A literary zombie tale by a highly respected author. After a zombie plague has wiped out most of humanity, mild-mannered Mark Spitz is charged with helping to clear “straggler” zombies out of Manhattan high-rises in order to start resettling the city. We’re not sure what bothers Mark more – the stragglers or the lost world that predates them. If the answer rests within these pages, I missed it.
Whitehead, the author of the much-loved Underground Railroad, is more interested in building magnificent word castles than in providing a unifying focus. The writing is exceptional, but there’s precious little plot and character. The whole thing comes across as very, very written, an author working in a room full of mirrors. One has to wonder why Whitehead bothered with zombies at all. Perhaps I missed the point, but despite the cerebral humor and the confident attempt to stand the genre on its head, this seems to be a case of good writer, bad book. Reviewed on May 20, 2021