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Empire of the Sun

3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 · rating details · 5,963 ratings · 320 reviews

The classic, award-winning novel, made famous by Steven Spielberg's film, tells of a young boy's struggle to survive World War II in China.

Jim is separated from his parents in a world at war. To survive, he must find a strength greater than all the events that surround him.

Shanghai, 1941 -- a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor. In streets full of chaos

...more

Hardcover, 279 pages

Published October 1st 1984 by Simon & Schuster (first published 1984)

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Apr 22, 2013 Megan Baxter rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hmm, three or four stars? This was good, but I don't think I'll read it again. On the other hand, that particular feeling does not say that this was a mediocre book. But that personal gut reaction is what I tend to use for star ratings - four stars means I would like to or wouldn't mind reading it again. Five stars are books I feel the need to own.

So this is a three star review, but it is probably a better book than that.

J.G. Ballard looks back at his experiences during World War II through a n...more Hmm, three or four stars? This was good, but I don't think I'll read it again. On the other hand, that particular feeling does not say that this was a mediocre book. But that personal gut reaction is what I tend to use for star ratings - four stars means I would like to or wouldn't mind reading it again. Five stars are books I feel the need to own.

So this is a three star review, but it is probably a better book than that.

J.G. Ballard looks back at his experiences during World War II through a novel. Fictionalized, he manages to tell the story of Jim, a British ten-year-old who is present in Shanghai with his parents when Pearl Harbour occurs and war is declared between the Americans and the Japanese. (British? His parents would certainly consider themselves so, but Jim has never been to England, and muses at times about joining the Japanese airforce - not out of any patriotic leanings, but because they have the power and the airplanes he longs to fly.)

Separated from his parents in the first days of this part of the war, Jim wanders around Shanghai, and eventually ends up in an internment camp for the duration. His parents are absent for the vast majority of the story

Ballard has a knack for expressing Jim's feelings about the war in ways that are both simultaneously childlike and devastating. The book covers Jim's life from 10 to 14, and he grows accustomed to the war, to expect it as the normal sequence of events, and tries to figure life out as though it will always be that way.

The adults around him are startled and sometimes perturbed by Jim's adaptation to a life in wartime, to life in a camp, to life as a prisoner. They try to exploit him, teach him, or ignore him. Jim, in turn, doesn't understand why the grownups around him haven't adapted to the war the way he has, why they don't, on some level, enjoy it.

As the Japanese get closer and closer to defeat in the Pacific, life at the camp becomes more tenuous and dangerous. Jim is forced on a death march, food supplies are cut off, bandits roam the countryside, groups of prisoners are looking to loot whatever they can. The relative order of the camp fades into even more chaos, and Jim is no longer certain that he is even alive.

The portion of the book that takes place when relative order has been restored is fairly brief, and we never find out if Jim manages to truly believe that he isn't dead, or that war isn't the normal condition of life. It makes me wonder how Ballard himself coped. How he managed to negotiate a world that he knew to be fundamentally fragile.

Crossposted at Smorgasbook (less)

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Mar 10, 2011 K.D. Oliveros rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

Shelves: 1001-core, war

I should have listened to my brother. He said last year that because Crash (1973 published) elicited strong, even if negative, reaction from me, then it meant J. G. Ballard (1930-2009) was a genius. That book was disgusting. I hated almost everything about the story. Up to now I cannot get over the characters that hurt themselves by crashing their cars and there is that part where the hole in the body is bleeding and to stop the blood from flowing, an erect penis has to be inserted. Holy cow. I...more I should have listened to my brother. He said last year that because Crash (1973 published) elicited strong, even if negative, reaction from me, then it meant J. G. Ballard (1930-2009) was a genius. That book was disgusting. I hated almost everything about the story. Up to now I cannot get over the characters that hurt themselves by crashing their cars and there is that part where the hole in the body is bleeding and to stop the blood from flowing, an erect penis has to be inserted. Holy cow. I had no second thought when I clicked a lone star rating. Here’s to you, Ballard! Hmmpf.

This is my second novel by J. G. Ballard (1930-2009) and I still clicked a lone star but four turned into yellow. Here’s to you, Ballard!, but this time, Wow! , it is with full of admiration to his talent (God bless my brother. He is right: J. G. Ballard is a genius) and to what he had to undergo during his 3-year stay as a child in Lunghua Concentration Camp in Shanghai during WWII. Yes, this novel about Ballard as an 11 year old boy, a son of a wealthy British businessman in Shanghai, who got separated from his parents and had to endure 3 years surviving all by himself in various camps.

What makes this quite different from the war stories seen in a child’s perspective is Ballard’s prose. It is so detailed yet it is devoid of commentaries. Ballard only describes what the child Jim sees almost without emotions. There is just a single scene when Jim sheds a tear and it is mentioned only in a single short sentence. It feels like Ballard would like his reader to experience Jim’s sad and dangerous flight in a child’s perspective rather than an adult's with built-in biases and prejudices. Ballard was British but he neither depicted Japanese nor Chinese as evil and British nor American as good men. In fact, Jim feels safer with Japanese soldiers (ironic really from an Allied adult’s perspective) than being with British or American. Japanese soldiers ignore his surrender and feed him food while he roams starving around Shanghai, he thinks that Japanese soldiers are braver than British because Shanghai was captured, he dreams of becoming a pilot and thinks that his young Japanese friend will teach him how to fly…

War in the eyes of a child. Think Anne Frank not in the hiding but in an open concentration camp. Jim did not die even if he stayed 3 years in Lunghua. His desire to see his parents again was just so strong that he held on to this dream and it made his body strong despite of the extreme hunger (surviving in boiled rice and sweet potatoes), disease (malaria, dysentery, infections, etc), loneliness and physical abuse.

As always, the book is better than the movie. I remember that in the movie, there is that boring part inside the concentration camp. The reason is that it is impossible for Spielberg to capture those small details in that part without probably extending the movie to maybe five hours. However, the ending in the movie, in my opinion, is better than the book. I don’t want to put a spoiler so I will not tell you why.
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Jun 05, 2009 Kim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary

I remember one Saturday afternoon during the winter of 1987/1988 when my friend Chuck and I decided that instead of hitting the mall we would take in a movie. Our choices weren’t great… Rent-a-Cop, Return of the Living Dead Part II , Braddock, Missing in Action Part III. Yeah, so, we opted for Empire of the Sun. I had no real inkling to see it. I really didn’t care.

I remember that the movie had these big gaps of silence. Shots of Christian Bale running around an internment camp, flying a toy b...more

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Jan 13, 2010 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history-and-biography, japanese

A few days ago, I learned a new Japanese word. Nijuuhibakusha means literally "twice radiation-sick individual", and refers to the few people who, through staggering bad luck, managed to be present both at Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and then at Nagasaki three days later. The article I read was an obituary for Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the last surviving nijuuhibakusha. I was not surprised to discover that Mr. Yamaguchi was strongly opposed to nuclear weapons, and had spent a substantial part of his l...more

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Feb 16, 2008 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-very-very-favorites, novels

Don't let the Spielberg connection turn you off. This is a devastating slow burn of a book, one that I picked up fairly randomly, and have been reeling from ever since. The prose is scrupulously plain, but the psychological detail as strange and transporting as anything more self-consciously lyrical. It chronicles the author's childhood experiences as a prisoner-of-war in WWII Japan, but this isn't a typical novel-memoir; there's a traumatized shimmer to the third-person narration (there's no "I...more

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Oct 03, 2007 Herrikias rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who are insulated in the West.

The book resonated beyond being the key to unlocking the symbolism found in the rest of Ballard's works. In its own brutal way, it is the dawning of a sheltered european to the reality of the world. Thinking turned for idle fancy to centering on trade. How everyone needs something just like you, and how to obtain it with objects, skills, or favors. How everyone takes everyone else for granted. Not just the Americans using Jim, but in turn how Jim has no qualms exploiting those who take pity on h...more

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Jul 27, 2009 Mariel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: kids with nice manners

Recommended to Mariel by: John Malkovich

Everything I need to know in life I learned from Empire of the Sun.

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Dec 24, 2007 Meirav Rath rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Lovers of good fiction, historical fiction lovers

Shelves: fiction, highly-recomnended

Oh, Steven Spielberg, how dare you kill this wonderful book's plot with a blunt instrument, burn it, trample it and then leave it to be raped by a horde of Cossacks, how?! Here's one book which was not for you to bring to the silver screen.
Unlike the film, this book managed to properly portray Jim's character, his experiences and to capture, complete and perfect, the lives of English citizens trapped behind Japanese lines in China. It's wonderfully written, the horrors laced gently with the exp...more

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Jun 05, 2010 MJ Nicholls rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, sassysassenachs

With a childhood like this, it's easy to see why Ballard became the ultimate novelist of alienation, perversity and despair. The matter-of-factness regarding death, starvation and nuclear bombs is often discombobulating – especially when Jim leaves long-term friends behind to die with no flicker of emotion – but provides a unique psychological insight into WWII that few wartime novels have ever achieved.

An uncompromising classic.

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Jan 30, 2009 Bettie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography-memoir, history, one-penny-wonder

"I learned a new word today - 'atom bomb'"

If there had been no hostilities, the entirely disturbing boy, Jim, would have been dubbed with many mental diagnoses of the kind that are only spoken of under heavy initial letters; as events unfolded his a-social traits made him for the most, effective as a survivor.

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Aug 24, 2009 Becky rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, reviewed, 2009

This was a very interesting book. Probably like most people, when I think of WWII, I think of a few historical "touchpoints": Nazi Germany, Pearl Harbor, Iwo Jima, Hiroshima. The biggies.

This book isn't about any of them. Well, not directly. This book is personal and intimate and shows the gritty underbelly of a war that people like to romanticize. Heck, even the main character romanticized the war, and he was living it!

Quickie synopsis: Jim is happy and sheltered living in Shanghai with his p...more This was a very interesting book. Probably like most people, when I think of WWII, I think of a few historical "touchpoints": Nazi Germany, Pearl Harbor, Iwo Jima, Hiroshima. The biggies.

This book isn't about any of them. Well, not directly. This book is personal and intimate and shows the gritty underbelly of a war that people like to romanticize. Heck, even the main character romanticized the war, and he was living it!

Quickie synopsis: Jim is happy and sheltered living in Shanghai with his parents. War starts. Jim is separated from parents and then begins a crazy messed up survivor-journey through Japanese invaded and war-torn China to try to find them.

Now I like gritty and realistic coming of age type stories. This one was an interesting look at what happens when you have to come of age not only while a war is taking place, but smack-dab in the middle of it, suffering and starving and unsure of tomorrow, even while seeing the world through a child's eyes. The fascination with both cars and planes got a bit tiresome, but what the heck else did he have to entertain himself with?

Two things did get rather on my nerves:

First, the dialogue felt very fake and unnatural. Yes, I do realize that this is a well-mannered and enthusiastic 11 year old doing his best to survive, and if that means ingratiating himself to anyone and everyone he meets, then so be it. But, is it REALLY necessary to repeat everything that is said to him? Is he a boy or a parrot?
Example-
Basie says: "I took good care of you, Jim."
Jim says: "You took good care of me, Basie."

Second, twice during the course of the book, Ballard used the phrase "Two years ago, when Jim was younger...". This just annoys me for some reason. Two years ago, obviously Jim was younger. Why say it? We're not dumb.
Actually, I'm being picky. No we're not dumb readers, but I don't really think that Ballard meant it that way. I think he was trying to say that Jim has matured in a very short time, but just chose a really bad way of saying it.

Anyway, those are nit-picky things, but they were distracting to me. Overall, the story was interesting and gave a different insight to a situation that I hope I never find myself in. (less)

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Jun 20, 2011 Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, autobiography-memoir

Two things stand out in this memoir. The world-turned-upside-down story which resurfaces in several of Ballard's later novels and the oddly half affectionate tone of the child narrator for the Japanese even in the internment camp. Novels like The Drowned World and The Drought just seem a further fictionalisation of the childhood experience.

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May 13, 2008 Leila rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-list

An enjoyable read, this semi-autobiographical story is told from the perspective of a boy (aged 11-14 in the book) witnessing WWII Shanghai, including internment by the Japanese from 1942-45. Haunting descriptive prose. I did feel myself get war fatigue by the end of the book, but in many ways that is the point. I learned while reading this book that Ballard is widely acclaimed as a Science Fiction writer and I could sense his aptitude for that genre even in this historical piece.

Now I need to g...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Howard rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had been meaning to read some Ballard for a long time, partly because of his influence on musicians/bands such as David Bowie and Joy Division. I picked this one up in a charity shop.

Having previously known nothing about Shanghai during the period leading up to World War II, it was fascinating to find out what a truly bizarre, decadent, imperialist place it was. Once the story moves on to the outbreak of war in China, things quickly turn pretty grim, which I had expected. There is plenty of ar...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Maureen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: china, biography, fiction

This is an incredibly special book.

J.G. Ballard used his experience as a child in a prisoner of war camp during the second Sino-Japanese War as the basis of the story of Jim, who in 1941 was an eleven year-old schoolboy of British extraction. Jim only knew Shanghai as home, with his mother and father, the chauffeur and the maids that made up the core of his universe. When Japanese warships fired on Chinese vessels in the Yangtze River, Jim had a front row seat from his hotel window on the Bund....more This is an incredibly special book.

J.G. Ballard used his experience as a child in a prisoner of war camp during the second Sino-Japanese War as the basis of the story of Jim, who in 1941 was an eleven year-old schoolboy of British extraction. Jim only knew Shanghai as home, with his mother and father, the chauffeur and the maids that made up the core of his universe. When Japanese warships fired on Chinese vessels in the Yangtze River, Jim had a front row seat from his hotel window on the Bund. His family had fled there, seeking safety in numbers with other expats.

Jim's father is taken into custody at the river's edge, and Jim is separated from his mother. First he goes to live in the apartment of one of his parent's friends, but when he runs out of food there, he finds his way back to his home on Amherst Avenue. He hopes to find his parents at home, but instead finds an empty house with a half-empty swimming pool. After running out of water there, he takes up with a pair of men who find him exploring a half-submerged boat in the harbor. One of them, Basie, provides an ongoing thread in the story. Jim escapes from the pair once he figures out that they mean to sell him. He tries to surrender himself to the Japanese, but finds that they have little interest in him.

Eventually, after spending some time in a camp set up in a movie house where people have been sent to die, Jim is reunited with Basie. Jim realizes that his only hope of leaving the camp is to help in the kitchen where he may obtain scraps of food so that he may try to build up his health. Basie urges Jim to make himself of use to the cooks, which he does by lighting fires, cleaning up ashes, and doing chores. After a period of time, Jim and Basie are put on the truck and taken to Lunghua Camp, which is located about six miles outside of town.

Many people died in the camp from disease and malnutrition. Jim continued making himself useful to people at the camp, especially to the American doctor, Doctor Ransome. The thing that makes this book so special is that everything that happens to Jim is seen from a child's perspective. Jim is prone to asking questions that adults struggle to answer. Although he becomes hardened through the horrors of the camp, he still retains the mindset of a child. When he is sent with the rest of the camp to march to the stadium in Nantao, they arrive there to find a line of luxury sedans and convertible across one end of the field. He wonders where the chauffeurs are because he thinks the cars are there to take the expats home.

In the end, Jim is reunited with his family. The real boy, J.G. Ballard, was interred at Lunghua Camp with his parents. Although he suffered many privations, at least he did so with his family. The Lunghua Civilian Center, as the camp was formally known, is now the site of Shang Hai High School. I spent six weeks on the campus this summer visiting my daughter who teaches in the International Division there. Only a few of the buildings from Ballard's time remain. One especially handsome building in the Art Deco style was then a prisoner dormitory and now serves as an administration building.

Ballard does an amazing job at capturing a period of time that still pervades the Chinese psyche. The next time I go to Shanghai, I plan to spend some time retracing Ballard's steps. This is a very good book indeed.(less)

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Mar 23, 2012 Emily Cross rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, literary

One of my favourite films is 'Empire of the Sun'. Based on J.G. Ballard's own childhood, this novel tells the story of a boy's life in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. A story of war, starvation and survival.

I found it hard to rate this book and even harder to review it. I found this book an uncomfortable read, not in a 'it made me want to blind myself' but more in a 'got under your skin and stays with you' sort of way. So I suppose I could call it 'profound'. There is no doubt that this book is a me...more One of my favourite films is 'Empire of the Sun'. Based on J.G. Ballard's own childhood, this novel tells the story of a boy's life in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. A story of war, starvation and survival.

I found it hard to rate this book and even harder to review it. I found this book an uncomfortable read, not in a 'it made me want to blind myself' but more in a 'got under your skin and stays with you' sort of way. So I suppose I could call it 'profound'. There is no doubt that this book is a mesmorising read, and once I hit my stride, I read the book in a night. It's a strange mixture of autobiography and fiction, which makes you wonder where Jim starts and Ballard begins (thankfully my edition had an essay by Ballard summing up his experience which gives you further insight).

Because of my love for the film, it's hard for me not to compare and contrast. The book is definitely much darker and deeper than the film. Through the language, Ballard portrays subtle nuances about situations and hidden depths to characters (minor ones especially) which could never translate to screen. We're more connected to the world and to Jim with the book. Jim's hunger, hallucinations and desperation to survive in the cruel world of Shanghai and the camps resonate more, with the language of the book reflecting his state of being.

Yet, although in some aspects I felt closer to the world of Jim via the book, I found the book didn't resonate or have the impact that I felt the film had for me. Perhaps Jim's numbness translated more via the text, but I felt no emotionally connection to the people in Jim's world like I did with the film. In the book, there is just a sort of desperation which in the end isn't as nicely or touchingly resolved/relieved like in the film. There is no happy reunion with his parents only this: "Jim had wanted to explain to his parents everything that he and the doctor had done together, but his mother and father had been through their own war. For all their affection for him, they seemed older and far away".

Ballard is an exceptional writer and the book in itself is excellent, if only for the impact it has on you as a reader. It won't touch the heart like the film does, but certainly this book will resonate with you. So I'm giving it 4/5!(less)

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Apr 01, 2011 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was a little overwhelmed by the suffering of all the civilians caught up in this horrendous war. Jim, the 11 year old somewhat pampered British boy who is the main character in this novel, weeziled his way into my heart by his steadfast determination to stay alive by any means available. A couple of times I thought about not finishing the book, because his descent into a nightmare existence was almost numbing. The other characters are all selfish, callous and uncaring, even though he is a chil...more

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Feb 06, 2011 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir, four-star-plus-reads

Most Americans my age know a lot about World War II, if by "a lot" one means the war in Europe as experienced by Americans, Britons, Germans, and Jews (the Russians, eh, not so much). When it comes to the war in the Pacific, our knowledge is confined to our own country's participation. We know almost nothing of the war as experienced by Asians: the Japanese, Chinese, Indonesians, Malaysians, Koreans, Filipinos, and Pacific Islanders. And there is much to learn. J.G. Ballard writes of the experie...more

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Jul 15, 2010 Marvin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

J. G. Ballard's novels often perplexes me. He has a stunningly powerful style of writing yet it often feels emotionally detached. Empire of The Sun is not only his best novel but goes a long way to explain the author's somewhat schizoid style of writing. The autobiographical novel is based on his internment as a child in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in China during World War II. Even though it is called a novel, I would not be surprised to find that very little is actually fictional. For Ball...more

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Jun 24, 2009 Louise rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

would classify Empire of the Sun as an adventure novel about a boy’s life during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in WWII.

The book is graphic and spares no details about how people die, but it wasn’t graphic to the point where I had to put it down. Halfway through reading this, I realized that it was not fiction and was actually an autobiography, which made it a bit more difficult to read the particularly gruesome parts.

Empire of the Sun not only has an accurate portrayal of how a teenage boy...more

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Apr 27, 2009 Visha Burkart rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Honestly, I read this book a few years ago; however, what reminded me of it was the recent death of its author, JG Ballard. Tt is essentially fiction but draws extensively on Ballard's experiences in World War II, when he was a young boy living with his parents in Shanghai at the time of the Japanese invasion of that city. All of the foreign nationals who did not escape China were interred at prison/work-camps. While Ballad (called Jim Graham in the book; JG Ballard = James Graham Ballard) was t...more

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Dec 04, 2009 F.R. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I honestly don’t know what’s the matter with me. Despite being a big Ballard fan, I'd never actually read this until now. The fuzzy reason I gave myself was that this was the mainstream book that Spielberg adapted, and so didn't chime in with the Ballard I generally deal with. However I’m glad I put my absurd prejudices aside, as this is brilliant!

Even though Ballard is dealing with the past rather than future, he does evoke this other world – which to Western eyes at least – is completely alien...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 110-books-in-2012-and-do-it-again, books-into-film, collectible, family-relationships, historical, narrative, read-in-2012, reviewed

"Empire of the Sun," is a semi-autobiographical novel of when J.G. Ballard was at the Lunghua Interment Camp as a boy during WWII.

The protagonist, Jim, age eleven, sees much of what goes on in Shanghai through the windows of his family's limousine. As the story begins, his family is about to go to an early Christmas event at the residence of the President of the British Resident's Association.

Chinese refugees and beggars are everywhere in Shanghai and people become immune to their plight. As the...more

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Jun 10, 2012 port22 rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

"Empire of the Sun" is set in one of the corners of the history -- Shanghai during the Second World War. In the 18th century Europeans established themselves in what originally was a French neighborhood -- The French Concession [1]. French settlers were joined by English and American merchants, Russians fleeing the Revolution. But also inhabitants from various other European nationalities -- Dutch and German. It formed Shanghai International Settlement. In the beginning of the Second World War i...more "Empire of the Sun" is set in one of the corners of the history -- Shanghai during the Second World War. In the 18th century Europeans established themselves in what originally was a French neighborhood -- The French Concession [1]. French settlers were joined by English and American merchants, Russians fleeing the Revolution. But also inhabitants from various other European nationalities -- Dutch and German. It formed Shanghai International Settlement. In the beginning of the Second World War it was surrounded by the warring forces of imperial Japan and Chinese Nationalistic Army but the settlement itself was set aside from direct invasion. It is in that moment of time that we are brought in the life of little Jim, the main character in "Empire of the Sun". His parents are English, he goes to private school, his household has Chinese servants.

During childhood I remember my imagination was intensely inspired by war documentaries, war movies, and all kinds of books and stories on militaristic subject from all the times of human history. Little Jim is under that same thrall of the war machinery. It is devoid of morals, his imagination feasts on the image of overflying Japanese fighter planes and bombers. He dreams of taking the place of a killed Japanese pilot when his parents drive by a knocked down fighter planes. He admires the imagined bravery of the Japanese soldiers.

The idyll ends when Japan occupies the International Settlement, in the chaos Jim is separated from his parents and he has to fend for himself until the end of the war.

I found it easy to immerse myself in the times by the way it told the story with the words and the thoughts of a child. The most interesting thing is that it managed to convey how different is the measure of horror that people have when they grow up. Many terrible aspects of the war Jim takes as a given, for example he is unperturbed by seeing beheaded people, and he musters his capacity to survive in a very basic, practical level. When war takes half of the life as you remember it, the war becomes your life. Jim is entrepreneurial instead of depressed, in a stark contrast to the adult prisoners in the camp.

I stumbled on JG Ballard when I came across his obituary. It was notably chronicled in most of the newspapers and magazines I read. Most memorable impression left the words of his daughter which came out in The Guardian [3]. After that I set about reading a bit more about his life and I imagined that I might like his books. "Empire of the Sun" is wonderful.

[1] Shanghai French Concession [wikipedia.org]
[2] Shanghai International Settlement [wikipedia.org]
[3] J. G. Ballard, by Bea Ballard (An Obituary) [guardian.co.uk]
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Jun 04, 2010 Jade rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, 1001-books

This book is true literary genius. I give this a 5 for the beauty and feel of the writing, however, as I found it tragic and harrowing have had to give it a 4 based on my own wish to plough through.

This book tells the story of Jim an English boy whose survival in China through the second world war is based upon the childhood memories of J G Ballard's own ordeal. Although Jim is parentless through his journey, I think that the Vincents paint a picture of his own family.

Painfully realistic Ballard...more

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Aug 26, 2009 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A powerful book, which should be on the syllabi of many English Literature courses, as well as courses about modern warfare or WWII. I haven't seen the movie adaptation (nor do I plan to) and was unaware as to what the book was about, but chose Empire of the Sun based on the name recognition given to J.G. Ballard, and an article which discusses his career http://www.nybooks.com/articles/artic...

This is a beautifully written book about an awful topic, but Ballard's style and cinematic approach, a...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: red-queen

for decades Ballard made his name with surrealistic, apocalyptic science fiction, supporting his widower's family, to culminate in the hypnotic 'Crash,' but perhaps never achieving true mainstream attention until 'Empire of the Sun,' a memoir about three years in Shanghai internment center under the Japanese burst onto the scene.

does this explain something about the years of a human life? or was it just a case of perfect timing, Japan beginning to assert itself economically and culturally after...more

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May 31, 2011 Mia Claire rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: about-war, historical-fiction, novel, japan, china, 1001-books, core

I watched the movie of this book first before reading it so even before I open the book and skim its pages, I already have the grasp of the general idea and the plot line of the book. The movie was good. In fact, it made me cry so hard so when I learned that it's based on a novel by J.G. Ballard, I decided to read the book. I thought the book would be "just like the movie" but when I started reading… from the first chapter, "The Eve of Pearl Harbor", it hit me that it's different from the movie....more I watched the movie of this book first before reading it so even before I open the book and skim its pages, I already have the grasp of the general idea and the plot line of the book. The movie was good. In fact, it made me cry so hard so when I learned that it's based on a novel by J.G. Ballard, I decided to read the book. I thought the book would be "just like the movie" but when I started reading… from the first chapter, "The Eve of Pearl Harbor", it hit me that it's different from the movie. There are some certain differences between the two like in the book Jim was interned in Lunghua camp but in the movie he's interned in Soochow camp. Yes, the movie got the same concept as of the book… Japs, World War II, internment camps, sufferings, poverty but the book's more 'complete' or maybe 'detailed' is the appropriate term.

Ballard's novel portrayed Jim with more precision that the movie. I found the Jim of the book better than the Jim of the movie. Don't get me wrong there. I'm not saying that Christian Bale (Jim) didn't act well, in fact, he was good and he carried it out really well. What I'm pointing out is the Jim in the book was described better… J.G. Ballard did a great job of creating Jim out of his experiences and imagination. What with all those childlike thoughts that he inserted in every chapter, those never-ending ideas, there's no doubt that Jim is really an amusing child. Ballard painted him beautifully with his words.

But despite Ballard's amusing portrayal of Jim, the book wasn't able to induce from me some emotion like what the movie did. I never shed a tear while reading the book. I expected that I would cry while reading but then, maybe Ballard didn't intend his readers to be moved to emotions by his book. I guess his sole intention of telling the story of Jim is to dig up and remember his buried past in China particularly in Shanghai and in the internment camp where he and his parents lived for several years.

I think the book is a success and I like it. It perfectly depicted the Second World War in the eyes of a child like Jim. The movie is also good in a different way. The book is better but the movie has a better ending. Gosh, I cried a bucketful of tears during the ending of the movie. The book and the movie are both a masterpiece in its own way.
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Aug 31, 2010 David rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: light-orange-band

I must have drifted out at crucial points because I found the geography very confusing. How far was the airfield from the camp? And the Olympic stadium? The Bund? That ceramic factory? The French Concession? How did the Japanese drivers get lost, when Jim can almost always see all these places? The map at the front of the book is crap and doesn't include many of the locations.

I thought that the action was confusing at times. I’d have an image of what was happening and suddenly someone would pop...more

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Dec 09, 2010 Nurshafiqa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

this is the first book i have ever read in my life that is related to history and war. and since it was my first time, i was pretty clueless at first but as the story progresses, i find myself getting more immersed. now i know why steven spielberg made this into a movie!

for the first few chapters, i had to read some sentences and paragraphs a few times before i got the gist of it. the author's way describing was perhaps too good for my limited vocabulary. i had to check the dictionary a few time...more

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About J.G. Ballard

J.G. Ballard (James Graham Ballard) was born in 1930 in Shanghai, China where his father was a businessman. After the attack on Pearl Harbour, Ballard and his family were placed in a civilian prison camp. They returned to England in 1946. After two years at Cambridge, where he read medicine, Ballard worked as a copywriter and a Covent Garden porter before going to Canada with the RAF.

In 1956 his f...more

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Quotes from Empire of the Sun

“All around them were the bodies of dead Chinese soldiers. They lined the verges of the roads and floated in the canals, jammed together around the pillars of the bridges. In the trenches between the burial mounds hundreds of dead soldiers sat side by side with their heads against the torn earth, as if they had fallen asleep together in a deep dream of war.” — 3 people liked it

“To his surprise he felt a moment of regret, of sadness that his quest for his mother and father would soon be over. As long as he searched for them he was prepared to be hungry and ill, but now that the search had ended he felt saddened by the memory of all he had been through, and of how much he had changed. He was closer now to the ruined battlefields and this fly-infested truck, to the nine sweet potatoes in the sack below the driver's seat, even in a sense to the detention center, than he would ever be again to his house in Amherst Avenue.” — 2 people liked it

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