Books by J.G. Ballard
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English
review 1: "The residents of the high-rise were like creatures in a darkened zoo lying together in surly quiet, now and then tearing at each other in brief acts of ferocious violence." I first started reading High-Rise about twenty years ago, but I gave up after the first chapter. I can't b...
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review 1: ferocious read on consumer fascism tying it neatly to the channeling of violence through sports spectatorship, football hooliganism and mall culture. Set in the British motorway towns (exurbia) bubbling with racist rancor against Asian shopkeepers and other affronts to national p...
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review 1: Second read by Ballard, this one came highly recommended, and yet again failed to engage. There is just a certain aloofness to Ballad's writing that does nothing to help the reader establish an emotional connection with the story. Martin Amis in his introduction mentions this, so...
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review 1: Did not glom to this as much as High Rise, although the concept of the middle class going nuts worhipping consumerism whilst being total racists was interesting, it felt oddly by the numbers. But more relevant now, in a different way, following the riots in 2011 and the balance h...
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review 1: This was my first J.G. Ballard novel and it was good enough that I'll likely read at least one more. Philosopher John Gray has said repeatedly that he formed a large portion of his view of human nature from Ballard's novels, so I was curious to look for the parallels. They are de...
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English
review 1: Minor spoilers be ahead...Ballard's first novel, published in 1962, begins with an intriguing premise: fluctuations in solar radiation have melted the ice caps, flooding most of the world and creating new island masses. The extreme rise in temperature has rendered much of the wor...