Zone One

I thoroughly enjoyed Zone One from cover to cover. Technically first button to last button since I read it on my Kindle. Having said that, I knew what to expect before purchasing it in the first. I first heard about it via author Glen Duncan's review in the New York Times' Sunday Book Review (Oct 28, 2011) then the wide variety of opinions noted here on Amazon. Also, I checked out some of the responses to Duncan's review posted online. Mr. Duncan later had a follow-up to his review which appeared in the Times' Arts section (Nov 17, 2011) in order to address the polarizing reaction to the review. Had I still been on the fence about buying the book, the wide variety of opinions, including another author posting a written response to his own review, would certainly have pushed me over the edge.Don't buy this book if you are looking for standard when-zombies-attack material. I am not trying to make it sound like I am thumbing my nose at that genre. Nothing could be further from the truth. A good story is a good story. I am always open to checking out a well-written zombie or vampire story. I can also appreciate the other extreme. As a side note, I have spent way too much of my time over the past couple weeks trying to figure out which translation of the Iliad to purchase. You have to have some appreciation of both horror and literary writing in order to enjoy this book. There are moments that would be right at home in any horror tale. At the same time, I was using the Kindle's built-in dictionary on a regular basis.I would not even say that the zombies, or I guess I should say infected, are really the cornerstone of Zone One. The zombie apocalypse and continued mass infections would be better described as part of the setting for the story. This is not a tale about life on the run from a zombie horde. The novel is a reflection on a way of life that for better or worse is gone and not coming back. This includes the narrator reflecting back on his own life as well as how other characters respond to the catastrophic loss that has occurred. The moods and various reactions are covered both in the immediate aftermath of the disaster and the attempts at reconstruction.Obviously I would recommend this book. Just not to everyone.

This is an interesting but complicated read. The author is obviously talented and very intelligent, which is both good and bad. The good is that the story is challenging and engaging. It is written with enough detail that one becomes interested and invested in the main character, dubbed "Mark Spitz" by fellow survivors, and his current place in this universe as well as his harrowing back story. But the bad is that the author uses such a wide vocabulary that I found myself having to look up word meaning often as I read. Thank goodness Kindle has a ready dictionary at hand. My other issue was that the story jumped from "Mark's" present to memories and back with little warning. I got lost at times, especially if I had to interrupt my reading for something and then come back to it. It was a bit disorienting. For this reason it lost one star in the rating. The book is also basically one very long (as in the majority of the book) chapter and one chapter less in length. By the end the reader does get a full sense of just who this man is, his motivations, his cynicism at this point, and also the very, very bleak outlook most of the characters around him have. I recommend this book for those who like a challenging read and a break from the usual mindless drivel of most horror fiction. And this is really so much more than just horror fiction. Rather than insisting the reader come down to the level of the story, Mr. Whitehead insists the reader come up to the level of the fiction, which is a nice change of pace.

Colson Whitehead's Zone One is a loving tribute to the last forty years of zombie related popular culture, and the author positions it in such a way that his influences (largely horror filmmakers like Romero and Carpenter) are instantly apparent to the reader. This is when the novel is at its best. Whitehead is capable of painting a vivid picture of the zombie apocalypse and the fundamental ways that once the world descends into survival mode it can never truly go back. This B-movie influence also means that Zone One is filled with the same societal critiques leveled by horror directors like Romero thirty years ago. Unfortunately, ironic jabs at consumerism don't really hold the same weight in 2011, particularly when the cynical reader might interpret Zone One as a cash-in of its own, considering the current commercial landscape surrounding the zombie phenomenon.Heavy-handed Romero regurgitation aside, Zone One tends to suffer from a pacing that is almost unforgivable in the kind of genre story that it's attempting to tell. The novel's 260 pages takes place over the course of three days in New York, supplemented with copious flashbacks to the protagonist, Mark Spitz's, efforts to survive following the Last Night. Nothing really happens until the final thirty pages. Then things kind of happen. Quickly and vaguely. The audience that this novel is aiming at, the hardcore horror enthusiast, will find not only nothing new in Zone One, but nothing new at an alarmingly slow pace.It's left straddling the line between a "literary" novel and a "genre" novel, but it doesn't quite do either satisfactorily. It has some very pretty description and excellent atmosphere. Even the characters are often engaging, though they tend to feel frozen in time in a way that continues to highlight the disappointing pacing. In the end, though, the novel ends up in most sections being boring. And say what you will about zombies, they are not supposed to be boring.

A brilliant take on the zombie apocalypse. Not an easy read - you need to pay attention as the narrative weaves its complex web - but intelligent, thought-provoking, and gripping. Despite its literary chops it’s as action-packed, breathless, and gore-drenched as any of its pulp brethren. Couldn’t put it down...

Très bon livre, comme la plupart des œuvres de Colson Whitehead, notamment The Colossus of New York ou encore Sag harbor. Sa technique vous piège dans le temps et dans une réalité de New York très intéressante qui met en relief la question de l'identité et de la culture (new yorkaise ici )

Really enjoyed this tale! I saw a review that critiqued that it was written with a thesaurus at hand, but I think that's a pretty weak criticism - it's just not a typical low-brow monosyllabic dumbed-down zombie story. What's wrong with that? NOTHING. If you want easy and dumb, go read a comic.(And if you read it on a kindle, like I did, well just tap that obscure word you're not quite sure of and ¡POW! : dictionarise that sucka!! 😉 I like to do that anyway on some words just to learn their provenance/derivation).But I digress... this reminded me of a very strange hybrid of Daniel Wilson's Robopocalypse (recommended) and Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities (utterly hilariously amazing); it's equal parts grunt-squad-fight-their-mission and a social commentary on the hollowness of modern acquisitive capitalism, with a dash of On The Road's journey of self-discovery through the great American wastes.When you've lost everything, you utterly re-evaluate what is that you need to survive. And it ain't a new ottoman.Will definitely trawl the author's back catalogue to see what's on offer. Five stars and copious thanks to Colson for elevating the genre!Ps major props for quoting Public Enemy's Welcome to the Terrordome - the 1st time that's ever happened in a novel I've read!👍

Really excellent book. If you ever got to the end of a disaster story and thought, "Then what happened?", this is the book for you. I always want to know about the rebuilding more than the destruction.The characters are intriguing and deeply real. The story itself is compelling. Don't read this book while trying to fall asleep unless you want to sit up all night reading and be late for work the next day.

Living in zombie world is tough, and reading this book you get that. It's grim, violent, sad, but the survivors might get through. Just keep going, you've got to keep gioing! Seriously, a good take on the genre. Not great, but good.