A Book Review: World War Z by Max Brooks

“Fear,” he used to say, “fear is the most valuable commodity in the universe.” That blew me away. “Turn on the TV,” he’d say. “What are you seeing? People selling their products? No. People selling the fear of you having to live without their products.” Fuckin’ A, was he right. Fear of aging, fear of loneliness, fear of poverty, fear of failure. Fear is the most basic emotion we have. Fear is primal. Fear sells. That was my mantra. “Fear sells.”

                                                       - Max Brooks, World War Z

World War Z is a great example of why some books can never be adapted into movies properly. Furmore, this book is also the proof that people who don't read but only watch TV and movies are missing out, big time. If your impression of World War Z is based on the Brad Pitt movie, then scrap it, because the source material is not an action adventure story found in the Hollywood blockbuster. No, the book is so much more than movie.

This book is as original as it is ambitious. It reads like non-fiction, told in the form of a compilation of interviews. In this book, the readers followed an agent of the United Nations Postwar Commission (named Max Brooks), as he travelled around the world and interviewing the survivors of a "world war" against the zombies. The zombies, were the human victims of a viral outbreak, but the origin of the virus remained unknown. However, the official patient zero was found in a remote village in China, where the virus spread to the rest of the world through human trafficking, refugees, and black market organ trade.

This book is divided into 4 sections: 1) before the viral outbreak, 2) the mass panic during the viral outbreak, 3) the world war against the zombies, and finally, 4) the aftermath of the great war. In this book, Max Brooks interviewed no less than 100 people from all over the world, and they are from all walks of life; including a Chinese doctor, a Central Asian refugee, a Mossad agent from Israel, a Russian priest, a pharmaceutical tycoon from the US etc... The book has a very big international cast, and the scope is ambitious and breathtaking. When I was reading this book, it made me feel as if I was watching a documentary program about history. Normally I don't associate the zombie genre with realism, but this book felt real, like something that could, and had already, happened.

But how can a story about zombies feel "real"?

When I started this book I was expecting a "zombie horror story". 20 pages into the book, however, it defied my expectations. I was surprised to discover that zombies made very little appearances in the book. Instead, I realized this book was actually about geopolitics, and it explored themes such as survivalism, fear, and uncertainty.

I will briefly discuss each theme:

Geopolitics:

I particularly enjoyed reading about the geopolitics in this book. The many scenarios in this book are grounded on the real geopolitical history in our world. For example, at the onset of the viral outbreak, the Chinese government attempted to cover up the news, by escalating the tensions across the Taiwanese strait and then diverting the media attention to it instead. This is not a far fetched scenario, considering the Beijing government does have a history of media censorship, and they are still threatening to invade Taiwan. Furthermore, the book also explored how the Three Gorges Dam became China's Achilles Heel during the zombie war. Another example is that during the viral outbreak, Israel built a great wall to block out the infected victims and the zombies, but they also accepted Palestinian refugees on the basis that every human being saved is one less zombie to fight. However, the young, zealous Palestinians were suspicious of the Israeli government, and they thought the refugee policy was a trick to lure Palestinians into concentration camps. Meanwhile, a civil war broke out in Israel because the Zionists thought their government betrayed Israel by taking in the Palestinian refugees. These are just some examples of the geopolitics in the book, there are many others, such as in Russia, Mexico, Cuba, the Korean peninsula, Japan, so on and so forth. As I said, the scope of this book is breathtaking and ambitious, almost every nation has her own shining moment in the book.

Fear and uncertainty:

This book also explored themes such as fear and uncertainty. It highlighted how fear and uncertainty underpin the principles for our society and economy. Here is an example, at the onset of the viral outbreak, the US retreated into isolation, where the pharmaceutical companies and the government reached an agreement to produce and sell the placebo vaccine to the public. This way, the government could prevent an outbreak of mass hysteria, while the pharmaceutical companies can rip sizeable profits. However, this cover up eventually blew up, because the news got out that the vaccine was placebo and there is no cure to the zombie virus. What followed was a mass panic and a total break down of the society.

Survialism:

World War Z is primarily a war about how mankind survived an extinction event. Whenever survival is concerned, things often tread in the grey areas of morality. For example, in this book, at the onset of the zombie war, humanity was losing every battle. Mankind's salvation finally arrived with the "South African plan", which saved humanity from total extinction. What was this plan? It was similar to the scorched earth strategy used by the military. Except that in scorched earth strategy, you sacrifice the lands and resources, but in the "South African plan", you sacrifice masses of people to the invading zombie hordes while some people retreat and survive, thus our species can continue. This part of the book was particularly interesting, because it pushed the boundary of morality – when facing an extinction event, what is more important? The survival and the continuation of our species? Or is upholding our much treasured egalitarian value more important?

The above descriptions are just giving you a taste for this book, but there is a lot more to say about it, and I am unable to discuss the full scope of the book in a single book review. It would suffice to say this book narrated how (almost) every nation in the world dealt with the zombie virus, each according to its own cultural, social, and geological history. World War Z is fictional, but this book made me feel as I was reading history. The geopolitics and the themes in this book both feel real and authentic. On the surface, the book is about projections of "what could happen" if such a global pandemic does break out, but at its heart it is a commentary about our world and the nature of society. World War Z sent a shiver down my spine, and it is not because of the zombies, but because some of the things mentioned in this book are actually happening in our world today. This is the most interesting book I have read this year. It is thought-provoking. I highly recommend it to my fellow readers.