Super-Cannes - J.G. Ballard

Paul and Jane Sinclair travel from Maida Vale in the UK to Eden-Olympia in the area known as Super-Cannes, a hotbed of corporate parks in the hills above Cannes, France. Jane has been hired as the resident paediatrician of this little city, its name linking it to the paradise of Christianity and the seat of the gods of classical Greek religion. She is assuming the post of David Greenwood, her one-time lover and fellow intern at Guy’s Hospital in London, and now the infamous doctor of Eden-Olympia who one day lost control and murdered seven high-profile people in the city, and three lowly (in comparison) hostages. Greenwood stalked the glass and concrete avenues ...  Read the complete review

If you read only one book this year make it this one. I guess that is to the point and if I could get away with writing just 12 words then I probably would. However, in the spirit of dooyoo and my natural ability to chatter on for England I guess I will have to expand on that one! I was actually recommended this book by my university supervisor. I have to admit to being a little sceptical at first, I mean the title didn't exactly sound riveting. However, I was most pleasantly suprised by the plot, the style of writing and how I just couldn't put it down for a whole day until I had read it cover to cover. ~~~The Author~~~~ J.G.Ballard ...  Read the complete review

There is always a hit of recognition when starting a new Ballard novel, and for those in need of a fix then his latest, ‘Super-Cannes’ comes up with the goods. The archetypal characters are all there: the pilot with the injured leg, the doctor, the psychiatrist and the usual collection of obsessives locked into their own heads. Like ‘Cocaine Nights’ the story takes place on the Mediterranean Coast, a transplanted suburbia that Ballard is increasingly making his own. In ‘Cocaine Nights’ the story was set in Spain, here he has moved westwards into France and the Riviera. This familiar conjunction of time, place and character is not to ...  Read the complete review

Given Ballard’s position as one of the few truly original voices working in British fiction today, it should be annoying that this novel has an entirely unoriginal trajectory. Injured first-person narrator meets burly psychiatrist and ends up embroiled in a world of psychosexual violence – this is the world of the author’s most notorious novel, Crash. But somehow it isn’t a cause for concern: Ballard’s plots, and indeed his writing style, much of which is clunky and very ‘Boy’s Own’, aren’t the reason why he’s popular. With startlingly unusual ideas on every page, technical issues such as convincing dialogue ...  Read the complete review

The capitalist utopia on the French Riveria has some serious flaws. When they were first exposed, a doctor prescribed some social medicine and killed as many of the perpretrators as possible. Now Paul Sinclair is trying to discover what went wrong. Set in Eden-Olympique, a vast business park, this is an engrossing tale of corruption, intrigue and psychology. Whenever Sinclair gets closer to the truth, it changes until he finally understands the whole sordid picture. While we know utopia can never exist, we cannot ignore Ballard's message - helped along by the book's superbly gripping writing. Brimming with ideas, its intricate plot suggests a ...  Read the complete review