High-Rise in Around the World in 80 Books

Sep 09, 2011 Steve rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, sci-fi-and-fantasy

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, escalates into violence, murde 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, escalates into violence, murder, rape, incest, cannibalism and, well, dog-food. It’s pretty clear that Ballard thinks little of the human race, and reading this relatively short novel can be a chore. (Especially so for me, since I had just finished an uplifting and noble collection of poetry -- composed in the Gulag -- by a Russian dissident and champion for human rights.) I almost didn’t finish High Rise as a sort of protest against Ballard’s extreme misanthropy.

But Ballard does have something to say, no matter how sour and bitter the novel reads. (I seriously wonder if, during his captivity (as a child) during World War II, something broke within the man.) The novel is about class warfare (sort of). But this is only an approximation. As conditions and behavior get more primitive, there’s really nothing to distinguish the various groups other than the floors they are on. They’re all savages; we’re all savages, which is Ballard’s point.

Oh, for structure's sake, there are leaders who serve as focal points. At the top of the building resides the architect who built the place, named Royale; at the bottom of the complex is an ex rugby player and TV producer named Wilder. Get it? But even these two, and what they represent, becomes meaningless, as Ballard numbingly (but deliberately) peels back the layers of civilized (and in Ballard’s eyes, phony) behavior. It’s all a slaughterhouse. That’s not sloppy writing on Ballard’s part. Far from it, as the ending is very well done. But admiring the writing doesn’t translate into enjoying the story. Ugh!
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Jul 17, 2013 Kent Winward rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Ballard does dysfunctional fictional worlds as parables for our real world struggles better than just about anybody else. This novel shows a disintegrating high rise acting a lot like a disintegrating globe. Satirical, funny and chilling -- all in one fictional parable.

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