A review by kayteeem
High-Rise by J.G. Ballard

All the reviews that call it "Lord of the Flies" for adults, in an apartment building instead of on an island, hit the themes and the tone of the book dead on.

Even without looking at the copyright page, you can tell this was written in the '70s. It's not just the absence of modern technology, or the presence of Polaroid cameras, but the cocktail parties, the smoking and the attitude toward women. The women barely have a voice, and mostly don't rise to the level of fellow-human for the three narrators.

Spoiler

In fact, I think the only women who take much action on their own behalf is the murder-cult that ends up taking residence in the rooftop playground. Other than that, they're initially treated as status symbols, and later as property. In some ways, I found that worse than all the casual violence, which seemed a more deliberate choice used to display the descent into savagery. How women fit into society was just a base assumption.

I'd read this because I was intrigued by the trailers for the Tom Hiddleston movie, and now I can't decide if I want to see the movie just to see how the screenplay could possibly capture the content of the book, or to stay as far away from it as possible because I probably won't enjoy it.

I hadn't read any Ballard before (except possibly some of his short stories), and the writing here reminded me of Ira Levin or Anthony Burgess.