World War Z by Max Brooks

I then told him about the outbreak and listened as he made some joke about the hygiene habits of hillbillies. I tried to chuckle along but continued that I thought the incident might be significant. Almost reluctantly he asked me what the symptoms were. I told him everything: the bites, the fever, the boy, the arm...his face suddenly stiffened. His smile died.

He asked me to show him the infected. I went back into the meeting hall and waved the phone's camera over each of the patients. He asked me to move the camera closer to some of the wounds themselves. I did so and when I brought the screen back to my face, I saw that his video image had been cut.

"Stay where you are," he said, just a distant, removed voice now. "Take the names of all who have had contact with the infected. Restrain those already infected. If any have passed into coma, vacate the room and secure the exit."

-World War Z 

I think we can all agree that being the doctor asked to treat Patient Zero in a zombie apocalypse would have to rank pretty high in terms of bad situations to find oneself in. Of course, dealing with Patient One Hundred wouldn't be any picnic either. Or Patient One Thousand. Or Patient Oh-My-God-I've-Lost-Count-Because-There-Are-So-Many-Damned-Zombies. A zombie apocalypse, in general, just does not seem like a pleasant place to be.

So why is it so entertaining to watch and read about one? I quite enjoyed Zombieland, am a regular viewer of The Walking Dead, and now World War Z. It's no news flash that zombies are enjoying a cultural moment right now, like vampires before them, and pirates before that, &c, &c. I'm sure a sociologist could wax philosophical about how our interest in zombies reflects our fears about society at the moment--but I'm not a sociologist. I do know zombies are pretty scary, though.

World War Z is imagined as a collection of interviews conducted seven years after a zombie apocalypse. The interviews trace the spread of the contagion, the way rumors flew and people scrambled to react; the actual battles waged against Zach (as zombies are called by the military) and the struggle to survive on a daily basis; and glimpses of the slow recovery. Along the way, we meet people from around the world, from all walks of life (though it is skewed toward military personnel), giving a broad view of the conflict.

It was a pretty interesting read, although (unsurprisingly, given the title) it was a little military-heavy for my taste. I think I would have preferred a book that focused more on regular people, with fewer paragraphs describing anti-zombie weaponry. For arms buffs, I'm sure that was fun, but I tended to zone out at times when confronted with the denser military sections. 

I also would have enjoyed if Brooks had chosen to follow more individual stories throughout the duration of the war. I think it would have been interesting to see how people, as individuals, were affected by various stages of the war, rather than getting more of a societal view. Brooks does revisit a few of his characters at the end of the story, but people mostly pop up to share their perspectives on specific parts of the war and then disappear.

I know that a movie adaptation is underway, and I will be curious to see how much of the story makes it to the screen. It seems like there is potential for a pretty intense film, though I'm curious to see how any worthy zombie picture can possibly be rated PG-13. 

Up next: The Help by Kathryn Stockett.