Zombie
Ratings14
Average rating3.4
15
Ratings14
Average rating3.4
Meet Quentin P.He is a problem for his professor father and his loving mother, though of course they do not believe the charge (sexual molestation of a minor) that got him in that bit of trouble.He is a challenge for his court-appointed psychiatrist, who nonetheless is encouraged by the increasingly affirmative quality of his dreams and his openness in discussing them.He is a thoroughly sweet young man for his wealthy grandmother, who gives him more and more, and can deny him less and less.He is the most believable and thoroughly terrifying sexual psychopath and killer ever to be brought to life in fiction, as Joyce Carol Oates achieves her boldest and most brilliant triumph yet-a dazzling work of art that extends the borders of the novel into the darkest heart of truth.
Reviews with the most likes.
“There has always been a special feeling between Big Sis and me. On her side at least.”
While researching Cluster B personality disorders, I found JCO's Zombie, tagged with reviews like, “...could not finish...” and “...will never read again...” Considering the novel received a Bram Stoker Award for horror, I knew I had to get my eyes on it.
Depraved, disturbing, and unflinching are all apt adjectives here as JCO places us inside the mind of a most terrifying “monster” — a human devoid of empathy and self-control. From descriptions of the hideously botched transorbital lobotomies performed with ice pick and textbook to the disjunctive first- and third-person perspectives Q_ uses to describe various stalkings, abductions, rapes, and murders, Zombie is nightmarish. But also stippled with gracefully-rendered mundanity that grounds the narrative in reality:
“& then Grandma got the idea to hire me for yard work [...] & that was O.K. in theory. Grandma would pay me $50 to $75 cash for just a few hours' work & I did not need to be too thorough, she never came out to examine it. An operation for cataracts or something in one or both of her eyes so maybe she couldn't see too well & I didn't inquire. Grandma slipped these bills to me saying This is just between you & me, Quentin. Our little secret! meaning not Dad nor the IRS would know. Maybe Grandma was lonely & that was why. Trying to get me to stay for supper etc. There was another old woman, a widow who was a friend of Grandma's & sometimes I would drive this other old woman to her home & she would tip me, too. Like a taxi service. In my 1987 Ford van with the American flag decal in the rear window.”
There's no “abduct me, daddy” celebritization here. Just the study of a man inhibited by an extreme and unchecked personality disorder, mowing lawns, eating burgers, visiting grandparents, and driving around in an old Ford van with an American flag decal in the rear window.
For me, it can't get any scarier than that.
This book did not connect with me. I didn't enjoy the writing style and found it too slow. I was also extremely disappointed with the ending. Not for me at all.
Most loathsome guy of all time, but I could've read more of him, as the book ends quite abruptly for me. I enjoyed the jumbled love-it-or-hate-it prose and the ampersands.
