High-rise - J G Ballard

How to write a JG Ballard novel. Take one obvious social metaphor, set the story in the near future and write a tale about the dehumanising effects of modern life and mankind’s necessary return to noble savagery. Flourish with beautifully descriptive characterisations and a touch of pathos. Maintain a constant feeling of alienation and separation between the reader and the story. Serve up to critical plaudits and enjoy your position as one of the greatest British modern authors. Well of course it’s not that simple, but what is? High Rise is a book that easily fits the above criteria. We start with one of the most obvious metaphors I have come across ...  Read the complete review

High-Rise, J.G. Ballard Again, not necessarily a well-written book, but the sick neon vividness of Ballard's imagination makes it worthwhile: as Martin Amis suggests in a review extract on the jacket, he writes to provide a setting, or an excuse, for unsettling fragments of imagery. I came to it from a previous reading with the impression that anarchy prevailed and then fell back into normality, but I remembered wrong. The setting and incidents are grittily and stickily realistic; the plot and the way it develops -- a tower-block cuts itself off from the world and reverts to the jungle -- only possible in a dream. Ballard's characters, especially, I ...  Read the complete review