John Aivide Lindqvist- Handling The Undead

There's quite the buzz, in genre circles at least, around John Aivide Linqvist. His first novel, Let The Right One In, an unconventional vampire tale set, like this book in his native Sweden, became a successful film. Arguably, the reason both the novel and the subsequent film adaptation work so well is their disavowal of Hollywood stereotype. Happily for the morons amongst us there's an English language, Hollywood remake set for a 2010 release. No doubt it will savage the source material, much in the same manner the recent, nasty film version of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend did. For those who haven't seen that particular gem, rabid zombie/vampires don't make me squirm anywhere near as much as the manipulative placing of a pet (in this case a German Shepherd) in mortal peril...

Handling The Undead finds us once again confronting the intrusion of the supernatural into the everyday world of suburban Stockholm. The population are near breaking point as an inexplicable electrical fault surges to a climax along with the paralysing headaches experienced by everyone in the greater Stockholm region. Just when it seems that no one can take any more, the pain disappear and everything returns to normal. Well, almost to normal because anyone recently deceased, whether in a morgue or cemetery, decides to get up again...

The plot follows the travails of a group of characters forced to confront the living dead- or the "Reliving" as they are euphemistically christened. The author uses this unlikely premise- for which the most vague and perfunctory of explanations is eventually offered- to explore the bonds of love, the power the state can exert and religious hysteria, among other things. One can't help but think, however, that any clarification of the central mystery comes at the detriment of the novel over all.

Only referred to as "zombies" in a handful of instances, the Reliving, although genuinely disturbing, remain, for much of the novel, an almost benign presence. The tension is gradually ratcheted up and their true nature is only revealed in the last third of the book. It probably says much about my own foibles that the substantial psychic element of the story (it is discovered that those who spend any time in the company of the Reliving can read each others minds) rubbed me the wrong way. It seems I'm far more able to accept the prospect of our loved ones returning from the grave than I am psychic abilities... Or maybe it's just the mixing of the two that I found awkward.

Handling The Undead (surely it was a missed opportunity to not call the book Handling The Reliving?) is a diverting enough way to spend your time but, ultimately, it isn't as satisfying a read as Let The Right One In. I bet the movie will be great though...