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Zone One
by
In this wry take on the post-apocalyptic horror novel, a pandemic has devastated the planet. The plague has sorted humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead.
Now the plague is receding, and Americans are busy rebuilding civilization under orders from the provisional government based in Buffalo. Their top mission: the resettl ...more
Now the plague is receding, and Americans are busy rebuilding civilization under orders from the provisional government based in Buffalo. Their top mission: the resettl ...more
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Hardcover, 259 pages
Published
October 18th 2011
by Doubleday
(first published October 6th 2011)
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Start your review of Zone One

Attractive, well-dressed writing and some buxom, sexy phrase-turning make this novel’s surface shiny and pretty. However, its hollowness, lack of depth and monotone emotionlessness make the interior a soulless, vacuous fail. It’s prose porn with no emotional money shot, and like traditional porn Zone One dispenses with plot, character and any hint of deeper meaning in favor of excessive, gratuitous word humping. The language is technically proficient and has an appealing shape, but inside is sha
...more

looking for great books to read during black history month...and the other eleven months? i'm going to float some of my favorites throughout the month, and i hope they will find new readers!
AHHHHHHHH!!!
jesus christ, but colson whitehead can write. i read the intuitionist way back when everyone was praising it to the moon as the masterpiece of the next great american writer, but that book didn't really do a lot for me, while this one keel-hauled me.
it was strolling along at a solid four stars u ...more
AHHHHHHHH!!!
jesus christ, but colson whitehead can write. i read the intuitionist way back when everyone was praising it to the moon as the masterpiece of the next great american writer, but that book didn't really do a lot for me, while this one keel-hauled me.
it was strolling along at a solid four stars u ...more

Oh dear. Is it possible to make flesh-hungering zombies seem dull?
While I never thought so, AMC and Whitehead have both been giving it their all by enveloping them in navel-gazing Philosophy 101 monologues and odd series of pastoral flashbacks in the midst of life-or-death situations. Whitehead, at least, delivers his philosophy with amazing prose, while the writers at The Walking Dead (season two) rely on repetition of words like 'humanity' more times than Hobbes could shake a stick at. We get ...more
While I never thought so, AMC and Whitehead have both been giving it their all by enveloping them in navel-gazing Philosophy 101 monologues and odd series of pastoral flashbacks in the midst of life-or-death situations. Whitehead, at least, delivers his philosophy with amazing prose, while the writers at The Walking Dead (season two) rely on repetition of words like 'humanity' more times than Hobbes could shake a stick at. We get ...more

Start spreading the news. I’m leaving todayThere is a lot to sink your teeth into in the latest book from MacArthur Genius grantee Colson Whitehead. The nation has pretty much collapsed, with the implication that things are no better elsewhere in the world. But there is still some hope. A provisional government has been set up in Buffalo, and some organization is returning. The government wants to clear Manhattan of undesirables, (real estate developers?) in order to repopulate, in order to sh ...more

Nov 04, 2011
Trudi
rated it
it was ok
Shelves:
2011,
dystopia,
apocalyptic-types,
survive-this,
the-big-letdown,
zombies,
not-for-me,
on-my-kobo
Damn, this book is cold. Like, really, really, C-O-L-D. The language is magnificent; there is no doubt Whitehead can write, but he writes with no heat. His writing here is like a perfect, shiny new Cadillac (but with no engine). Without the engine, what’s the point? You can sit and look pretty all the live long day, but you’re not gonna get anywhere worth talking about (or remembering).
Whitehead’s problem here seems to be that he gets so caught up in delivering the goods on literary stylistics ...more
Whitehead’s problem here seems to be that he gets so caught up in delivering the goods on literary stylistics ...more

FRIDAY
mark monday got up at his usual hour, in his usual bed, and after leisurely winding his way through his various morning routines, made his way to work, to perform his usual functions. it was a friday, a day where most of his colleagues found reasons to be elsewhere - appointments and such - and so this was mark's favorite work day to be in the office. the lack of potential irritation meant more work could be accomplished. on some level, he realized that this was perhaps a rather uncharitab ...more
mark monday got up at his usual hour, in his usual bed, and after leisurely winding his way through his various morning routines, made his way to work, to perform his usual functions. it was a friday, a day where most of his colleagues found reasons to be elsewhere - appointments and such - and so this was mark's favorite work day to be in the office. the lack of potential irritation meant more work could be accomplished. on some level, he realized that this was perhaps a rather uncharitab ...more

”He hooked up with strangers for a while, exchanged a grimy jar of cranberry sauce or a juice box per the new greeting ritual, and swapped information on the big matters of the day, like dead concentrations, and small things like the state of the world. A few months into the collapse, only the fools asked about the government, the army, the designated rescue stations, all the unattainable islands, and the fools were dwindling every day. He hung with them until they decided on divergent destinati
...more

When the zombie apocalypse comes there’ll be a lot of inconveniences. The breakdown of society, lack of electrical power, no hot showers and undead cannibals trying to eat your brains will definitely suck, but I always figured that the trade-off was that at least there’d be no more paying bills, standing in line at the DMV or having to tolerate corporate buzz words and slogans.
But in Zone One not only are there plenty of zombies, there’s still silly bureaucratic rules and paperwork as well as a ...more
But in Zone One not only are there plenty of zombies, there’s still silly bureaucratic rules and paperwork as well as a ...more

He was a mediocre man. He had led a mediocre life exceptional only in the magnitude of its unexceptionality. Now the world was mediocre, rendering him perfect.Reading other reviews for Zone One, it seems that the union is pretty small in the Venn diagram of “people who like zombie stories” and “people who like literary fiction.” But this novel worked for me. I had no issue with the story’s structure: a three-day stretch in which a team of sweepers works to continue clearing zombie “stragglers” o ...more

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
After having my morbidly obese patootey pretty much blown away by The Underground Railroad, I knew Colson Whitehead was an author I wanted to read more of. When attempting (unsuccessfully, natch) to get a library copy of Isaac Marion’s latest, this one popped up on the “sorry we didn’t have the fluffy zombie romance you were hoping for, maybe you would like to read a super smart zombie book instead?????” window.
Zone One is a story man ...more
After having my morbidly obese patootey pretty much blown away by The Underground Railroad, I knew Colson Whitehead was an author I wanted to read more of. When attempting (unsuccessfully, natch) to get a library copy of Isaac Marion’s latest, this one popped up on the “sorry we didn’t have the fluffy zombie romance you were hoping for, maybe you would like to read a super smart zombie book instead?????” window.
Zone One is a story man ...more

Unbearable. That's all I can say. I bailed about one-quarter of the way in. I am so done, I don't want to bother reviewing, but I need to dig my head out of the word salad that was this book and warn fellow readers.
Are there commandments for novel writing? If there are, I want to submit these for consideration:
- Lists do not constitute atmosphere.
- Noting a man's actions does not constitute character development.
- Words need to have purpose, not just look fancy on paper.
We all have access to ...more
Are there commandments for novel writing? If there are, I want to submit these for consideration:
- Lists do not constitute atmosphere.
- Noting a man's actions does not constitute character development.
- Words need to have purpose, not just look fancy on paper.
We all have access to ...more

I've got to respect a Harvard-educated literary novelist who decides to defy expectations and write a zombie novel. I think that takes a lot of guts (bad pun, sorry) as well as brains (okay, I'll stop now.)
Colson Whitehead's Zone One follows the exploits of a protagonist known only by his nickname, Mark Spitz. To explain why he's called that would be to spoil some of the fun. In the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, the human survivors are attempting to reclaim the island of Manhattan. Marines ...more
Colson Whitehead's Zone One follows the exploits of a protagonist known only by his nickname, Mark Spitz. To explain why he's called that would be to spoil some of the fun. In the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, the human survivors are attempting to reclaim the island of Manhattan. Marines ...more

“The dead had paid their mortgages on time…graduated with admirable GPAs, configured monthly contributions to worthy causes, judiciously apportioned their 401(k)s…and superimposed the borders of the good school districts on mental maps of their neighborhood, which were often included on the long list when magazines ranked cities with the Best Quality of Life. In short, they had been honed and trained so thoroughly by that extinguished world that they were doomed in this new one.”
Zone One is full ...more
Zone One is full ...more

Oct 23, 2011
Francine
rated it
did not like it
Recommends it for:
People who love spaghetti zombie apocalypse novels that go absolutely nowhere
There is a reason I hate stream-of-consciousness novels. I can't follow it. I like my novels to travel down a path - it may veer off every now and then, and that's okay because those little detours may prove to be wonderful, terrifying, heart-stopping, mysterious or whatnot, but they are almost always revelatory. Sometimes immediately, sometimes long after the fact that you need to really remember and say "Oh yeah, I remember when that happened! Huh! That's what that meant." Either way, it doesn
...more

Does it ever seem to you like everything sucks? Not just your own life -- with its minor setbacks and Pyrrhic victories -- but the entire existence of mankind. You know, all of humanity? I think that sometimes. When I'm filling up my car with gas, for instance, and I see a guy wearing scarves as shoes. And then later that day, the person in front of me orders a coffee drink with more than two modifiers (half-caff and no foam and part-skim). Or whenever I accidentally listen to sports talk radio
...more

A powerful, thought provoking oddball of a book. How to even categorize it?
I suppose it is a thinking man's zombie novel, though it is lacking in the required skin-ripping, intestine-chomping, walking dead action that would hold most zombie aficionados' interest. The living ARE hunted by the dead, but Whitehead does not linger on the messy details.
A team arrives in New York City to clear out areas for possible reclaimation when the crisis has ended. The city looms large in this book, pulsating ...more
I suppose it is a thinking man's zombie novel, though it is lacking in the required skin-ripping, intestine-chomping, walking dead action that would hold most zombie aficionados' interest. The living ARE hunted by the dead, but Whitehead does not linger on the messy details.
A team arrives in New York City to clear out areas for possible reclaimation when the crisis has ended. The city looms large in this book, pulsating ...more

In an addendum to my original review, I initially gave this book three stars. Then I watched the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead, and it struck me that if a television show can display complex human emotion and interaction while simultaneously incorporating what is expected of the genre, this book should have been able to do the same thing. If you think that is ridiculous, so be it.
In the interest of full disclosure, Zone One is one of the books that beat out my novel, That Which Should N ...more
In the interest of full disclosure, Zone One is one of the books that beat out my novel, That Which Should N ...more

Don't believe the nags who say Whitehead over-writes or that Zone One is plotless: this is a rip-roaring, blood-curdling horror novel that will make you ache with laughter the one second and your toes curl the next.
Besides, one of the greatest features of the Kindle is the built-in dictionary, which means you don't you have to leave Post-it reminders all over pages to check out word meanings.
Zone One is also written in crystalline, incantatory prose so beautiful you will find yourself reading ch ...more
Besides, one of the greatest features of the Kindle is the built-in dictionary, which means you don't you have to leave Post-it reminders all over pages to check out word meanings.
Zone One is also written in crystalline, incantatory prose so beautiful you will find yourself reading ch ...more

Second Reading:
June 30 - July 4, 2013
We are studied in the old ways, and acolytes of what's to come.
I was a young teen when I first watched Romero's classic Night of the Living Dead. Watching with my two friends, we vocalized our response to the undead onslaught: advice on which windows needed better fortification, admonitions on how to deal best with the character that's losing his/her shit, and the most expedient way of dispatching a ghoul - all of the responses in no way unique to a typi ...more
We are studied in the old ways, and acolytes of what's to come.
I was a young teen when I first watched Romero's classic Night of the Living Dead. Watching with my two friends, we vocalized our response to the undead onslaught: advice on which windows needed better fortification, admonitions on how to deal best with the character that's losing his/her shit, and the most expedient way of dispatching a ghoul - all of the responses in no way unique to a typi ...more

The banality of zombie apocalypse, beautifully rendered. Reading this book was something like reading a book about housecleaning, if housecleaning were to have life-and-death consequences.

Below is the review, but I've also made it fight with another book at this site: http://www.adventuresinpoortaste.com/...
A pretty terrible experience. No, not a zombie outbreak, this book.
There are flashes of interesting in this book, but overall you just want to skip ahead. The book utilizes stream of consciousness to express the protagonist’s detachment from reality, which is interesting and a probable way of someone in a zombie apocalypse coping, but it's a horrible way to tell a story. Told ...more
A pretty terrible experience. No, not a zombie outbreak, this book.
There are flashes of interesting in this book, but overall you just want to skip ahead. The book utilizes stream of consciousness to express the protagonist’s detachment from reality, which is interesting and a probable way of someone in a zombie apocalypse coping, but it's a horrible way to tell a story. Told ...more

After reading this article in the New York Times, I had to try reading this. I mean, I love genre fiction and I have a degree in English Literature, so you'd better hope I've got the intellectual side down since that's about all my degree seems to be good for demonstrating... Surely I'd get the best of both worlds out of this.
And, you know, apparently that degree doesn't say a damn thing, because I just found Zone One boring. I read the first twenty-five pages rather hopefully; something about t ...more
And, you know, apparently that degree doesn't say a damn thing, because I just found Zone One boring. I read the first twenty-five pages rather hopefully; something about t ...more

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
As regular readers know, there's a special quirk to CCLaP's 10-point rating system that maybe a lot of other places don't have; that no matter how good a genre book like science-fiction or crime thriller actually is, in terms of sheer quality, it's not allowed to score in the 9s or above unless it somehow ...more
As regular readers know, there's a special quirk to CCLaP's 10-point rating system that maybe a lot of other places don't have; that no matter how good a genre book like science-fiction or crime thriller actually is, in terms of sheer quality, it's not allowed to score in the 9s or above unless it somehow ...more

The problem of this book is that it doesn't really know what it wants to be. Is it genre fiction? Literature? Social commentary? Speculative fiction?
It tries to be a bit of everything, but doesn't really succeed. What really brings it down is absolutely glacial pace, and almost complete lack of plot. Even the action scenes are narrated in a way reminding one's grandfather sitting in his old chair and lazily reminiscing about his war experiences and going on all these tangents in a way which only ...more
It tries to be a bit of everything, but doesn't really succeed. What really brings it down is absolutely glacial pace, and almost complete lack of plot. Even the action scenes are narrated in a way reminding one's grandfather sitting in his old chair and lazily reminiscing about his war experiences and going on all these tangents in a way which only ...more

I would usually never write a review for something I only read 25 pages of which is why I'm not rating this but I just had to say
I have a literal masters degree in literature and never in my life have I read something this pretentious I THOUGHT THIS WAS A ZOMBIE BOOK TF ?? ...more
I have a literal masters degree in literature and never in my life have I read something this pretentious I THOUGHT THIS WAS A ZOMBIE BOOK TF ?? ...more

Mar 22, 2012
Jenny (Reading Envy)
marked it as did-not-finish
I thought, okay, people keep saying this is a zombie book for people who don't like zombie books. I don't like zombie books. I got to the point where he is describing the zombies in the office building in detail based on how much dried blood and guts was on their bodies and where, and decided I don't even like zombie books that are for people who don't like zombie books.
...more

Word that Colson Whitehead was working on a zombie story spread through literary circles faster than a flesh-eating super virus. It sounded like another gift from the gods of Halloween, right up there with Justin Cronin’s decision to stop writing lovely, unread novels and give us a bang-up vampire saga .
Of course, we should have known that Whitehead, the 41-year-old MacArthur Foundation “genius,” wouldn’t do the zombie walk in lock step with George Romero, but what’s most surprising about “Zone ...more
Of course, we should have known that Whitehead, the 41-year-old MacArthur Foundation “genius,” wouldn’t do the zombie walk in lock step with George Romero, but what’s most surprising about “Zone ...more

I read this for the "Diverse Voices" square. "Zone One" by Colson Whitehead. Whitehead is an African American author. I read one other book by him "The Underground Railroad" and decided that if that book was fantastic, this would be too. Unfortunately that wasn't true. This book was divided into three parts and the only part that became mildly interesting was the "Saturday" section. "Sunday" was the shortest and for that I'm thankful. Though the writing was top notch, the flow was off and I was
...more

"Manhattan was the biggest version of everywhere."
"Up and down the island the buildings collided, they humiliated runts through verticality and ambition, sulked in one another's shadows. Inevitability was mayor, term after term."
This is a New York book: you can tell by how much shit it talks about Connecticut. (Abominable Connecticut; abhorrent Connecticut. Accursed, repulsive, maddening, degenerate Connecticut with its pustulant hordes, Bad News, repugnant, loathsome, mephitic fucking Connectic ...more
"Up and down the island the buildings collided, they humiliated runts through verticality and ambition, sulked in one another's shadows. Inevitability was mayor, term after term."
This is a New York book: you can tell by how much shit it talks about Connecticut. (Abominable Connecticut; abhorrent Connecticut. Accursed, repulsive, maddening, degenerate Connecticut with its pustulant hordes, Bad News, repugnant, loathsome, mephitic fucking Connectic ...more
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Literally Dead Bo...: Zone One - part three | 21 | 374 | Aug 18, 2020 01:40PM | |
Literally Dead Bo...: Zone One - part two | 11 | 263 | Jul 31, 2020 09:25PM | |
Literally Dead Bo...: Zone One - part one | 36 | 518 | Jul 31, 2020 04:52PM | |
Zone One by Colson Whitehead | 1 | 3 | Jul 30, 2020 09:03AM | |
Flights of Fantasy: October 2019: Zone One by Colson Whitehead | 34 | 22 | Oct 30, 2019 11:33AM | |
Anyone else love this book? | 13 | 110 | Dec 16, 2016 09:57PM |
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I'm the author of the novels Zone One; Sag Harbor; The Intuitionist, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway award; John Henry Days, which won the Young Lions Fiction Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; and Apex Hides the Hurt, winner of the PEN Oakland Award. I've also written a book of essays about my home town, The Colossus of New York, and a non-fiction ac
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4 trivia questions
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“We never see other people anyway, only the monsters we make of them.”
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“A society manufactures the heroes it requires.”
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