Customer Reviews

Song of the Living Dead

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's always a kick when a book's title is slowly revealed to be more clever than you think, and this one delivers on that level in more than one way. It refers at first to a freakish acoustical trick emerging from the mouth of a zombie, then to a sad documentary being made by one of the minor characters, and finally to the universe's strange marriage of beauty and horror, which the narrator fights to come to terms with. The book itself often edges toward real depth, which is virtually unheard of in this genre, but in the end the author has really only dipped his toe in the water. The characters move from locale to locale, situation to situation, seeing and feeling things that are invariably compelling, while all along there is a sense that Narnia is not wholly committed to really taking the book to the places it has the potential to go. He's all about moments, not the sum of the whole. There are about a dozen images in the book of real power, not a bad ratio for a work only 115 pages long. It's all more of a pop cinematic experience than a literary one, however. The ending, while intellectually potent, has only a muted effect on the emotions because there simply hasn't been enough time to know and identify with the characters. They remain likeable cutouts, recognizable but distant. Kudos for a smart book that gives you more and more to muse upon as it goes along, combined with an impressive way with words. But there are few things more frustrating than a story that keeps dangling greatness in front of you only to add up to relatively little.

I've read a lot of zombie novels, and this one's not bad, not great, sort of in-between, pretty literary, not much violence except for one good scene at the end. It's about more than zombies, and that's all I can say. If you're looking for gore or horror, this is not the book to get. It's all more of a metaphor.

Except for a conclusion that might tick off some people, this is a consistently clever take on the living dead scenario. It's told mostly in interviews with people who survived two waves of zombie uprisings, one mostly harmless, the second one violent. But the only thing predictable about the story is its traditional use of a group of very different characters coming together to defend themselves. In this case, they're very peaceful people who are forced to reneg on their pacifism in order to survive. The book is very funny in some places, very sad in others. Gore is secondary to what the zombies inflict on the minds of the characters and on America overall, which reacts to the situation in crazy ways. The author's liberal views are always apparent (too apparent maybe) but the book is a lot of, dare I say it, fun. A strange word to use for such a bleak story, but it's true.

As a huge fan of the zombie genre, I am disappointed. First, this book reads like a documentary. With all the points of view there are, the story does not flow, and, at times, it is hard to remember what happens to who. While it is an interesting idea, it makes this particular story a bit hard to follow. Next, these characters are on the road by choice, not for survival. I was looking to be on the edge of my seat, then I realized not only are these zombies not chasing people, they aren't biting. The ideas of how society would react to the dead rising were interesting. The fact that all of these people would drop their everyday lives (quit jobs) to travel the roads, break into a school, and stay there for a few days, for no reason, was a bad idea. Society was still funtioning on the whole. Despite my boredom, I continued to read in hopes of finding something interesting in this thing called satire. While I can appreciate the satire, I did not find much for the Romero style zomebie genre here. I am glad someone who can write tried to take this genre to a more serious level. I am not happy with the results.

I really thought this book was greatly entertaining, it's a perfect story for those who like the George Romero zombie series or any other zombie stories. The writer obviously has a lot of affection for the genre even as he satirizes it. The story is interesting, the style really unusual and effective. Limited scares, but a shock or two.

Before this book, I had never read a zombie book. What I expected out of a zombie book was the typical horror-story, scare-your-pants-off gorefest that every zombie movie I had ever heard of was. I was warned that this book was different, but I didn't imagine how different it could be.

Soren Narnia did a wonderful job on Song of the Living Dead. In the story, there has been a so-called zombie outbreak, though the zombies simply wake up to walk around and die again. There is no violence, no gore, nothing. The story itself is narrated by Lloyd, who is roaming the country with his band of nobodies, including his wife, a professor friend, a teenage girl who he is close to, and a man who has went AWOL from the military. Though there aren't many zombie sightings near the beginning, there are more and more until you reach the climax of the story, which features hundreds.

I have to admit that the twist at the end really through me for a loop. It was definitely unexpected, and shed a whole new light on the events that occurred through the story. Though it is a short book, it is definitely worth the time to read.

I read zombie stories. Most of them are brutal, gruesome, and show the ugly side of humanity. Some make zombies the stars while others allow them to creep around in the shadows, puzzled at all the fuss being thrown at them when all they want to do is eat you and then be left alone.

This book chooses to have zombies in it as a plot device to develop an entirely different story. Like someone using the backdrop of WWII to do a character study of peasants living in rural France or a love story that has luscious scenery that sets the stage but does not really overwhelm or dominate in any way, Song of the Living Dead has a backdrop of the dead rising from the grave but the story focuses on the individual role players and their interactions with each other. The zombies, even when they turn violent in their second act are just bit players that makes no one run, flee, hide, or do much of anything but give folks an excuse to take off and ride around trying to discover themselves.

Something about the story made me feel as if a similar story could be told during the Vietnam war, with an AWOL soldier running away from the wrongs and attrocities he has seen while a few drop outs from society wander along with him, each trying to figure things out for themselves.

The writer never lets us forget about the zombies but they are in the background for most of the book, leting the characters stand up center stage. Only near the end does the brutal reality come crashing down on them, bringing the zombie invasion back into focus as the reality of their lives. Other than that, they are a on road of discovery and one after another, more of the people drop out of the story, taking their own paths and choosing their own directions. In the end, even our main character realizes that as much as he wants to wander, returning home has always been the best option for him.

The zombies in this book were a plot device and the author even admits that much in the story. Not that I was disillusioned by that--zombies are a creation developed not only for the horror they cause in us but also to give us plenty to think about: about ourselves, about those around us, our society...everything.

As other reviews said, do not expect your typical zombie story here. You will not get it. Instead, you will get one writers perception of things and how he sees the world we live in. And that, of course, is all you can ever hope for with a story you read.

The real genius of this book is in the characters. While the zombie stuff is all good and tense and it carries the story, there's a whole other layer going on and the group that the author focuses on is the most interesting group of people I've found in any zombie book or movie. Their problems are real and sad and I was rooting for them all the way. There are no villains, theyre all good and just trying to hang on against horrible events. You could probably read 500 zombie books and never care about the people in them like in this one. This is the only zombie novel I'd recommend to people who wouldn't ever read one, because it's more literary than they'd expect.

This book is full of good ideas and reads like it was written by a real writer with something on his mind instead of just a gore-hound. It's creepy but it's hilarious once in a while. Great, great ending, caught me totally off guard and brought the book to a new level. Not like anything I've read, and a welcome change from repetitive shoot-stab-and-run-away books in this genre.

A zombie uprising where no one gets killed. I mean...props for going out on a creative limb and for good writing ...but pacifist zombies? Dude, are you stoned? If no, maybe you should go snag a spliff and try it again.