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A review by jmullenbach
High-Rise by J.G. Ballard
3.0
i think it’s a little blunt. i love the opening that’s reminiscent of 100 years of solitude. fitting because maybe 100 years of societal devolution occurs over a few months in this book, but i don’t think the causality is made quite clear. the setting is great, including the positioning of the building as one in a group of 5 all separated from each other, defeating the residential density purpose of a high rise building and further isolating it.
most of the meat of this book is in the first 40% i think, and the rest describes a chaotic situation that sort of arbitrarily escalates. charitably you can say that the residents are perversely drawn to this new society where boundaries are redrawn rather than the old one, but this isn’t illustrated or motivated super well. it’s fun enough to read. the symbolism and social satire is pretty blatant and remains relevant.
there are some interesting details at the end. in one a character, now living in a terribly difficult situation that he has still somehow grown accustomed to, fantasizes about it getting worse so he has something to strive for. the other is about gender and spoils the book :)
most of the meat of this book is in the first 40% i think, and the rest describes a chaotic situation that sort of arbitrarily escalates. charitably you can say that the residents are perversely drawn to this new society where boundaries are redrawn rather than the old one, but this isn’t illustrated or motivated super well. it’s fun enough to read. the symbolism and social satire is pretty blatant and remains relevant.
there are some interesting details at the end. in one a character, now living in a terribly difficult situation that he has still somehow grown accustomed to, fantasizes about it getting worse so he has something to strive for. the other is about gender and spoils the book :)