Granted, I know a lot of people are getting a little tired of the veritable plague of zombies which has struck our culture in the last ten years or so. But don't throw out the zombified baby with the bath water: there are a lot of great books about the Zombie Apocalypse to be explored.
World War Z
Max Brooks
I need to take another run at this book. The first time I tried it, I just wasn't feeling up to tackling the narrative structure. World War Z is modeled after Studs Terkel's famous book about World War 2, which collected interviews and narratives from people around the globe. This pastiche of experiences is of necessity fragmentary and told in dialect, but it assembles into a vast and multifaceted tale of the Zombie Apocalypse.
Zone One
Colson Whitehead
I feel like I recommend this book at least once a month, but it deserves the acclaim. Whitehead transposes genre fiction into the literary realm. This narrative can be somewhat challenging for readers as well, since it interleaves present-day with flashback, often without much warning.
Worth reading just for Whitehead's cynical outlook on government, society, and the indomitable power of marketing initiatives. Many people assume that the post-Zombie Apocalypse world will be a return to primitive, pastoral lifestyle. But I think Whitehead has got it right. The world may end, but corporate brands won't.
The Serpent and the Rainbow
Wade Davis
This non-fiction book is an oldie but a goodie. Davis is an ethnobotanist who traveled to Haiti in order to research the phenomenon of zombies: people who are enslaved by the use of a magic powder cooked up by local black magic practitioners. Davis uncovered a fascinating intersection of neurotoxins and cultural beliefs, one which has kept many people (most famously, a man named Clairvius Narcisse) in thrall for months and even years.
Note: this book was made into a relatively terrible horror movie in 1988. Don't hold that against it.
Image courtesy Flickr/Grmisiti
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