In High-Rise, Ballard once again attacks our uneasy truce with the artificial. Four futuristic high-rise apartment buildings have been built...
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Nov 29, 2011
Blair
rated it: 
Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months. How's that for a great opening sentence?
I picked High-Rise at random from a load of books I'd downloaded onto my Kindle - simply because I had no idea what to read next, it's fairly short, and the first page really grabbed my attention. It's set completely within a vast, self-contained tower block co More...
I picked High-Rise at random from a load of books I'd downloaded onto my Kindle - simply because I had no idea what to read next, it's fairly short, and the first page really grabbed my attention. It's set completely within a vast, self-contained tower block co More...
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Jan 29, 2012
Charles Dee
rated it: 
Imagine the bloated bestseller that could be made from the material in this book. We would be introduced to characters as they moved into their apartments, background sketches of each provided, then the first hints that something was beginning to go wrong would appear, graphic sexual and violent acts would be described in detail, and 458 pages with wide margins later, things would come to an end.
This is how Ballard opens his novel:
Later, as he sat on the balcony eating t More...
This is how Ballard opens his novel:
Later, as he sat on the balcony eating t More...
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Dec 11, 2007
Ollie
rated it:
J. G. Ballard is a bit of a one-trick pony. Every novel I've read of his (and I've read quite a few) features the same type of characters going through the same type of breakdown, usually engineered by a powerful psychotic antagonist or a dystopic setting, with always a pessimistic end result. The Drowned World explored this in a planet where the polar caps melted; The Drought went the opposite way, thrusting the characters into a mad world with no water; Super-Cannes showed what happened when
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Dec 09, 2007
Jon
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The master of the "literal" metaphor, J.G. Ballard gives us a ready-made society in a live-work-play high-rise apartment building/shopping center that devolves into a Lord of the Flies style battle for survival. Consumerism, class struggle, the ingrained tribal tendencies of humans and their quick reversion to animalistic tendencies under duress--it's like a sociology class without all the fun sucked out.
There is always so much to talk about in a Ballard novel, and this is More...
There is always so much to talk about in a Ballard novel, and this is More...
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Sep 13, 2011
Steve
rated it:
J.G. Ballard’s dystopian novel, High Rise, opens with one of the more memorable first sentences I’ve encountered in contemporary fiction:
“Later, as he sat on the balcony eating the dog, Dr. Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous months.”
The novel essentially starts at its ending. But Laing does have a story to tell. What starts out as some minor vandalism between the floor inhabitants, es More...
“Later, as he sat on the balcony eating the dog, Dr. Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous months.”
The novel essentially starts at its ending. But Laing does have a story to tell. What starts out as some minor vandalism between the floor inhabitants, es More...
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Jul 28, 2009
D_Davis
rated it:
Not my favorite Ballard, but not my least favorite either. I think it would have worked better as a short story, or a longer novella.
***
Whenever I read JG Ballard I get an uneasy feeling, a feeling of unrest, of apprehension about the world in which we live. It's as if the words of his books tune my brain onto a faint but all-too-real frequency broadcasting the fragility of post-modern urban living.
***
I started JG Ballard's High Rise this morning More...
***
Whenever I read JG Ballard I get an uneasy feeling, a feeling of unrest, of apprehension about the world in which we live. It's as if the words of his books tune my brain onto a faint but all-too-real frequency broadcasting the fragility of post-modern urban living.
***
I started JG Ballard's High Rise this morning More...
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Nov 16, 2008
Jack
rated it:
My first Ballard, and definitely good enough to prompt more in the future. The events follow a familiar Lord of Flies pattern of social entropy, with a high-rise building becoming an island unto itself. What's really bold and disturbing about how the tenants' degeneration into barbarism in Ballard's book is that is largely voluntary. Peopld marooned on an island, stranded in space, etc., usually succumb to their primitive instincts; Ballard's characters embrace those instincts like old friend
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Nov 16, 2011
Rhys
rated it:
I don't know why it always takes me so long to read a Ballard book. I never race through them at high speed. On the contrary it always takes me weeks or even months to get through a Ballard novel. When it comes to collections of his short stories the situation is even worse: I began reading *The Venus Hunters* in 1989 but didn't finish it until 2005. Rather a long time for a single book! Even *Vermilion Sands* took me ages to finish and that collection contains one of the best short stories (per
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May 23, 2009
R.
rated it:
Coming...someday...to a theater near you! - I wonder if they'll keep the reality TV vibe; the television producer with warpaint, stalking the corridors of the high-rise with his video camera "shooting" his prey.
Unfortunately, this film will probably be dismissed as Fight Club-for-the-Wealthy (why go to a dirty club downtown when you can scrap with the Van Richensteins down the hall?) and be more panned than scanned.
***
Martin Amis' review here
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Unfortunately, this film will probably be dismissed as Fight Club-for-the-Wealthy (why go to a dirty club downtown when you can scrap with the Van Richensteins down the hall?) and be more panned than scanned.
***
Martin Amis' review here
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Feb 06, 2009
Jennifer
rated it:
I went back and forth between four and five stars here, but High-Rise was really one of my favorite types of books. So five stars it is. It's a cynical bit of apocalyptic fiction with a biting sense of humor about the ways in which bored middle- and upper class communities will create their own sense of danger and drama. Basically the residents of this towering high rise slowly turn against one another in packs, brutalizing first the building and then one other for reasons they never seem to fu
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Dec 11, 2011
Robert
rated it:
The high-rise tower block of the title is Ballard's microcosm of modern society. Faced with a literal representation of their place in society (the wealthier residents live on the upper floors, allowing them to figuratively and physically look down on their inferiors), the tit-for-tat passive/aggressive behaviour which characterises many neighbourhoods quickly escalates just as the residents themselves regress to violent tribalism.
Told from the perspective of three characters, the denizens More...
Told from the perspective of three characters, the denizens More...
Oct 28, 2011
Ugh
rated it:
This is ambitious, and successfully so in that Ballard manages to sustain the goings on admirably throughout, and yet at the same time it kind-of feels like one long climax, in that depravity reigns from pretty much start to finish, and hence despite its impressiveness it's also a bit repetitive, a bit one-note, a bit dull. I did find the final third more interesting than the first two thirds, but I don't think I can say why, because it's all basically the same.
Also, it's not very believabl More...
Also, it's not very believabl More...
May 26, 2010
Stephen
rated it: 
I read this on a whim after hearing plans were in the works to make a movie out of it. I did a little homework and found out that Ballard was behind such works as Empire of the Sun and Crash, and I thought, well, it might not be all bad.
It was.
Well, let me re-phrase that. It was bad by today's standards. It was likely fairly shocking and even revelatory by 1970s standards.
Here's the premise. There's a high rise built in Manhattan that is so inclusive in terms of More...
It was.
Well, let me re-phrase that. It was bad by today's standards. It was likely fairly shocking and even revelatory by 1970s standards.
Here's the premise. There's a high rise built in Manhattan that is so inclusive in terms of More...
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May 20, 2009
Sean
rated it:
I can't add that much to the reviews already posted here. Ballard's specialty is showing what happens to (supposedly) 'civilised' domesticated primates when the veneer of civilisation is scraped away quickly from them. In Ballard's vision, they revert back to the lower-brain functions of brute survival (at least the male domesticated primates do).
If you allow yourself to be engrossed in this novel - it may terrify and sicken you, but it will haunt you for a little while. Sure, the st More...
If you allow yourself to be engrossed in this novel - it may terrify and sicken you, but it will haunt you for a little while. Sure, the st More...
Jan 25, 2012
Jessica
rated it:
Ballard's style is certainly unique. As the world falls apart his narration keeps a sense of detachment and calm that's disconcerting to any reader.
In this book, just about to be printed in the US though it was written in the 70's, the residents of a high rise apartment building go from being just another group of neighbors to something horrifying. It starts as mild class warfare. The families with children on the lower floors, the professionals on the middle floors, and the upper clas More...
In this book, just about to be printed in the US though it was written in the 70's, the residents of a high rise apartment building go from being just another group of neighbors to something horrifying. It starts as mild class warfare. The families with children on the lower floors, the professionals on the middle floors, and the upper clas More...
Jan 03, 2011
F.R.
rated it:
This is an excellent, disturbing and visionary novel which shows Ballard on absolute top form. The residents of a tower block – the ‘High Rise’ of the title’ – find that within the building’s confines, society begins to crumble and their notion of humanity becomes more and more feral. At the beginning this takes the form of petty disputes, but soon the residents of each floor form themselves into packs and battle for control of the lifts and stairwells, and even launch raids onto other levels. A
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Oct 26, 2011
Michael
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High Rise's narrative restraint catches up with it in parts, it's a shame as the Lord of the Flies concept hasn't found as interesting a home since that I'm aware of. Pedants beware: verisimilitude is tested here, and continuity wavers in a not-so-good way. Things like this irritate me and strike me as laziness - several references, for example, to the lack of functioning air-conditioning contributing to residents' discomfort after it has been established that we are in autumn/winter. The book p
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Oct 17, 2010
Lisa
rated it:
'Later, as he sat on the balcony eating the dog...'
And so starts another look at the fragility of the society which we have built for ourselves, as the residents of an elegant and exclusive tower block which caters to their every need become increasingly isolated from the outside world and, devoid from any real structure or need to comply with the accepted 'rules' for civilised living, soon give in to their most primal and base urges.
Strangely plausible, even given the ta More...
And so starts another look at the fragility of the society which we have built for ourselves, as the residents of an elegant and exclusive tower block which caters to their every need become increasingly isolated from the outside world and, devoid from any real structure or need to comply with the accepted 'rules' for civilised living, soon give in to their most primal and base urges.
Strangely plausible, even given the ta More...
Dec 21, 2011
La Stamberga dei Lettori
rated it:
Il Condominio è senz'altro uno dei più noti romanzi di J.G. Ballard, al punto da non aver bisogno di una presentazione. Un avveniristico grattacielo abitato da duemila inquilini, appartamenti di tutti i tipi, piscine, ristoranti e scuole, un ambiente claustrofobicamente chiuso e autonomo, una vera e propria città verticale: simbolo e metafora dell'età contemporanea. Leggere questo romanzo, del quale ho sempre sentito parlare, non ne ha però arricchito la conoscenza. E' il vizio dei romanzi a tes
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Jan 09, 2012
Lea
rated it:
"Hell is other people": this estimation by Jean Paul Sartre might be used to summarise this book, which could alternatively be described as a modern-day "Lord of the Flies". Yet I felt constantly alienated by the lack of psychological insights into any of the characters: I ended up not particularly empathising with any of them, or even clearly differentiating them. Perhaps the author intended precisely this reaction in the reader. The descriptions of the details of charact
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Dec 31, 2011
Kelanth, in tenebris lux tua
rated it:
Appena finita la lettura di questo libro e durante le ultime pagine di lettura, volevo concretamente stroncarlo, poi ho cominciato a rifletterci e ho aspettato un poco a scriverne la recensione.
Decisamente questo è un libro da ponderare, far decantare per capirne tutte le sfumature e gli aspetti sociali e psicologici; è sicuramente una lettura difficile e pesante da affrontare a dispetto delle poche pagine da cui è composto.
Piccoli litigi e lamentele in un condominio ultr More...
Decisamente questo è un libro da ponderare, far decantare per capirne tutte le sfumature e gli aspetti sociali e psicologici; è sicuramente una lettura difficile e pesante da affrontare a dispetto delle poche pagine da cui è composto.
Piccoli litigi e lamentele in un condominio ultr More...
Mar 21, 2011
Scott
rated it:
The horror of all mod cons!
what could possibly go wrong in a 40 story luxury high-rise, complete with its own supermarket, school and sculpture garden?
In Ballard's world, plenty.
A mediation on the alienation and stress of modern living, High-Rise follows the professional upper-middle class residents of a new high-rise condo built just outside London.
As minor problems in the building's operation mount, and champagne soaked parties on balconies become a nightly event, rumors More...
what could possibly go wrong in a 40 story luxury high-rise, complete with its own supermarket, school and sculpture garden?
In Ballard's world, plenty.
A mediation on the alienation and stress of modern living, High-Rise follows the professional upper-middle class residents of a new high-rise condo built just outside London.
As minor problems in the building's operation mount, and champagne soaked parties on balconies become a nightly event, rumors More...
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Jul 28, 2011
Natalien
rated it:
Now I know the reason why there are not so many tower blocks in UK (in comparison to Eastern Europe)! I'm not going to tag it as a horror but I'm terrifyingly fascinated that such devolution of humans seems realistic enough to happen especially in an enclosed setting.
The first paragraph is amazing (with the dog). I like the idea that the whole world was functioning as usual but only in the high-rise the society was crumbling. The difficult and long read, nonetheless.
In the Harp More...
The first paragraph is amazing (with the dog). I like the idea that the whole world was functioning as usual but only in the high-rise the society was crumbling. The difficult and long read, nonetheless.
In the Harp More...
Sep 06, 2010
MJ
rated it:
These Flamingo Modern Classic reprints of Ballard books are an annoyance: they are stuffed with extraneous extra material of a facile internetty nature. Read this next! If you liked this, read this next! This book is also a film! Wow! Isn't that great! Buy the film now! Read this boring interview!
Of all the new modern classic editions I've read, Ballard's book get the biggest advertising shunt. Probably because Ballard was never anti-capitalist as such: he seemed to delight in the digi More...
Of all the new modern classic editions I've read, Ballard's book get the biggest advertising shunt. Probably because Ballard was never anti-capitalist as such: he seemed to delight in the digi More...
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May 17, 2009
Rob
rated it:
"One rule in life", he murmured to himself, "if you can smell garlic, everything is all right." Indeed...well perhaps not in the tower block depicted in this dystopian potboiler and perhaps not if the meat in question is Alsatian.
What is it with the sixties and seventies? People then seemed to be much more willing to push the boundaries in art and literature, in life itself. There is none of the cartoonishness of our generation's form of rebellion. Ballard's rivet More...
What is it with the sixties and seventies? People then seemed to be much more willing to push the boundaries in art and literature, in life itself. There is none of the cartoonishness of our generation's form of rebellion. Ballard's rivet More...
Jan 17, 2011
abo
rated it:
Il condominio è un lussuoso grattacielo di 40 piani che si staglia con eleganza nel cielo plumbeo di una zona residenziale di Londra, un inno alla modernità e alla vita agiata. Al suo interno, un migliaio di appartamenti abitati da persone appartenenti a quella che potremmo definire alta borghesia.
Ben presto però, forse per difetti di progettazione, l’apparente perfezione dell’edificio si incrina. Sorgono problemi con gli impianti elettrici, con gli ascensori, con i condotti per la gestione dei More...
Ben presto però, forse per difetti di progettazione, l’apparente perfezione dell’edificio si incrina. Sorgono problemi con gli impianti elettrici, con gli ascensori, con i condotti per la gestione dei More...
Jan 27, 2011
Caroline
rated it:
Fantastic. Good read, quick, tight and super dark. What I especially liked was how the passivity of the general population in the high-rise (who's society rapidly deteriorates over the course of the book) mirrored my experience as a reader. I was as passively engrossed in how the characters became more and more violent-debaucherous-dirty etc. as they were to themselves. What I think underscores the larger intention of the book, to demonstrate the ugly potential of human beings. Also awesome was
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Aug 10, 2009
Adam
rated it:
This novel is a cross between Lord of the Flies and Absurdist Theater. Another entry in Ballard’s obsessive cataloging of the thin barrier separating humanity from complete savagery and the compliance of technology in breaking of that barrier. The absurdity of the situation (break down of order in a high rise that everyone refuses to leave) and the sensory realism make a disconcerting and affecting blend. An onslaught of sensory details and the darkest cooks and crannies of human malevolence. Li
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Jun 11, 2009
Anderse
rated it:
What I learned from this book: do not move to a high rise building.
No matter how many books like this (breakdown of social norms into violence/chaos similar to Blindness), it never ceases to scare the crap out of me because I know this kind of thing is possible even if this story is supposed to be exaggerated. People are animals. Selfish, boorish animals.
I did find it interesting that the women joined into the casual violence and anarchy of the high rise as easily as me More...
No matter how many books like this (breakdown of social norms into violence/chaos similar to Blindness), it never ceases to scare the crap out of me because I know this kind of thing is possible even if this story is supposed to be exaggerated. People are animals. Selfish, boorish animals.
I did find it interesting that the women joined into the casual violence and anarchy of the high rise as easily as me More...
