Sunday, July 27, 2014

World War Z by Max Brooks

World War Z is actually something that I read last summer. At the time, I felt too embarrassed to actually review it, after all it is a dime-a-dozen zombie thriller with a depressing cast of stereotyped characters and little common sense. The most awkward part? I actually liked it back then. In order to determine if it was only a passing craze brought on by living in Vancouver (and oh I miss that place) or actually a decent piece of fiction, I decided to give it another go.

This time the feelings were not so favourable, but overall World War Z is not bad. The author’s vision for a zombie apocalypse is enticing and draws on so many aspects of the global, modern society that it feels (to the degree that a silly zombie book can) plausible. Nations act like they just might in the event of a real conflict. Israel quarantines itself, China denies everything and the USA fails to see the pattern until it is too late. The tales draw heavily on modern political action, which does give the tale some much needed heft.

However, there is no getting around the fact that the overall premise is utter baloney. So many times, I had to skip over a section that felt ridiculous or skim through a chapter that I remembered from last summer. Nothing here is worth reading twice, unless you are once again bored on your summer vacation. There just isn’t that much thematic depth to warrant a reread.


But as I said before, it is in no way a bad effort. World War Z is the only zombie book that I will ever read, and I imagine most of the others to be at least somewhat inferior to this one. World War Z is a comprehensive, imaginative take on what would happen if the dead reanimated and started craving living tissue to eat. For me, however, the “if” in the previous sentence is just too big an obstacle to ever find this book reasonable.

Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut

The other day, as the film version of Slaughterhouse Five was playing on television, I realized that there is something inherently human and timeless to all of Vonnegut’s work. Cat’s Cradle, The Sirens of Titan and Slaughterhouse Five are all stories that still make perfect sense. "People err", "love thy neighbour" and “Why are we here?” are all powerful topics worthy of inquiry.  And so it is with Jailbird, a touching look at the follies of capitalism and life in general.

Walter Starbuck is a minor criminal implicated in the Watergate scandal and Jailbird is the story of his first day out of prison. Of course, this is Vonnegut, and as Vonnegut always demanded, there is a an autobiographical prologue, references to familiar characters from his other works and a semi-linear structure. Kilgore Trout is once again introduced and quickly discarded, but this time he is the pen name of an inmate not a character per se.

As with many of Vonnegut’s later novels, the ending to the story is versed in small scoops throughout the narrative so that it carries a sort of heft and inevitability. It is a beautifully crafted piece of literature and I kept wondering, how Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five typically receive most of the praise, when Jailbird is genuinely this good. No matter, the two aforementioned novels aren’t bad either and, in fact, I look forward to rereading the whole bunch in just a few weeks.


All in all, there is a lot to love about Jailbird. It succeeds on so many levels that I feel like rereading it immediately. It is a story that comes full circle at the end and, for me at least, inspired some soul searching. Nothing serious, mind you, but it does come after your heart from so many angles that it is difficult not to feel a little moved.