Initially, my view on this novel was to point out that one of the worst things is to get a book that is awful but just barely not sufficiently bad to simply slam closed and not finish reading.
And that this is one of those books.
I was planning to describe it, but really, why bother. Just avoid it.
But that's not entirely fair. The concept is pretty interesting: in the post-zombie apocalyptic USA, the worst is over and civilian sweeper teams go through lower Manhattan to clean out any remaining zombies in preparation for the re-population of the region. The lead character, nicknamed Mark Spitz, drives the action as a member of one of these teams.
The problem is the writing. Or perhaps more precisely, the writing style. I don't know how to specifically critique it; good thing I'm not his editor. Or maybe a bad thing, because even though I don't know how to describe the bad smell, I still know what smells bad. Clearly Mr. Whitehead's editor didn't have this aversion to loose writing.
Update: well one man's loose writing is another man's brilliant prose! A friend, who's literary taste I quite trust, has quite the opposite opinion. He thought the writing was amazing and says it made him smile throughout. So in light of this, and since I really do like the concept and plot, instead of recommending against this book let's say that if the notion sounds interesting to you, give it a shot.
Zone One
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