A review by allgutternopedestal
Concrete Island by J.G. Ballard

3.5

FILLED WITH SPOILERS!

To be honest I was really confused as to why Maitland couldn't escape the "island". I guess I should have been more critical, but I just assumed that wherever he was, it was just too dangerous to stop. Although I kept looking for a reason why he couldn't at least get on the freeway when it wasn't so busy, especially when he was close to dying anyway. Also the number of times that Maitland goes back and forth from the road to the air-strike shelter was pretty suspicious. I think I just spent most of the book looking for a reason for all of these inconsistencies, when I really should have been confident that they were a choice by the author. Did that make it an unpleasant read? Maybe less pleasant than it could have been, but the payoff on the last page bumped it up a half star for me. 

Too many references to the grass, though. 

I will say that this definitely makes me excited to read High Rise.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism and Sexism

My edition came with an introduction by Neil Gaiman. That might discourage a lot of people from buying this edition, and I wouldn't fault them for that. I borrowed it from my library. Gaiman uses some disparaging language for some of the characters in the book, too. I found that kind of concerning.