A review by bookbelle5_17
High-Rise by J.G. Ballard

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Review of High Rise 
By: J.G. Ballard
            Robert Laing, a professor of medicine seeks solace after his divorce in this infamous high-rise built by architect, Anthony Royal, but finds himself getting lost in the madness as things start to go horribly wrong in the High-Rise.  Richard Wilder is a documentary filmmaker determine to ascend to the top of the high rise and expose its gritty underbelly.   Anthony Royal, the architect of the building, studies the residents and how they respond to the building’s malfunctions as if they were animals in a zoo.
            This is a bizarre and dark story about humans giving into their more savage and primitive natures.  The characters are metaphorically trapped in this high-rise and even when there is an opportunity to go out into the real world, they make excuses not to.  The first main character we’re introduced to, Robert Laing refuses to see the reality around him and even when there is no electricity, and he can’t use the water he doesn’t care.  His odor represents the wild nature of the high-rise and he’s pleased with it.  It’s as if he’s in a drugged state of mind. Richard Wilder, notices Laing has distanced himself and he observes, “Or was there some other impulse at work—a need to shut away, most of all from oneself, any realization of what was actually happening in the high-rise, so that events there could follow their own logic and get even more out of hang?” Laing when watching people from his balcony leaving for work, finds the “civilized behavior” as “unsettling”.  Behavior we see as routine and normal is weird and unnatural to him.  Richard Wilder, on the other hand, has become more savage and giving into his more primitive nature.  Like the other residents, who are determined to protect their floor as if it’s territory, he will kill anyone perceived as a threat.  He doesn’t even see that he needs to get his wife and sons out of high-rise as they’re suffering. He stops caring about them seeing them as a nuisance to his desire to climb the ladder of the high-rise. Anthony Royal is the most interesting of the characters as he watches over the residents, fascinated by them.  He’s a scientist exploring humanity at its worst. Some of his thoughts are “The five years of his marriage to Anne had given him a new set of prejudices.  Reluctantly, he knew that he despised his fellow residents for the way in which they fitted so willingly into their appointed slots in the apartment building, for their over-developed sense of responsibility, and lack of flamboyance.” He sees himself as superior to the other residents and like Robert Laing craves to be by himself.  He also resents the people in the high-rise, “In a sense, the vanguard of a well-to-do and well-educated proletariat of the future, boxed up in these expensive apartments with their elegant furniture and intelligent sensibilities, and no possibility of escape”. When we get to his point of view, he and his wife are packing to leave, but even his wife, Anne, knows Royal can’t bring himself to leave. This shows a group of humans losing themselves in their more primitive pleasures and living in the bubble where reality ceases to exist. The only reality is the high-rise.  This reminds me of The Circle by David Eggers.  Both stories explore getting trapped in your own fantasy reality and not seeing your identity disappear. It’s basically a cult using pleasure to lure you in.  Ballard writes beautifully how savage humans can be and how unhealthy it is to isolate yourself from reality.  It is disturbing to read, and some parts made me sick, but it’s a brilliant examination of human nature. 
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