Ma...
Uh...
Ze...
Ur...
Ok, I give up. I didn't understand this story
at all. I thought I did, but then I didn't. It's this whole thing. In the end, I didn't really understand anything about Soap's actions or motivations. The story was going very well - Soap is disaffected, lonely, eccentric, the story is about alienation, confusion, and loneliness - and then suddenly takes a hard left when we learn that Soap was in prison for two years, not six months, and likes to kidnap small children and rob houses while talking about zombies. I feel like the fact that the only explanation I can fall back on is "maybe he's just a crazy person?" kind of weakens the story. I find sheer, random craziness, as a motivator, kind of lame.
That said, there were things about this story that I really dug. I like stories about loneliness, isolation, and alienation. I enjoyed the sense of modern, near magical absurdity, especially in the story about the painting. And, although I like to complain about their shortcomings, I really do like stories in the postmodern time-leapy style that this story used so well. In
Some Zombie Contingency Plans, I particularly liked how Soap's sense of self was so empty that he seamlessly adopted the identity of anyone who named him, up to and including in the context of the narrator's voice. He's Soap, he's Will, he's Arthur, he's Wolverine. He's whatever you want him to be - just don't ask him to be himself.
Or to not steal your stuff and kidnap your little brother.
Which brings me back to the part of the story I didn't like.
So, I suppose I found this story kind of like an entire cake. I enjoyed each bite, but at the end I was left looking at the place where the story used to be, rubbing my aching belly and wondering "what the hell did I just eat?"
As you can see, I'm still
thinking in the choppy, time-jumpy, clever-asides-including style of the story. Try not to imagine my post in Norm Sherman's voice.
* * *
Finally, I
do have a zombie contingency plan: first raid the science lab store room and cafeteria for supplies, then take the kids (I teach) and the shovels and picks I have for the gardening elective (for weapons and tools), and head for the Bay Bridge. Treasure Island is likely to be a much more defensible position than anywhere else in the Bay Area, as it's an island with only two, easily-watched approaches (the Bay Bridge). If we can catch a rescue boat from there to Alcatraz, more's the better. We'd have to work fast, though, since my school is across the street from a graveyard.