A review by mchapmansydney
High-Rise by J.G. Ballard

5.0

What is humanity and where does it go when nobody’s watching? This was an interesting book until it was a horrifying book until it was a soul-scratching and brain-quenching book. It asks some of the most interesting questions that books can by asking nothing, just presenting a world with a minor change. Genius. There was a thought I had after one particularly spiritually grotesque moment, if this was a nature documentary, we wouldn’t blink. Because despite our efforts to the otherwise, humans aren’t animals. There is something within us, not just communication, use of tools, opposable thumbs, something in our hearts that is different, and yet, even that can be stripped away. A human without its humanity is not quite an animal, but it’s something far more disgusting. No doubt his experience in a prisoner of war camp provided ample material for the inhumanity of people under certain conditions. Ballard created a work unlike anything I’ve read, and something that repulsed and attracted me in equal measure. But as far as books go, something that can make me think and feel so deeply is rare and, while maybe not something I’d easily recommend to friends and family, will surely linger within me.