Zone One in Around the World in 80 Books

Sep 12, 2016 Nadine in NY Jones rated it really liked it

Shelves: dystopian-and-post-apocalyptic, zombies, wouldnt-normally-read, nyc, literary-schmiterary

This is what he had learned: If you weren't concentrating on how to survive the next five minutes, you wouldn't survive them.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

This story is the exact opposite of linear. If you can picture the story as a long piece of string, Whitehead smooshed the string into a snarled pile, snipped it in a few places, and then smooshed it together again. I confess I skimmed a few times, because jesuschrist could we get back to the story?? (I also confess that I had to look up "an

This is what he had learned: If you weren't concentrating on how to survive the next five minutes, you wouldn't survive them.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

This story is the exact opposite of linear. If you can picture the story as a long piece of string, Whitehead smooshed the string into a snarled pile, snipped it in a few places, and then smooshed it together again. I confess I skimmed a few times, because jesuschrist could we get back to the story?? (I also confess that I had to look up "anodyne" - he uses it several times, and that is just one of the words I can never remember. I have trouble with "solipsism" too ... but that's not important right now. Other than that one word, I didn't find this particularly difficult to read, just dense.)

I guess Whitehead is less interested in talking about the world infested with zombies, and more interested in describing how completely fucked up the survivors would be. Our Mark Spitz (so nicknamed because (view spoiler) {it's not really a spoiler, I just tagged it in case someone wants to wait until page 147 to find out, which seemed pointless to me to be coy about it, but that was Whitehead's choice to write it like that}), our Mark Spitz is living within his own skull, he's barely registering the things going on around him. He is not present in the present.

He had been here before and not been here before. ... He had been here in other lives that were now pushing into this one. He pressed his forehead against the glass and gazed down upon himself: a five year old lump of boy-matter; the slovenly tangle of him at sixteen; some vague creature attending his parents' thirtieth ... He felt like a little kid who'd split for the restroom and then forgot where his parents were sitting. .. An elemental horror roiled in his skull and he swiveled his head, sweeping his light across the darkness and dust. Search as he might, this time he was not going to find them.

He was a ghost. A straggler.

It's unclear how many years have passed since the zombie uprising, but it seems like quite a few. I liked the ambiguity. And I like how our first hint of doom is as subtle as the quiet footfall of an approaching zombie, sans cliche moan. Just as I was lulled into thinking nothing was ever going to happen. What was that? Oh, probably nothing.. And then, nothing. For a long time, nothing.

I like that we're never told why the national government has moved to Buffalo, NY (BUFFALO?? Buffalo is so boring! I like it!) - I read another zombie book in which the zombies go dormant in the snow, so maybe that's the appeal. I was amused at how much Mark Spitz (and, one assumes, Colson Whitehead) absolutely loathes Connecticut, no reason ever given. I was highly annoyed that we had to wait until page one hundred forty fucking seven until we find out why he's nicknamed Mark Spitz - there was no reason to withhold that information. But I guess Whitehead thought there was no reason to give it either. Or he's just giving us a better taste of the vague rootlessness that seems to afflict everyone in his maybe-brave new world. No one knows why that's your name, no one cares, just shoot the next zombie for me would you? and do you have a spare juicebox I can drink?

This is the world we might have at the end of World War Z: when the zombies have been contained, but not yet eliminated; when the world is in tatters and a government is reforming; when our loved ones are dead; when all the survivors are shell shocked beyond the capacity for rational thought. This is what we would have left. Maybe.

Although I enjoyed this reading experience, I'm not sure if I'll pick up another book by Whitehead. There are too many tangents in the narrative, too many extra details that I didn't need; it smacks of hubris for the author to think we all need to wade through this mental spew. I like a sparer text. YMMV, of course. ...more

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Aug 27, 2011 Tony rated it it was amazing

Shelves: novels, own-loanable, speculative-fiction, setting-nyc

Where to begin? I suppose I should start by saying that while I come from that tribe of geeks that love all things zombie-related (films, comics, videogames, boardgames, etc.), I ran out of enthusiasm for the genre a few years ago. The template for the zombie story is just too confining, there's not that much new or different to be done with it. However, despite this weariness for the genre, I immediately picked this up because it was a Colson Whitehead book. He's one of the few authors whom I w Where to begin? I suppose I should start by saying that while I come from that tribe of geeks that love all things zombie-related (films, comics, videogames, boardgames, etc.), I ran out of enthusiasm for the genre a few years ago. The template for the zombie story is just too confining, there's not that much new or different to be done with it. However, despite this weariness for the genre, I immediately picked this up because it was a Colson Whitehead book. He's one of the few authors whom I will actually rush out to buy (others include Michael Chabon, Nick Hornby, and George Pelecanos, just to name a few -- Jonathan Lethem used to be on the list, but no longer). That said, my experience with his books has been a slow slide of diminishing returns: I loved (and still love) his debut The Intuitionist, his second book (John Henry Days) is flawed but still fully engaging, the third book (Apex Hides the Hurt) felt like a slight trifle, and his most recent book (Sag Harbor) was just too personal for me to connect with. However, this is an excellent book in which Whitehead combines his controlled freestyling prose with the hard, bleak tone of Cormac McCarthy's The Road or No Country For Old Men, in order to document the downfall of his beloved Manhattan, and indeed, the American empire. Many people (including the publicist who wrote the back cover copy) seem to be mistakenly using the word "satire" to describe the book -- it's not a satire, it's a scathing, raging critique of modern America.

Don't pick this up expecting a literary "take" on the zombie action thriller, a few scenes aside, there isn't much action. The bulk of the book takes place inside the protagonist's head, as he trudges around a mostly-safe part of Manhattan as part of a three-person militia unit "sweeping" the blocks for stray zombies the Marines missed when they secured this part of the island. As they clear Manhattan for the impending resettlement, he mentally documents the pre-"Last Night" world and its ridiculous concerns, ranging from consumer items to real estate to sitcoms, and so on. There are plenty of flashbacks to his year on the run in the wilderness, and we get plenty of stories from other characters about where they were when it all came crashing down. These provide the necessary "what would I do" moments which are integral to the zombie genre (and many other horror genres for that matter), but make no mistake, this book is only headed to one place. There's only three ways a zombie story can end, good, bad, or setup for the sequel, and I'm not spoiling anything by telling you that Whitehead is not interested in building any suspense, because every so often he'll slip in a direct statement that tells you it's not going to end well. The book is told from the perspective of a Sunday, and the "action" mainly unfolds over the previous two days, with lots of flashbacks to earlier times. I suppose this flashback within a flashback chronology might be confusing to some people, but I never had a problem with it.

It's nothing new to use genre forms to tell allegorical tales, and American materialism has been skewered by the zombie-maestro himself, George Romero, in Dawn of the Dead. But the sheer skill at work here makes this well worth reading, whether you're a zombie enthusiast, a fan of Whitehead's, or just a lover of interesting fiction. ...more

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Jul 29, 2017 Julie rated it really liked it

Wow! I had no idea that a book about Zombies could be so poetic, so exquisitely written. And how fabulous to be landing in NYC as I finished the story. Amazing!

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Jun 12, 2020 Madeleine rated it it was ok

Shelves: dire-reading-circumstances, speculative-fiction, actually-those-are-zombies, read-widely-list

Every few years I intentionally read a zombie book to make sure I still don't like zombie books. This is a good zombie book, but I still don't like zombie books. If you like zombie books, you will probably like this zombie book. ...more

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