How to Successfully Read The Last Weekend
(Book Review for The Last Weekend)
- First read The Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson (or see the movie if you're just a tourist about it), and anything else you can think of written about writers and drunks (especially when they are authored by drunken writers--Hemingway, Bukowski, you know the drill), and then congratulate yourself the whole time just like the protagonist for knowing so much more than will ever be appreciated by the mind-dead zombies of the world.
- Have a good idea of just how awful men can be in an apocalyptic scenario, then compare that marauding rapist to Billy the Greek over here, and then don't even pretend you wouldn't be happy to know this drunken dork at the end of the world (the end of America, actually-the world’s probably better off after the US gets wiped out).
- Get the concept of zombies but don't be married to any preconceived notions about how they should emotionally impact the living (like there's a right way to deal with zombies? Doubt it).
- Know that government jobs without regulation or rigor will totally survive any mass-scale disaster (like roaches, bureaucracies will survive unchanged), and get that people who do the most vital jobs are often the least vital living (next step down is a reanimated corpse).
- Know anything about California demographics, stereotypes, and neighborhoods, or at least try to enjoy the breeze of jokes flying over your head (if you're like the protagonist you'll be from a flyover state anyway, and pretty used to that feeling).
- Love gender equality enough to appreciate that men and women alike will all be selfish, reckless, and bat-crap crazy if they’re the kind of outlier who can survive a sudden zombie awakening.
- Want to read a zombie book for those who are not and don't even care to be heroes, know that tools are better than guns even when neither one is likely to save you, and trust that you'll like this book if you want to.
- First read The Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson (or see the movie if you're just a tourist about it), and anything else you can think of written about writers and drunks (especially when they are authored by drunken writers--Hemingway, Bukowski, you know the drill), and then congratulate yourself the whole time just like the protagonist for knowing so much more than will ever be appreciated by the mind-dead zombies of the world.
- Have a good idea of just how awful men can be in an apocalyptic scenario, then compare that marauding rapist to Billy the Greek over here, and then don't even pretend you wouldn't be happy to know this drunken dork at the end of the world (the end of America, actually-the world’s probably better off after the US gets wiped out).
- Get the concept of zombies but don't be married to any preconceived notions about how they should emotionally impact the living (like there's a right way to deal with zombies? Doubt it).
- Know that government jobs without regulation or rigor will totally survive any mass-scale disaster (like roaches, bureaucracies will survive unchanged), and get that people who do the most vital jobs are often the least vital living (next step down is a reanimated corpse).
- Know anything about California demographics, stereotypes, and neighborhoods, or at least try to enjoy the breeze of jokes flying over your head (if you're like the protagonist you'll be from a flyover state anyway, and pretty used to that feeling).
- Love gender equality enough to appreciate that men and women alike will all be selfish, reckless, and bat-crap crazy if they’re the kind of outlier who can survive a sudden zombie awakening.
- Want to read a zombie book for those who are not and don't even care to be heroes, know that tools are better than guns even when neither one is likely to save you, and trust that you'll like this book if you want to.