A review by robertrivasplata
Concrete Island by J.G. Ballard

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The perfect book for quarantining with Covid. A man stranded, isolated, sick, hurting, tiring,weakening eventually forgetting there is any other existence. Applies the Ballard extreme landscape novel template to the land that is stranded between the ramps & viaducts of highway interchanges, effectively taking the general plot & sort of setting of something like the Drowned World, & cramming it into a tiny point on the map. Makes explicit the regressed, atavistic, introversion theme of various other Ballard novels & stories. “The image in his mind of a small boy playing endlessly by himself in a long suburban garden surrounded by a high fence seemed strangely comforting.” In Concrete Island, childhood solitude & loneliness is “mythologized” & being stranded in the middle of a freeway interchange activates feelings of nostalgia, & return to childhood. I would ask “wtf happened to Ballard as a kid?”, but I read Empire of the Sun, so I have a general idea. Of course reading Concrete Island today in 2023, I can't help but think about how today countless spaces like “the Island” across America are settled by veritable communities of down on their luck unhoused people. Maitland would potentially have difficulty finding an open spot for his car-parts shelter, but would probably have a wider community of people whose resources he could draw on, instead of the dubious Man Fridays he does encounter. A very logical follow-up to Crash.