Crash

The car is a potent symbol of this marriage and a violent crash the ultimate wedding. Just stand on any motorway footbridge during the evening rush-hour and Ballard's evocative prose is brought to mind. Just watch the streams of high-speed traffic flowing endlessly beneath the setting sun; each car containing within itself the potential for any number of complex collisions. The sexual urge is somehow translated into the urge to drive at speed and with the obsession with the forms of the car in all its curvatures. Indeed the many graphic sexual references in the book are clinical, stylised and highlighted in relation to an all-pervasive technology.

The backdrop of the novel is the alienating no-man's land on the sprawling outskirts of a metropolis (London). Most of the action takes place on motorway intersections, slip-roads, fly-overs, car-parks and airport terminals. In this world man has most definitely sold his soul with little return.

The writing style here is an acquired taste. Although Ballard's ideas are vivid and original the descriptive phraseology can be repetitive in structure. If you like novels with pace and well-defined plot then this book would be anathema to you. 'Crash' is almost a montage of highly descriptive vignettes played over the Outer-London wasteland: the connecting thread being the obsessional antics of Vaughan as seen from the viewpoint of Ballard (himself a character in the first person). In Vaughan we follow the development of the man/technology marriage taken to its extreme conclusion.

The sexual possibilities inherent in technology are quite fascinatingly described in these pages. The writer's obsession with the various components of a car's structure in relation to the human body and its functions become almost comically tiresome as the book progresses - but this very repetitiveness itself, like passing lights on a motorway, emphasises the soullessness and alienation of auto-technology. The scene in the automatic car-wash is particularly memorable and was picked up on to brilliant effect by Cronenberg in his 1996 screen version of the novel.

'Crash'is a novel of complex ideas and if the writer is unfamiliar to you, I think his earlier works such as 'The Drought' and 'The Drowned World' make an easier introduction. However 'Crash' can provide an enjoyable read in spite of its idiosyncratic style, disturbing content and pessimistic tone. One thing is for sure- after reading 'Crash'your experience of a high-speed motorway journey will never be quite the same again.


A great modern classic   May 12, 2003
theTramp (UK)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

If you ever hear someone moan that "There are no classics anymore." or ask "Are there any great British writers still alive?" point them to Ballard and arguably his masterpiece, Crash.

I say arguably, because the catalogue of J G Ballard is littered with classics. Empire of the Sun, Crystal World, Attrocity Exhibition and more, far more.

This is not a book for everyone. Ballard is not to all tastes, at least not at first. If you try Crash and feel alienated from it or find that it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, try his short stories and work your way back to Crash once you've adjusted to him & acquired a taste for his style, his subject matter and his characters.

But don't be put off by anyone who claims to find Crash 'turgid' or worse. To not read Crash is really rather shameful.


A Work Of Genius   March 19, 2003
Steven Moses
5 out of 10 found this review helpful

Ballard's dislike of modern life and in particular man's obsession with the motor car and the concrete monstrosities it runs on are central to this brilliant novel. Only Ballard has the imagination and insight into 20th/21st century life to write such a book. Only Ballard has the nerve and the literary audacity to show us what we have become. Ballard takes a premise and fashions it into a novel of such thought-provoking brilliance that anyone who awards this less than 5 stars has missed the point completely.


A Postmodern Classic   February 21, 2003
Ms. L. Thacker (UK)
8 out of 10 found this review helpful

To say that J.G Ballard's classic postmodern novel is merely out for the 'shock value' it can extract from its reader is completely missing the point.

This isn't an erotic novel, the sexual content is handled in such a way to make it clinical, almost replulsive to the reader (sexual organs are described with as much enthusiasm as a steering wheel column). Sex becomes just another mechanical act, like driving a car, the repetition only serves to highlight that fact. The endless cycle and the numbing realisation that as a postmodern audience we become deadened to the horrors that surround us that are brought into our homes by the media is also central to understanding this text.

Ballard's novel brings to light the desensitised nature of human beings who watch mass murders on the nightly news with as much affect as the advertisement for soap powder which follows.

Ballard's novel is an implossion of fantasy and reality. Bringing together the society that thrives on spectacle to the point that watching a car crash has become prime time viewing. The death of affect - the fulfilment of human passions onto material technologies rather than people, resulting in a displacement of passion and an inability to connect is also central to this text.

After this read The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter.