The Making of Zombie Wars

Joshua Levin is an English as a Second Language teacher in Chicago who dreams of becoming a screenwriter. He obsessively works on various screenplay ideas, with his current project being a zombie apocalypse story titled "Zombie Wars." While teaching his ESL class, Joshua becomes entangled with Ana, a married Bosnian student, leading to complications in his relationship with his girlfriend Kimmy. His landlord Stagger, an unhinged veteran, adds another layer of chaos to Joshua's increasingly unstable life. As Joshua attempts to balance his teaching job, his creative aspirations, and his personal relationships, events spiral into a sequence of poor decisions and mounting consequences. The story takes place in 2003, against the backdrop of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The novel explores themes of desire, creative ambition, and self-destruction through a darkly comic lens, while drawing parallels between personal chaos and larger societal upheaval. Through Joshua's misadventures, the book examines how people navigate between their fantasies and reality.

Readers found this novel more comedic and lighter than Hemon's previous works, though many felt it fell short of his usual standards. Readers appreciated: - The dark humor and absurdist elements - Sharp observations about post-9/11 America - References to Chicago's cultural landscape - The protagonist's screenplay ideas scattered throughout Common criticisms: - Plot feels scattered and unfocused - Main character Joshua comes across as irritating - Sexual content feels gratuitous - Humor sometimes feels forced Multiple readers noted they expected more depth based on Hemon's reputation. One reader called it "a sitcom in book form - entertaining but shallow." Ratings: Goodreads: 3.0/5 (500+ ratings) Amazon: 3.2/5 (40+ ratings) LibraryThing: 3.1/5 (30+ ratings) A Chicago Tribune review summarized the common sentiment: "Amusing moments but lacks the emotional resonance of Hemon's other books."

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🧟‍♂️ Author Aleksandar Hemon wrote this darkly comic novel after fleeing to Chicago from Sarajevo in 1992, where he was caught during a visit when the Bosnian War broke out. 📝 The protagonist Joshua Levin's scattered screenplay ideas throughout the book are real ideas the author collected from his creative writing students over the years. 🎬 Despite its title, the book is not primarily about zombies—it follows a hapless ESL teacher trying to write screenplays while his life spirals into chaos during the lead-up to the Iraq War in 2003. 🏆 Hemon has won numerous prestigious awards, including a MacArthur "Genius Grant" and a Guggenheim Fellowship, though he only began writing in English after moving to the United States. 🌟 The novel pays homage to great Chicago writers like Saul Bellow and Stuart Dybek while subverting expectations of both immigrant literature and zombie fiction genres.