Pariah (2010)

Here’s another book review by Sian. I never heard of this one but it sounds like a winner!! Thanks Sian.

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Zombies, zombies, zombies…… I had never heard of Fingerman before, and happened upon him by chance at the local library. Oh how I love that place, free books and all…but that is a boring story for another time. The cover has some nice comments plastered on it from some cool people, including Max Brooks and Robert Kirkman, all proclaiming it to be wonderful. It was pretty damn fine reading I must say. It’s a back to basics here, nothing too fancy, just the way zombie horror should be.

Fingerman gives two narratives, the present and past. The past narratives are interwoven throughout the novel, all denoted by month and time scale (Then or Now), which I do like ‘cause it is similar to something I have been doing in my own writing (I am not biased). The subject matter is a sealed apartment block in America roughly four months into the apocalypse. The inhabitants have been sealed in both by the National Guard and themselves. They are running out of food, and all of them are shadows of their former selves. The inmates include – Abe and Ruth Fogelhut, an ancient Jewish couple who have grown embittered with each, and also the world; Mike and Ellen Swenson, who are married and were parents until this mess broke out but are slightly fractured as a couple; the single artist Alan Zoltz; the country boy Karl; a jock duo in Dave Mallon and Eddie, and on the roof the middle aged lock smith Dabney. Oh and Gerri, an old woman who is severly traumatised and just seems to float in and out of the picture.

The apartment is located on the Upper East Side of New York. The inhabitants rarely see any living souls outside, and when they do it usually ends in death. There is no electricity, the air is full of the fetid stank of rotting human, and I am guessing due to the decomposition the weather is just hot. It hasn’t rained in ages, their food supplies are dwindling and so is their water. They are all skinny, stinky and grumpy. But, they just don’t have this to contend with. Ellen is paranoid about Eddie and Dave, who are meat head jock’s. She fears they will rape her, and these fears are not unfounded. Eddied is a time bomb of sperm just waiting to go off. Which is probably why he ends up taking out his…. frustrations out on Dave, but I’ll get to that.

So, in a moment of stupidity that is completely believable, Mike falls out of the window and dies. You might think I’m spoiling it, but not really. It happens pretty quickly into the story, like within the first thirty-five pages. Poor, poor Mike. Ellen wastes no time, fearing the testosterone that is Eddie, and asks artist Alan to move in with her for protection. Meanwhile country Karl is running out of food, and is having a bit of a crisis due to his wish to impress the man on the roof, Dabney. Dabney, who refuses to live inside and has been catching pigeons and rats and turning them into Jerky. Dabney, who misses his children, and begins to see Karl as a son. While this is going on the Fogelhut’s hate each other just a little more each day, and Dave figures out he is actually gay while helping his best mate Eddie relieve his sexual frustrations. He then falls in love with his best friend and things get a little strained between the duo.

author Bob Fingerman

Just as everyone is ready to die due to a lack of food and water, something miraculous happens. A girl appears. She doesn’t just appear, but she parts the sea like Moses, the zombies taking a particular dislike to the young thing. Seizing the opportunity, they invite Mona to live with them, asking her to help them survive. She agrees. You’d think things would improve right?

Some things do. She gets them toilet paper, and all the food they can eat. But Mona is still a little odd, and they can’t exactly get her to share her secret with them. As a result Mona causes some problems for the other tenants. Karl can’t decide if she is a messenger from God or the other guy, and starts acting all religiously crazy. Alan starts painting her, and realises her calf muscles make him hot, which ends with him and Ellen having a long winded domestic. Dabney becomes a chain smoking alcoholic, now supplies permit such things, but decides he should move inside once Eddie starts landing zombies on the roof. Eddie….he’s just fucking crazy, and becomes crazier when he thinks he has cracked the secret to Mona’s immunity, and Dave becomes very, very confused.

Things culminate, and Alan is forced to brave the zombie horde dressed in an overall and jacket stuffed with baby clothes to save Mona when a rescue mission turns horribly wrong. In the end, most of the group is dead, and there doesn’t appear to be salvation at hand for the survivors, but at least the ones who are left are able to form a functional “family”.

Though, in light of narratives like THE WALKING DEAD and RISE AGAIN, not much happens here, it is just a beautiful book. The characters are so engrossing, and Fingerman has gone to a lot of trouble creating a back story and complex psychology for all of them. This novel is much more about character development than action, not that it’s completely bereft of action. I am not blowing smoke when I say I found myself unable to put it down. One night in particular, I realized it was one in the morning, I had to get up in a couple of hours, and I still couldn’t stop until I made it to the end of the chapter. It’s a nice idea too, original in this genre, me thinks. When you have read a lot of shitty zombie stories, as I have over the years, a work like this renews your appreciation for the genre, and proves that not all zombies stories have to be brutal blood fests to be entertaining. Fingerman is now added to my author watch list.

Extract:

When she was right below them, the zombies spread out around her, she the pupil, the exposed street the sclera of the eye she’d opened up in the crowd. She looked straight at them and plucked both buds out of her ears. Even through the low din of zombie protestations they could hear the tinny ratta-tat-tat of loud percussive music piping from tiny speakers of her headphones.
     “What’s up?” She asked in the tone of someone just running into an old acquaintance. Her nonchalance turned every person by the window into one big goose bump, hairs rising on necks and arms, Adam’s apples bobbing in quandary. Maybe Abe’s derangement had affected them all, because no one in this world or the next had ever displayed such placidity, least of all in a circumstance like this.
Not even Jesus.
     “We need your help,” Ellen managed, forcing out each word like a fist-sized chunk.
     “Uh-huh. Okay.” Big pause. The girl stuck a finger in her ear and jiggled it. “Whattaya want?”
     “For starters, we’re starving.”
     “Uh-huh.”
     And with that she turned around and headed back into Food City, the zombies after a few beats closing the zipper. Everyone stood by the windows, immobalized and mute. On York the scene coalesced into its usual monotonous norm, no breaks in the rotting mob, no sign anything different had ever occurred. Ellen blinked herself out of her stupor and whispered a faint, “Did we just see what we just saw?”

Sian’s Summary:

Author: Bob Fingerman

Story: 9/10

Horror Elements: 7/10

Zombie Mayhem: 7/10

Writing Style: 10/10

Reviewed by Sian

Stay Bloody!!!