Z for Zachariah

By Robert C. O'Brien

I was at a friends house when I saw this slim book in their bookcase. From my PA book searches I was familiar with the title but I didn't know much about the story. On a side note one of my favorite things to do when I go to someones house is look through their books.

This is a young adult nuclear PA story. Having read and enjoyed quite a few young adult books in the past that didn't dissuade me at all. The story? Eh.

The scenario: A 16 year old girl Ann, is the only one left alive in her secluded valley. Everyone in the outside world is gone. Her parents and neighbors left to go to the next town over and never returned. She doesn't know if anyone is left after the bombs have gone off and with the world around her poisoned by radiation she hasn't tried to leave her valley.

Now a year later a man in a radiation suit walks into the valley. Mr. Loomis gets radiation sickness and Ann takes care of him until he recovers. He tells how he has crossed much of the United States and hasn't seen anything living until he reached Ann's valley. Their relationship (if you can call it that) quickly becomes strained. Mr. Loomis, not grateful at all to Ann, tries to rape her shortly after recovering (young Ann, who isn't the most rationally thinking person has dreamed about marrying him.) She hides elsewhere in the valley and Mr. Loomis tries to shoot her. I won't give away the ending but I will say they reconcile in a way, and there is hope that others may be alive.

I somewhat enjoyed the story. It went into detail how Ann continued to run her family farm and grow crops. Why her valley wasn't affected by the radiation. How she struggled with heavy objects but figured out how to move them by herself. I didn't buy that there were only two families in the valley and one of them ran the convenience story. What, they only had one customer?! Also Mr. Loomis was unnaturally cruel to Ann; after walking across 3/4 of the US he finally finds life and his reaction is to try to rape her, then shoot her when she rejects him? He makes demands of what she should do and how she should run the farm without even discussing his ideas or getting her input.

I guess I don't really find the actions of the characters very realistic. From other reviews I read I gathered that some schools have made this book required reading. 8th grade? Interesting. I think that the big hindrance Ann and Mr. Loomis have is that they don't communicate very well to each other. Granted he gets sick when he first comes into the valley, but Mr. Loomis never tries to get to know Ann or tell her very much about himself after he recovers. Likewise she doesn't really do the same to him. Well, the book is a quick read and kept me interested throughout.

***
In other media news I recently watched Threads. A 1984 BBC TV movie done in a documentary style. I mention this as it is a nuclear based PA story. The plot follows Jimmy and Ruth, a young couple who just before the bombs start dropping find out they are pregnant. Ruth survives and we see the chaos that the UK descends into after 3000 megatons of nuclear bombs are dropped. The documentary portion of the show follows the happenings of the local government in Sheffield and reports of the rest of the world. The outlook it depicts is pretty grim.

By the later half of the movie I was loosing interest. The story jumps ahead 10 years where we see that nothing has really recovered, Ruth dies, her daughter gets pregnant, delivers the baby and... Well you'll just have to watch it to see what happens. I don't quite agree with some of the descriptions of the ending that I've read. The show really leaves it up to your imagination.

Overall Threads was an interesting movie. I can't see how there would be no recovery after 10 years. It also didn't make sense that there were still soldiers/police? hanging and shooting looters this long after the bombs dropped. If you're feeling a little bit too happy one day, watch Threads, it'll bring you done for sure.