World War Z by Max Brooks

Wiki zombie attack!

I've been eyeing World War Z on the shelves for some time now, before I took the plunge earlier this month. My initial thoughts were: "How can zombies make for interesting and thought-provoking reading?"

Well, these thoughts were banished once I got into the novel, which is told from short interviews of various survivors of the worldwide zombie war - these were interviews from soldiers, generals, politicians, guns-for-hire, your average joe, doctors, the list goes on.

And that's what made the story so realistic (to the point I had quite a few funky dreams of zombies). By telling the story as an oral history of the zombie war, Brooks manages to take zombies, which are (mostly) fictional and incredulous, and make them chillingly believable. As the interviewees recount their fears, their actions; the mass panics and sacrifices; how they survived; and how naive and inept governments worsened the crisis - I felt that this was not only the author's commentary on issues that face the world today, I could also imagine that people and governments would react that way should such a crisis occur.

7 out of 10 zombielicious brains.

"Revolutionary Road" by Richard Yates

I was first introduced to the "American Dream" theme as a student studying for my A'levels (yes, that's how long ago!). My prescribed reads were, "The Great Gatsby" and "Catcher in the Rye".

Then, I thought that I hated the genre/theme because I had to prepare for it as an exam. In dissecting the emptiness of the American dream, there was a sense that the American Dream was a chimera, and it inevitably led to desolation, loss and despair.

After school became a thing of the past, I picked up novels that carried the American Dream theme from time to time. I discovered that notwithstanding the absence of the exam mallet that figuratively hung above me, I still found such books a depressing read.

"Revolutionary Road" is no different, but I think it transcends the genre. That said, it is no less sad, in its ability to draw out the loneliness of the Wheelers, the tragedy that percolates through their everyday lives. It is my first time reading Yates, but I thought he did a fine job putting through a cast of characters that are all living in their own tragic worlds.

The Wheelers live a lie, one that started with April Wheeler saying how much she admired Frank and ended up in a tragedy of a botched abortion and death for April. Frank grew up believing that he is destined for bigger things but never daring to take the leap. Touched by April's tragedy he finally becomes the very person he abhors: a boring salaryman in pursuit of professional success.

I think the only character that is true to himself would be the Givings' son, the man deemed "mad" and confined in a psychiatric hospital. IMO I think he is the person that tore off the last veil of delusion in the Wheelers' life, sparking off the start of the tragedy.

Wiki on plot.

Geek rating: 4 out of 5