Recap: World War Z by Max Brooks

(I apologize for how long it has taken me to post this.)

Last month, we had a really great discussion on Max Brooks' World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War at Teavolve. Teavolve gave us a great table, great service and amazing food and drink (seriously, their tea-infused sangria is to die for). Be sure to check them out if you can.

Please note that this post may include spoilers, and please be aware of that as you continue to read.

The general consensus of our group was that World War Z was awesome, and that seemed to be an expected reaction even before we picked up the book. Unlike Open City (which we read in June), there has been a lot of chatter - including an upcoming major motion picture - about this book. Because of this book (and his other, The Zombie Survival Guide), Max Brooks has now been widely-considered a zombie expert. We did discuss that Max Brooks brings the zombies in from a more contemporary view (a view that seems to be largely credited to Romero) in which zombies are bred from a virus, rather than the "old" view of necromancy. In discussing this, we realized that is one of the reasons that our society seems to fear zombies so much; it is a possible and present danger.

Despite our ever-growing fear of zombies, they were not the only antagonist in this novel. Society really poses the largest threat to itself, constantly blurring the line between killing itself off and saving itself. Brooks' writing style is a non-traditional one, as the historical fiction novel is a chronological compilation of interviews of people (both well-known people and laymen) who lived through and survived the zombie war. This style was well-received by the book club. In fact, most members said that its structure was the strength of the book and that it became more realistic ("less fantasy") as we got to know all of the characters and their individual stories and personalities. Amanda said that, in hindsight, "it had to be written that way to accomplish the arc of the story."

Brooks really works toward a realistic war. We had two US Army veterans at the discussion and they both talked about how well-researched the weaponry was, as well as the authenticity of the soldiers' actions and reactions. A lot of the warfare was flatly taken from World War II, possibly because that was the last time that the entire world was at war. The difference this time is that everyone has the same opponent, and that opponent is unlike any that has been seen before. As Anthony pointed out, in the past, the goal was to disable your opponent, but in the zombie war it was about completely wiping out the opponent. This draws the question whether this was a real war, or if it was a natural disaster of sorts.

Even after one finishes the book, the war is still fairly ambiguous, in the sense of who accomplished what and who came up with certain ideas first. Brooks does this to give a more realistic view of war, in which even the allies are unsure of how things really played out. The only issue that the book club members seemed to take with this is that his writing, even when portraying speakers of diverse backgrounds, seems to be extremely Westernized. In the end, the American army comes in and makes the final push to end the war ("like all war movies," said Stephanie). The Americans seemed "more civil" and "more humane" than the other countries, who were sacrificing one another and generally acting heartless to those around them when chaos erupted. This was rejected by the members as we all seemed to agree that in a zombie apocalypse, it is more likely that everyone would have to be heartless to a degree in order to survive.

Of course, after reading this book, we are all prompted with the idea that this is possible and the question of how we would handle this is inevitable. Even the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has a webpage called "Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse." The main concerns that our book club members expressed were: individual fitness level at time of outbreak, over-vaccinations that either cause the outbreak or impede our immunity, lack of provisions, and the lack of "the grid" (or not being able to use the Internet, phones, etc. to get information and contact others).

In all, we really enjoyed the novel, but do not look forward to the movie. After reading the book and seeing how it is structured, it seems that the movie will either completed deconstruct the book or make a poor replication on screen. We may still take a field trip to see it when it comes out, so keep an eye out for that. Thanks again to all that came to the August discussion. If you read the book and were unable to make the meeting (or if you were at the meeting and have more to add), please feel free to continue the conversation in the comments.

I look forward to August's discussion!