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A review by vortimer
Crash by J.G. Ballard
1.0
It's prose is carefully crafted, but this novel deserves it's notoriety - I really didn't enjoy it, therefore I'm giving it one star, despite any literary merits it may possess.
It expands on many of the themes of some of his short stories, and the Atrocity Exhibition, which I also found a struggle to get through, but puts it into a coherent narrative. The narrator Jim Ballard, being drawn into the perverted world of the charismatic monster Vaughan, a former celebrity sexually aroused by cars, car crashes, and ultimately sudden traumatic death.
There is a homoerotic aspect to the relationship that I don't recall in other Ballard works I've read. There is the usual suspicion towards women, universally faithless, and a sort of unconscious upper middle-class distain of the working class, that reminds me of Ian Fleming.
The main and supporting characters are deeply unsympathetic, and all fall under the spell of Vaughan without a struggle.
The whole reading experience left me wanting to wash my brain in warm soapy water.
It expands on many of the themes of some of his short stories, and the Atrocity Exhibition, which I also found a struggle to get through, but puts it into a coherent narrative. The narrator Jim Ballard, being drawn into the perverted world of the charismatic monster Vaughan, a former celebrity sexually aroused by cars, car crashes, and ultimately sudden traumatic death.
There is a homoerotic aspect to the relationship that I don't recall in other Ballard works I've read. There is the usual suspicion towards women, universally faithless, and a sort of unconscious upper middle-class distain of the working class, that reminds me of Ian Fleming.
The main and supporting characters are deeply unsympathetic, and all fall under the spell of Vaughan without a struggle.
The whole reading experience left me wanting to wash my brain in warm soapy water.