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If you can enjoy a zombie movie, you will enjoy this book. I have been considering writing a Zombie book, and every few pages of World War Z I think to myself, man, what didn't I think of that. It is almost the perfect book for fanatics. Not sure this would transfer over to a movie at all, but accomplishes what it wants to for sure. The ideas that Max Brooks comes up with are phenomenal.
It will make you look over your shoulder if you read it at night. If you have any interest in zombies, this book is for you.
But what turned my stomach early on was his ridiculously pro-Israeli bent. Do you think that may have something to do with his contempt for Orthodox Israeli Jews and his fantasy-world belief that Israel really just wants to get along with the Arab world.To be fair, my general impression is that a heck of a lot of thought and research went into World War Z. Friends who've read it say it picks up pace later, but I just don't think a zombie apocalypse book can afford to be boring for even one minute. The secular government of Israel did this against the fervent protest of Orthodox religious Jews, who then started a civil war within Israel. First, a disclaimer: I gave up on the book after 44 pages.
But because the Orthodox didn't serve in the military, they were easily crushed. World War Z is supposed to be an "oral history" of the Zombie War, in the model of Studs Terkel's Working (and other works), which relied on first-person interviews. Brooks is a rich, secular, American-born Jew. I just wish all that work could have materialized into something more entertaining and less infected with the author's politics (unless, of course, his politics were correct). The one Arab character profiled is an antisemitic buffoon, and while people like this do no doubt exist, the state of Israel is glorified to an absurd degree. And here's the kicker: That great benevolent state opened its arms to all Arab refugees with a clean bill of health (i.e., who were not zombies) to protect them from what it knew was coming.
There are too many good books to read to waste one's time on writing that can't grab your attention in the first 50 pages. The problem is that Brooks uses exactly the same voice for every character. Theoretically, they had to have been Palestinian, but in practice, they didn't check. World War Z did improve, moderately, as I read on (I was ready to give up after about 15 pages), but the author's politics -- which stand in stark contrast to my own -- began to infect the writing to a degree that I knew I would not enjoy the rest of the book.Before going into that, let me first share my apolitical criticisms: To begin, the book is extremely boring. You see, ONLY Israel knew to protect itself from the zombie apocalypse. This made for a very tedious read.Now on to the author's politics: I've seen others complain that Brook is overly "P.C." That may be.
Secondly, and this is something I'm sure was not going to change, while the author has substantial geopolitical and general knowledge (the one real strength of the work), he is not a good fiction writer. If the character is an Arab, there may be some obligatory "Death to the Jews." stereotyping, but the vocabulary and general manner of speech of literally every character is exactly the same -- that of Brooks.
It arrived right on time as well. Exactly as it was described and an overall great book to read.
It tells the story of humanity's fight to survive against the zombie hordes.Max Brooks is the author and he has a masterpiece here. This is a must read zombie novel.
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