After Quentin P, a convicted sex offender, is paroled, he embarks on a series of murders, in a chilling book that is told from Quentin's point of view as he kills and eludes the police. Reprint.
Zombie
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A hero who gets into the mind of a serial killer is a fixture of television crime shows, but such stories are usually disappointing, because the viewer knows it's just a gimmick. Not so with this unusual little novel, which The New York Times called a "note-perfect, horror-comic ventriloquization of a half-bright, infantile serial killer." Joyce Carol Oates has so convincingly written through the voice of a killer, you will feel nervous while reading at how familiar, how human, he is. Part of how she achieves the effect is through sparing use of bizarre capitalization (e.g., "MOON" and "FRAGMENT") and crude drawings done with a felt-tip pen. But the language is what makes it come alive, as in such weird statements as "My whole body is a numb tongue." This book was winner of the 1996 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel.
From Publishers Weekly
Periodically, Oates seems compelled to write grim novels that explore humanity's darkest corners. Coming on the heels of last year's excellent What I Lived For, this depressing narrative carries macabre imagination to the extreme. It depicts the career of Quentin P., a convicted young sex offender on probation who has turned to serial killing without being caught, despite the worried scrutiny of his family and of his psychiatrist. Convincingly presented as Quentin's diary of his pursuit of the perfect "zombie" (a handsome young man to be rendered compliant and devoted through Quentin's lobotomizing him with an ice pick), the narrative incorporates crude drawings and typographic play to evoke the hermetic imagination of a psychopath; the reader examines the killer's sketches of weapons and staring eyes, and hears him say, "I lost it & screamed at him & shook him BUT I DID NOT HURT HIM I SWEAR." For all its apparent authenticity, however, this novel ventures into territory that has been explored more powerfully by, among others, Dennis Cooper (Frisk), whose chilly minimalism underscores the brutality of such crimes in a way that Oates's more calculatedly histrionic approach does not. This slim, sadistic reverie may be chilling, but it comes off as less a fully realized work than as an exercise from a writer at morbid play.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By L.L.H.
Format:Paperback
I was warned that there are people out there who find Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates far too disturbing a read to manage. So of course, I had to have it sent in from the library immediately. I wanted to test my true mettle as a committed reader of the Gothic. Zombie is narrated from inside the disjointed and painfully grotesque mind of a homosexual serial killer who truly isn't out to kill, what he really wants is to transform the male of his choosing into a devoted zombie who will fulfill his every desire. His desires are pretty simple: sex, cuddling, intimacy, and the occasional household cleanup. His method of getting these needs met is the horror, as he kidnaps the men and then tries to lobotomize them. I won't give away the ghastly climax (forgive the pun, those who have read it), but it's painful to read.
The real genius of Oates, in this and so many other of her books, is her ability to get inside a character and force us to sympathize with them, whether we want to or not. I found myself repeatedly hopeless over Quentin's prediciment, screaming at the book for him to PLEASE take his medication before matters got worse. But alas, they got worse anyway.
Oates, well traveled in academic circles, also creates in Quentin's father a character that is an ironic representation of academic approaches to the madness of human passion. The father is a respected scientist and professor, embarrassed by his son who has been convicted of a sex offense, but at the same time always willing to help him, to push him toward achievement. He perpetually steps close to seeing the true nature of Quentin's madness, but always backs away, unwilling to see the truth. Quentin sees his father as having a "corderoy face" and "pink a***ole mouth" and the reader cannot help but feel the utter ineffectuality of the father's worldview. This is highlighted when the world famous Nobel Prize winner that he so admires is posthumously discovered to have been conducting Nazi-like experiments on the mentally challenged. The father quietly takes down the photos he had of himself with the Nobel Prize winner but defends his honor saying there is no way such a thing could be true. Again, the father who is supposed to be scientifically minded, is the least oriented toward fact.
Although Zombie hardly makes good beach reading, it is an infintely worthwhile read
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
THIS IS A GREAT BOOK....
A: BECAUSE IT'S SHORT SO IT DOESN'T RAMBLE ON ABOUT NOTHING... IT GETS TO THE POINT.
AND B: BECAUSE IT IS DARK AND DISTURBING.
ITS ABOUT THIS 30 YEAR OLD MAN THAT WANTS TO MAKE HIS OWN ZOMBIE (BY WAY OF LABOTOMY) SO HE CAN HAVE A SLAVE.
HE IS VERY TWISTED WITHOUT REALIZING IT.
YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO PUT THIS BOOK DOWN...READ IT!!
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3.2 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Zombie Review
The reason Joyce Carole Oates wrote this book, I have no clue. This book was so gruesome and yet so exhilerating. I felt chills when I read it. Read more
Published on April 2 2003 by Jennifer Bunner
1.0 out of 5 stars
Very disturbing
I had to read this book in a contemporary lit class for colege this year and it was one of the sickest books i have ever read. Read more
Published on Jan 8 2003 by jeepgirl
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inside the mind of a serial killer
"Zombie," the novel by Joyce Carol Oates, is narrated in the first person by Quentin P___, the son of a distinguished professor. Read more
Published on July 9 2002 by Michael J. Mazza
4.0 out of 5 stars
At times boring but mostly interesting
It is lacking in genuine action but makes up greatly in the psychological aspects. It's one of those stories that makes you think about your own life. Read more
Published on Jun 24 2002 by "euphoricsleep"
5.0 out of 5 stars
The grimmest and grittiest
True crime fans of that genre's reigning doyenne Ann Rule will love this grisly and in-your-face penetration into the mind of a brutal sex criminal and serial murderer. Read more
Published on Jun 15 2002 by Stephen Richmond
4.0 out of 5 stars
Oates takes on Dahmer
This is not Oates's finest work, but it is still a good read and an interesting psychological case study. Read more
Published on Jun 3 2002 by Curtis Lane
2.0 out of 5 stars
Review of Zombie
I admit the title of Joyce Carol Oates's novel predisposed me to it before I knew anything about it. Read more
Published on Mar 6 2002 by Linus Manning
4.0 out of 5 stars
Diary of the 'American Psycho' perhaps?
Wow. I must say that Joyce Carol Oates did a spectacular writing job. Seems like this book was a bit out of the ordinary for her and so I was EXTREMELY impressed. Read more
Published on Feb 4 2002
5.0 out of 5 stars
Precursor to 'American Psycho'?
Fascinating look into a psychotic mind. A Vulcan mind-meld softened by words. (Would you want to *feel* the insanity <shudder>? Read more
Published on Dec 17 2001 by Diana Poskrop
5.0 out of 5 stars
Precursor to 'American Psycho'?
Fascinating look into a serial killer's mind. A Vulcan mind-meld softened by words. (Would you want to *feel* the unsanity <shudder>?) You experience his meltdown. Read more
Published on Dec 17 2001 by Diana Poskrop
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