John Ajvide Lindqvist, 2005 (English translation 2009), Penguin Books AustraliaSomething very weird is going on in Stockholm. Every electrical appliance in the city refuses to power down. The entire population are struck by blinding headaches, which slowly build in pressure before suddenly vanishing. And then, in morgues and cemeteries across Stockholm, the recently-dead begin to rise.
Handling the Undead is a beautifully-written, sad, and occasionally quite creepy novel about loss and the very human inability to deal with it, which utilises the zombie trope in new and fascinating ways. The walking dead of Sweden are not the ravenous flesh-eaters of Romero’s creation (at least, not exactly), but ordinary dead folk who rise, and walk, and attempt to return to those they left behind (thereby having more in common with the zombies from the 2004 French movie, Les Revenants). But not everything is as it seems. It soon becomes apparent that the ‘Reliving’ are not entirely whole, and that something other than memory or even humanity now drives them. It’s difficult to say more without giving away too much, but I will hint that much of the plot hinges not upon how the zombies affect the living – an issue nonetheless well-addressed – but upon how the living affect the dead.
Handling the Undead is a definite ‘must read’, as is Ajvide’s previous novel, Let the Right One In, which deals with vampirism. Given that the current movie adaptation of Let the Right One In (scripted by Ajvide himself) has been such a massive commercial and critical success worldwide, it seems likely that we’ll be seeing a film treatment of Handling the Undead soon.
4 comments:
I loved Let the Right One In so I'm really looking forward to reading this one. The author appeared at the Brisbane Writers' Festival two years ago and he was a very funny, self-deprecating guy. The movie looks cool too.
I read this in one sitting. It isn't a horror story at all, though if you've a vivid imagination the images of the decomposing dead will put you off reading it while eating. It is a love story of the non sentimental kind, a metaphysical investigation. The metaphysics are drawn from traditional western beliefs - abramaic and pagan, as opposed to, say, Taoist, Hindu or Buddhist, (though, having said that, even buddhists have 'hungry ghosts'). I appreciated the theme running throughout the book of being careful what you think and allow yourself to feel. I also enjoyed the politically correct angle when the story's Swedish authorities were trying to decide what the politest correct term for the moving, talking corpses should be. I shall now immediately go out and purchase 'Let the Right One In.'
Just finished reading this and loved it. Much more unsettling to regard the emotions one would experience if a loved one one became undead rather than the violence and urge to brutalize- as in some other written renderings of the zombie.
Vampires, Zombies, what next for Lindqvist? Werewolves?
The book only recently came out here in the US and I just finished it today. A beautiful story, with nary a shotgun to be found. Not your traditional zombie fare (which normally becomes a survivalist free-for-all) and instead becomes very real human tale. Surprising to see I haven't found that many reviews of the book, but I'm highly recommending it to my friends.
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