Melki's Reviews > Zone One

A powerful, thought provoking oddball of a book. How to even categorize it?

I suppose it is a thinking man's zombie novel, though it is lacking in the required skin-ripping, intestine-chomping, walking dead action that would hold most zombie aficionados' interest. The living ARE hunted by the dead, but Whitehead does not linger on the messy details.

A team arrives in New York City to clear out areas for possible reclaimation when the crisis has ended. The city looms large in this book, pulsating in both its emptiness and later with invading throngs of the dead.

The main character, Mark Spitz - not the heavily-medaled swimmer - spends much of the book lost in memory and ruminating on the lives of the dead. All of this introspection tends to make the whole experience more real and personal. Characters disappear without a trace, leaving survivors who will always wonder.

Ultimately, one of the saddest books I have ever read.