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A review by jflux
The Kindness of Women by J.G. Ballard
2.0
when i was in grammar school or jr. high school (middle school to some of you freaks) i read "the world according to garp" and my eyes were jerked wide open, revealing so suddenly that adulthood was a desolate place where i wasn't sure i ever wanted to be. there was a build-up of this feeling throughout the book, but i distinctly remember the exact scene where this warning exploded in my face, making everything crystal clear and filling me with a nihilism that took me decades to shake.
this book gave me a shadowy echo of the same feeling, this time centered around the middle-aged years so closely ahead of me. desperation and desolation chase each other like car crash fetishists around the streets of london through most of the book, making me feel like i wanted to slam on the brakes and let it all fly past. true. there are some truly transcendent and beautiful moments, some scenes that stopped my heart a little, but mostly i wanted it to end.
i also have to complain, though maybe some others won't care as much as i do, that this is less of a sequel and more of a retelling of empire of the sun. or, rather, it starts with a retelling. suddenly we are back in lunghua camp, but there are all these people who hadn't been there before, all these situations that hadn't existed in the earlier work. i wouldn't mind so much, especially with the new characters added, some of whom i quite enjoyed, but these new storylines effectively erase some of the most poignant moments, and characters, in the "first" book.
some parts of this book would get two more stars, others one less. but, you know, you get what you pay for.
if anyone is interested (though my tenth grade english teacher would gape at the presumption of placing an author's reality on top of his fiction, and the man still influences my decisions to this day) this site has an interesting breakdown of what is fact and what is fiction in this book: http://www.jgballard.ca/criticism/jgb_pringle_kindness.html.
warning. spoilers. duh.
p.s. as a ballard fan, i knew one day i would have to face my techno-aversion and actually read "Crash." i even tried once, but stalled something like ten pages into it. this book had enough of that other work in it to free me from this obligation. at least that's what my mind says. so, it was worth it for that.
this book gave me a shadowy echo of the same feeling, this time centered around the middle-aged years so closely ahead of me. desperation and desolation chase each other like car crash fetishists around the streets of london through most of the book, making me feel like i wanted to slam on the brakes and let it all fly past. true. there are some truly transcendent and beautiful moments, some scenes that stopped my heart a little, but mostly i wanted it to end.
i also have to complain, though maybe some others won't care as much as i do, that this is less of a sequel and more of a retelling of empire of the sun. or, rather, it starts with a retelling. suddenly we are back in lunghua camp, but there are all these people who hadn't been there before, all these situations that hadn't existed in the earlier work. i wouldn't mind so much, especially with the new characters added, some of whom i quite enjoyed, but these new storylines effectively erase some of the most poignant moments, and characters, in the "first" book.
some parts of this book would get two more stars, others one less. but, you know, you get what you pay for.
if anyone is interested (though my tenth grade english teacher would gape at the presumption of placing an author's reality on top of his fiction, and the man still influences my decisions to this day) this site has an interesting breakdown of what is fact and what is fiction in this book: http://www.jgballard.ca/criticism/jgb_pringle_kindness.html.
warning. spoilers. duh.
p.s. as a ballard fan, i knew one day i would have to face my techno-aversion and actually read "Crash." i even tried once, but stalled something like ten pages into it. this book had enough of that other work in it to free me from this obligation. at least that's what my mind says. so, it was worth it for that.