I first became aware of the existence of this book during
the month of December ’12. I had just seen the trailer of the movie based on
the novel and the special effects had totally blown me away. That the Z in the
title stood for Zombie was told to me by a good friend. I went online and searched
for the book and its author Max Brooks and what I read interested me aplenty.
I had planned on
watching the movie only after reading the book. However, the demand for the
book must have soared in the months leading up to the release of the movie as
all the online stores ran out of its paperback copies. It was only a week after
the release of the movie that I was able to get my hands on this. By that time,
I was in the midst of my movie and Wodehouse mania and it was put on the back burner.
I finished reading it yesterday night and I am yet to come
out of the aftereffect of its stunning brilliance.
It has been a decade since the end of the World War Z. The
narrator works for United Nations Postwar Commission. He goes to and interviews
people from different countries, people who witnessed history in the making and
it is through these interviews that we are able to catch a glimpse of the
Zombie war.
There are rumors in the beginning. Then the blame game
begins when the Undead begin to overrun all the major cities of the world. This
is followed by attempts by the private citizens as well as the government to
save themselves. The last part of the book deals with counter attack on the
zombies to claim back the planet for the future generations.
This book has been called genre defining and it is easy to
see why.
Brooks thrillingly describes the build up and the battles which happen using
various points of views which vary from survivors on board the International
Space Station who see the white plague spreading on the planet from the space
to French soldiers who fight the Zack(another word for the Undead) in the catacombs
of Paris. There are dog handlers who narrate the heroic tales of their canine
partners. There is a Chinese survivor who tells the horrific story of the
method used in taking back China.
India also features in some stories with a particularly
thrilling one about the detonation of a bomb on the base of Himalaya guaranteed
to take your breath away.
The different classes of Zombies are described
painstakingly. The tone of the book is very authentic and after a few pages it
begins to spook you and keeps blowing the reader away by its frequent bouts of originality.
The author Max Brooks is the son of the famous comedian/director of
yesteryear Mel Brooks(Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Dracula: Dead &
Loving it, Robinhood-Man in Tights) and the late actress Anne Bancroft(the
notorious Mrs. Robinson of the iconic The Graduate) and it would be right to say that the fruit hasn't fallen far from the tree.
He has written a blinder
of a book which is destined to become a modern classic. It is going to remain
the yardstick by which future post-apocalyptic/zombie novels will be judged.
It is an awesome thrill ride and should not be missed.
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