Comment

Dec 09, 2016lukasevansherman rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This is the opening line of J.G. Ballard's 1975 novel "High-Rise": "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." Though he was work was often mistakenly classified as sci-fi, the English writer J.G. Ballard, who grew up in Shanghai, was very much concerned about the present, especially the ways in which technology and the supposed advances in modern society (cars, cities, luxuries) impacted individuals. In "HIgh-Rise," the residents of an ultra-modern apartment building turn feral and start attacking each other, representing a larger breakdown of the social order. It forms a sort of trilogy with "Crash" and "Concrete Island." Enormously influential, but chronically underappreciated, no one has taken his place since his death in 2009. Made into an ambitious, but flawed film starring Tom "Loki" HIddleston.