World War Z - An Oral History of the Zombie War
By: Max Brooks

Reviewed by Bryan Richardson

Let’s just start this off by saying that as a misanthrope and an avid fan of the zombie genre, it took me about 3.2 seconds to decide that this book was worth perusing while I took a dump at Borders. Written as a documentary, it does a great job illuminating humanity’s struggle to survive against hungry corpses.

On a side note, the author is the son of actor Mel Brooks. If you find it hard to believe that the son of that great thespian could write such drivel, think again. I’m sure Mel cries himself to sleep every night wondering if the Brooks name can ever be taken seriously again. What does the author’s pedigree bring to the table? Who cares.

Max Brooks originally authored “The Zombie Survival Guide” - a must-read for those of us who, at 3 a.m., dwell upon the remote possibility of a zombie home invasion, only to laugh it off the next day, then spend the following night again in sleepless terror. This guide provides helpful information on weapons, siege tactics and how to recognize and differentiate a class-two zombie horde from the American Idol audition queue. If you are thinking that this is stupid and that zombies don’t exist, you just haven’t been paying close enough attention. Were the recent May Day protests about immigrant rights or was it an undead horde looking for a meal? Are the periodic occurrences of civil unrest really Class-3 outbreaks? Are DMV employees captured zombies being used for slave labor? At any rate, the guide was little more that a novelty until Mr. Brooks fleshed things out with his novel “World War Z."

“World War Z - An Oral History of The Zombie War,” is a collection of stories compiled by the author from the survivors of the war. The diversity of the survivors prevents this book from becoming boring by continually illuminating the Zombie War from a unique viewpoint. These viewpoints flow smoothly together to chronicle the war and provide answers to questions such as:

1. Can humans and zombies ever learn to get along?

2. Can zombies swim?

3. Who is dumber - our government or the zombies?

4. How long does it take France to surrender?

5. Do zombies attack each other?

6. Can you pull a “Shawn of the Dead” and get away with pretending to be a zombie?

7. If you are starving and resort to cannibalism, are you any different from “them?”

8. And most importantly: what happens to our beloved celebrities during a zombie war?

The novel is a must for fans of the genre. The author, being a fan of Romero’s work, adds the social commentary prevalent in the Holy Trilogy (face it, the fourth one sucked). Delving into the problem of our unskilled, disposable society, he explains that in the event of a worldwide apocalypse, one would likely find that the class system of the survivors would be the opposite of what it is today. Society has developed to the point that most people no longer have basic survival skills such as working with tools for building and repairing, sewing, cooking, and cleaning (not vacuuming dumb-ass, we’re talking about skinning a carcass or field stripping a rifle). In a world gone mad, people with those skills would be valuable and those of us who specialize in Excel spreadsheets would be dinner.

If you are too lazy to read a book, don’t worry it’s available on audio tape as well…fat ass. Another incentive to read this book is that Hollywood is making it into a movie next year and after they ruin it, you will hardly want to read the book. So go ahead and wait for the movie, tubby.

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