When is a bandwagon no longer a bandwagon? How about when a genuine author comes along, takes his place and kicks the crap back into the street? The best I can tell from my own reading is that would leave three writers whose insight goes deeper than the mechanics of killing the undead. The third, of course, is zombie newcomer Colson Whitehead. The rest of the wannabes should grab a broom and start sweeping the street.
It takes some nerve to approach such a trendy subject, but Whitehead has penetrated to its heart and brought back a novel that resonates on many fronts. May I blushingly suggest that in the course of 259 pages he has found the true appeal of the zombie storyline, and it completely dovetails with my own? Of course, I’ve only stumbled through a few incoherent emails, while Whitehead has unerringly written a novel both graceful and frightening in its depths.
Mark Spitz is the main character of the narrative. A determinedly average person from an ordinary middle-class family, he has thus far survived the zombie apocalypse, and is now engaged in an overwhelming volunteer task. He and thousands of other civilians are assigned to clear New York, building by building, of the undead. The professional military has already conducted the massive operations that eliminated the majority of the zombie hordes, and it is now up to Mark Spitz and his two partners to join in the mopping up so that “Zone One” can begin rebuilding. Manhattan still attracts the ambitious and hungry (mostly hungry), but military barricades and crematoria work 24 hours a day to deal with that external threat.
Of course we learn more about Mark Spitz as the story progresses—his life before the plague, his initial discovery of the threat, his own flight from shelter to shelter, the source of his nom-de-guerre. He is such an ordinary person that we come to completely identify with him, but even there Colson manages to surprise us. One aspect of Mark Spitz’s personality we especially adopt for ourselves is his certainty that he is destined to survive. Who among us doesn’t think that we’ll be exempt from the pandemic, the asteroid crash, the accidental nuclear war? Death is always for other people.
Where Max Brooks assembled first-person narratives, Whitehead goes deeper into the psychology of a survivor whose internal life reveals far more than the spoken word ever could. We see how he divides other living humans into classes based on their chances, and treats them accordingly; we see what little remains of his survivor’s guilt, and we see the hope in others that he ruthlessly suppresses in himself.
But I read all of this as an extended metaphor. Mark Spitz withheld almost all of himself from others even before survival made that necessary. He had a distaste for people that didn’t quite rise to the level of misanthropy, tolerating a few for the company or opportunities they provided while he went about his self-centered life. Don’t we all do that? Don’t we all reveal only the portions of ourselves that we want others to see? Sure, the closer they are the more we reveal, but even our inmost thoughts are ours alone, dismal as that may sound. The zombie apocalypse gives perfect cover to anyone who doesn’t want to feel guilty about withholding themselves.
My own thoughts about the literary zombie trend? It’s about The Other. We live in a world that is so fractured by ethnic, linguistic, national, class, and political divisions that it would take a saint not to create groups of Us and Them. The zombie narrative cuts through that Gordian knot. We are alive. They are dead. No matter how viciously we the living may have treated each other before, now we represent possibly the best way to guarantee our own survival. And when it comes down to that, I’m going to sacrifice You for Me. So be it.
I’ve tried not to reveal much of the story because I want to leave the reading of this terrific novel to you. I would, however, appreciate hearing your thoughts on the last few paragraphs.
Check the WRL catalog for Zone One
Great review. I’ll offer the counterpoint . . .
http://brettjtalley.com/my-book-reviews/zone-one/
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Hi Brett,
Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner.
I take your point about the zombie novel being interpreted as a criticism of middle class banality. I do think Whitehead crawls inside the heads of people who choose banality as a defense against the vulnerability of opening oneself completely for the judgement of others. Even people who make their living putting it all on the line as performers or artists or novelists demand a little room for privacy. Heck, even Lady Gaga must have someplace she won’t go for attention. (And as for Michael Phelps, we saw what happens when a star tries for an ordinary life.)
The multi-page zombie attack made sense to me – it’s amazing what the mind will pick up on when undergoing an extreme crisis. Those thoughts flashed through Mark Spitz’s head in the microseconds it took for the attack to materialize and end. Finding a way to capture that dichotomy between physical and mental chaos can’t be done in the space someone like Mack Bolen would use to kill a dozen people, and post-attack reflection on the lives-that-used-to-be would be like putting neon arrows around his point. It’s a fine balancing act and I think Whitehead made the right choice. That the scene also introduces us to the Whitehead phenomenon of the inert zombie – which will play itself out as the novel heads to a climax – is a bonus.
Anyway, I appreciate your thoughtful criticism, and look forward to coming back to read more.
I was a little bit disappointed with the ending, to be honest. Whitehead kept hinting at something changing with the zombies, and I thought the end was going to have him revealing some big twist, rather than just the question of whether Mark Spitz makes it through or not. Although I suppose that is kind of a twist in itself, given Mark Spitz’s assurance that he was the optimised to survive the apocalypse. It just didn’t really leave an impact on me, which was kind of a let down considering how well-thought out and interesting the rest of the novel was.
I think the twist with the zombies was that shift from the inert to the reactivated stage. Spitz seemed relieved that not all were mobile and threatening; suddenly there was a whole new population behind their backs that had to be dealt with. The purpose of Zone One aside, it was further evidence that they had a long way to go before turning that World War Z corner.