviews is a short story unto itself. They add up to a fascinating tale of the diverse tactics used to fight the war. I had previously listened to the audiobook several times--it’s one of my favorites for long car trips. I particularly like the chapter narrated by Mark Hamill. I didn’t realize the audiobook was abridged until I read the book—there are so many more stories. Although the accounts of militaristic and political processes become a little tiresome after a while, many of them are gems. Several reports have an “inside baseball” feel to them; however, they utilize a heavy amount of jargon (the acronyms, especially, drove me crazy.) The character of each interview subject eventually grabs center stage.
Some of the characters sound too much alike, however. The military narrators, in particular, could be the same person. Still, the book is a page-turner. I love the chapter about the family whose dad makes them “go North” to Canada. It’s so sad. Brooks ends this chapter with the subject mentioning, almost casually, how she eventually had to feed her parents. Their deaths are left unspoken but implied. It raises a question I plan to devote more thought to: when should an author be specific about an event, and when is implication more effective? In this case, we surmise the parents died because the woman works alone and because her parents became too weak to feed themselves. It is unlikely they came back from that. Leaving the result unspoken makes their deaths more harrowing. The use of implication can work well when absolute knowledge of characters’ deaths is not critical to the plot.
Each vignette provides a little piece of the zombie war, and the pieces come together like a collage of pixel-sized snapshots to form a picture of the war overall. The research that must have gone into the novel staggers me.
Rather than feeling trapped, like I did in Night of the Living Dead, this book allowed me to fly above the war, touching down from time to time to get a closer view. It’s an effective and admirable use of perspective.