Zombie 00: A Fable

Almost anything you could say about this slim book's story is going to reveal too much. It unveils Zombie's journey in a fluid and logical way. The reader is left with no doubt as to the reality of Zombie and the people he comes into contact with on his very unusual and educating trip to understanding what makes him a character for all time.

Brad Gooch has been a favorite writer of mine for a few years. His latest book is a departure for him, and a wonderful one at that. This is a fable about "Zombie" a wonderful young man searching for his destiny. His adventures lead him to New York City and even to Haiti. Some of the scenes he enters into are pretty wild, shocking and abusive, with homosexual S/M thrown in. I had the feeling I was reading one of Dennis Cooper's books at times. Gooch's prose is written so intelligently and with such perfection, and his character's seem so vivid and real, it feels like you are reading a classic novel. I really enjoyed this novel, it was so different in story line and very original.

Zombie00 is a masterpiece of magical realism. Art that captures the dreamlike existence of reality. Other books that have captured this:The End of Alice by A.M. Homes...Jean Genet's The Miracle of the Rose...John Cheever's Bullet Park. Zombie00 is a exploration idenity and consciousness. A modern rendering of Never Never Land (Peter Pan). Each paragraph is like being given a strange glow-in-the dark candy. You want to savor each one. The writing is seamless. No contrivance or manipulation. Flows like a beautiful dream that leads to an enchanting conclusion that is both shocking and strangely moving. Brad Gooch was once hired to write the introduction to my first photography book (FUN?GAME). I see him now and again at social gatherings. He previously to Zombie00 wrote some nonsense book called Finding Your Inner Boyfriend...so I was not prepared for the jolt of Zombie00.(he must have found his inner author). I recommend Zombie00 highly. Rush and read it. It will mess with your head (and God knows you can use some of that!). Zombie00 is the Belle de Jour of 2000, dude!

I read this novel some time ago, and have been haunted by it ever since. What follows is an urgent, desperate, unsuccessful attempt at exorcism through analysis:At first glance, it looks as if Brad Gooch's _Z0mbie00_ is yet another attempt to delve into the self-consciously transgressive homosexual S/M demimonde, the territory of James Purdy and Dennis Cooper, as well as moderately successful imitators like Scott Heim, Gary Indiana -- and, until fairly recently, Brad Gooch. But this fictional territory has grown barren; in Cooper's latest novella _Period_, the hip, postmodern sadomasochistic tendencies are as bland and blase as MTV's _Real World_ or CBS's _Big Brother_, without the faux-voyeuristic kick.The problem with the transgressive school of Gay fiction, is that scenes of wild, sadomasochistic sex -- Gay or straight -- no longer have the power to shock us. They've been staples of religious-right propaganda for years, precisely because they could "epate le bourgeoisie" a bit. Now that absolutely _everyone_ seems ready and willing to be used, abused, and humiliated practically at the drop of a hat, it's much more difficult to celebrate the S/M dynamic as a transformative, trangressive act of rebellion against a production-driven economy of desire (as Michel Foucault did).Surprisingly, Gooch's latest book, a tersely written bildungsroman about a self-proclaimed "zombie," still has the power to transgress and to shock, though not in the same visceral manner that this kind of Gay fiction has usually attempted. Even though Gooch inserts all the requisite graphic scenes of ritualistic abuse (some of them quite erotically written), he gives the novel a subtle, disturbing intelligence of his own that transforms the more shopworn aspects of this literature. Throughout the book, Gooch deconstructs the binary of "slavery" and "liberation," first by placing the narrative in the hands of a character who actively asserts his zombie-like passivity, and then by confronting the historical mirror-image (or is it a photonegative?) of the protagonist as he comes to grips with his "zombie" identity. The eventual collapse of the terms produces an intellectual jolt, shattering our received ideas about the nature of oppression.No less shocking, though, is the novel's emphasis on spirituality. Gooch gives his "zombie's" adventures the quality of a vision quest, or of a spiritual pilgrimage -- complete with an almost monastic retreat in the end. Occasionally this gives Gooch an opportunity to indulge in satires of piety run amuck (as when the "zombie" and an abusive master named Control Freak attend a thinly fictionalized "Promise Keepers" rally). But for the most part, though, Gooch's attitude toward spirituality is surprisingly reverent. The protagonist's search for a cosmic sense of self is real and poignant; Gooch takes that search every bit as seriously as his protagonist._Z0mbie00_ is not wholly without its pr

This is a book about growing up in the suburbs and lusting for a life in the city only to fine more angst for a higher life. Who knows what our destiny is. This is what the book is about: destiny. A wonderful tale of one man's search for destiny that seems like so many other stories, but is not. It has a fresh, unique prespective that is a first.