Crash (Paladin Books)

by J. G. Ballard

Zadie Smith (Introduction)

The definitive cult, post-modern novel – a shocking blend of violence, transgression and eroticism – reissued with an introduction from Zadie Smith.

After being bombarded endlessly by road-safety propaganda it was almost a relief to find myself in an actual accident.

When James Ballard smashes his car into another, he becomes fascinated with the allure of violence. His new friend Dr Robert Vaughan – a charismatic figure with a dubious sense of morality – leads him to a transgressive underworld of desire, where the collision of modernity and sex are pushed to the extremes. In a society ruled by mass-media and technological advancements, are there any limits to humanity’s obsessions?

• ISBN13: 9780007287024
• Publish Date: 1 September 2008 (first published 1 January 1973)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Fourth Estate Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 208
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[Cameron Trost]

Ballard writes like a profoundly disturbed painter and this book is not so much a "story" as a series of images designed to show us how twisted we are (well, some of us) and how our relationship with technology and consumerism is a complicated and uneasy one. Ballard's prose is astounding. He creates vivid images with his words. Crash starts off with impact and hooks the reader in, the conclusion is successful too. If I have one criticism, it's that it gets quite repetitive in the third quarter. If you've read Ballard before, you must read Crash. If you haven't, why not start with this? Just be warned, it hits hard.