Zone One

The SF Book Discussion group met November 6th and discussed the Colson Whitehead book Zone One. If we had only known, we could have included this book in our 2012 series of apocalyptic science fiction reads! Personally, I was extremely impressed with the writing and think this must be the most literary zombie apocalypse book out there. Whitehead has a great way with words and uses his command of the language to great effect.

Unlike most apocalypse-themed books where mankind is struggling to rebuild, I never had the feeling that the stubborn tenacity of mankind might prevail. Rather, I had this feeling of impending doom. A sense that rather than being salvageable, human civilization itself had become infected and would be better off if someone shot it in the head like any other skel.

As an added bonus, Whitehead introduces the concept of PASD - Post Apocalyptic Stress Disorder. This is why I would have loved to have finished our series of apocalyptic books back in 2012 with this one - then we would have understood, I think, why we all sort of felt the way we did after reading so many depressing, world-destroying books! We were suffering the stresses of surviving the apocalypse.

Silliness aside, I highly recommend this book EVEN IF zombies are not your thing. I think the other members of our discussion group would say something similar. Whitehead's writing makes it worth the effort.