World War Z Wrapup

About a week ago, I finally got around to finishing Max Brooks' zombie fest, World War Z. Initially, I was really blown away by the book. It's unique in its structure as well as in its subject matter. As I discussed earlier, the author's depth of knowledge on the subject was impressive. Brooks literally thought of every zombie related situation imaginable and found a way to work it into the book. Because of its unique, interview-based structure, World War Z easily incorporates even the most bizarre or esoteric zombie hijinks.

Looking back, it's obvious that this structure--in many ways the books biggest strength--was also its greatest flaw. While Brooks spends a great deal of time on some parts of the war effort, specifically the US's early struggles and eventual victory, he spends few words describing others. Some elements like the descriptions of zombies emerging from the oceans to attack unsuspecting vacationers were cool, but never should have been fleshed out into whole interviews. Others probably could have shouldered a lot more of the effort.

In total, World War Z really stands as an encyclopedia of sorts, relating to all things undead. Brooks took such a massive scope with this work that its hard to imagine what he might have overlooked. But beyond simply rehashing zombie lore, Brooks' global spin also saw the creation of many new conventions and themes: ferals, quislings, chain swarms, etc. The scope of his vision also allowed for a followthrough with regards to how a zombie outbreak would effect the world that would be virtually impossible in film. Romero's Land of the Dead tackled the idea of a world beset with zombies, but still kept its focus fairly tight. It will be very interesting to see how Plan B Entertainment, Brad Pitt's production house that won the rights to the book in a healthy bidding war, will bring WWZ to the screen as Brooks did the screenwriters few favors.

Brooks' novel ends on something of a positive note. Unlike many of the films that draw on zombie conventions, the survivors of World War Z have reached the end of the tunnel. Each speaker is sure to point out that there is a ways to go and that they are irreparably scarred, but Brooks allows readers a sense of hope for the future. He also never positions the zombies as any sort of deus ex machina that brings about world peace. Instead, we see the zombies as just another challenge that faces humanity, in some cases bringing out the best, while in others, the worst. Brooks illuminates both in a prose that varies with his speakers, but never falters. And like many genre texts that have come before it, be they movies, games or books, World War Z provides much fodder for analysis for any who pick it up in the future.

Initial Thoughts on World War Z

When I first purchased Max Brooks’ World War Z I knew very little about the book. Subtitled “An Oral History of the Zombie War,” however, there wasn’t all that much else I needed to know.

Zombies? Sounds good to me.

What interested me most was how Brooks would handle the minutia of what the title of his book implied. We know what zombies are, and having seen enough zombie movies, we have an expectation of how they should act and behave. In a book though, a lot of the smaller details that films tend to glaze over would be much more difficult to hide.

Where did the first zombie come from? What exactly causes the zombiism? What physically happens to the body after contamination? Questions like this can be left to speculation in a film filled with exploding heads, tearing limbs and spouting blood. Books, for the most part, don’t have these corporeal distractions, or at least they can't rely on the same graphic depictions. So Brooks presumably wouldn’t be getting by on camera tricks, editing and gore.

Over the last couple of days I’ve managed to get through the first 75 pages or so, and I can gladly report that Brooks delivers on all those questions, and many, many more. In fact, Brooks has created a text that is vastly more interesting and engaging than any zombie film I’ve seen, and I really like zombie films.

The magic comes from World War Z’s brilliant structure. Instead of crafting a straight narrative, Brooks relates the story of the zombie war through short interviews with people around the world whose lives were affected in some way. To do this, he imagines himself a researcher working for a government agency after the war has ended. He is tasked with compiling an analysis of what went wrong from the emergence of the threat all the way through to the war’s end. NPR printed the book’s introduction online, which you can find here.

While Brooks deals with all the particulars of the zombie lore more than adequately, what is perhaps more interesting, especially in the early going is the descriptions and depictions of the world’s reactions. Through his interview structure, Brooks maps the how’s and why’s of the spread of the zombie virus (yeah, it’s a virus). This same structure also provides an easy mechanism by which Brooks can seamlessly blend exposition on the current state of affairs and foreshadowing for where things are headed. When interviewees off-handedly use terms like “The Great Panic,” you can’t help but get excited to see just how great it’s going to be.

Thus far, Brooks has delivered on all of my expectations, and has even provided a solid dose of the classic gore (fingers bitten off, brains splattering, etc.) that makes zombies so much fun. His book is a terrific blend of genre based excitement and genuinely well crafted fiction. It may seem hard to believe, but it's been a little while since I've encounted a page turner quite like this.