This was a Booklover's Page-a-day recommendation from a few years ago. I liked the idea enough to put it on my Amazon list and it sat there until now. I wasn't sure what to expect besides, like, you know, zombies. But I like zombies so ok, let's give it a go. Plus I didn't realize that Brad Pitt was turning it into a movie.
Brooks tells the story from an oral history perspective. His unnamed narrator travels the globe collecting first hand survivor accounts. I expected this book to be funny. It wasn't. It's serious and that surprised me. Once you except the basic premise that some unknown factor caused people to become zombies, it becomes about the survival of the human race. Brooks starts with a survivor from the "ground zero" city in China and follows through to survivors at the end of the "war". His survivors include the whole range of people from government workers, to soliders, to families. One particularly awful person was a drug company president who developed and marketed a vaccine for rabies while being fully aware that the problem was not rabies.
I found this book to be more of a cautionary tale. It felt real. Like this is a place we, the human race could end up. There is a section were a general talks about the useful skills needed after an apocalypse. Not the lawyer, or the ad executive, or the sports figures, but the plumbers, the carpentars and the farmers. I remember telling my mom that assuming we lived through the attack my dad would be highly valued for his skill set. The actions and reactions to situations rang true for me. Congratulations to Brooks he did a great job. It took me a while to finish this book. In fact I finished two other books while reading this one. Part of that comes the non-linear format, but part comes from the need to set the darkness aside. I'm glad I read it and do recommend it. In all honesty though, I'm not sure how Brad Pitt's going to make a movie out of it.
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