High-rise (Movie Tie-In Editions, #0) (1970s a)

by J. G. Ballard

From the author of `Crash' and `Cocaine Nights' comes an unnerving tale of life in a modern tower block running out of control.

Within the concealing walls of an elegant forty-storey tower block, the affluent tenants are hell-bent on an orgy of destruction. Cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on `enemy' floors and the once-luxurious amenities become an arena for riots and technological mayhem.

In this visionary tale of urban disillusionment society slips into a violent reverse as the isolated inhabitants of the high-rise, driven by primal urges, create a dystopian world ruled by the laws of the jungle.

This edition is part of a new commemorative series of Ballard's works, featuring introductions from a number of his admirers (including Iain Sinclair, Ali Smith, Neil Gaiman and Martin Amis) and brand-new cover designs.

• ISBN10: 0224011685
• ISBN13: 9780224011686
• Publish Date: 13 November 1975
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 17 October 2003
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Vintage Publishing
• Imprint: Jonathan Cape Ltd
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 208
• Language: English

Reviews

[lindsey]

To be quite honest, this is not a book I would normally be interested in reading, and the only reason I decided to give it a try was because Tom Hiddleston narrated it. And, honestly, the only reason I finished it was because Tom Hiddleston narrated it.

It was a struggle to finish, I'm not going to lie. It started out okay - I was interested, at least - but it quickly went downhill, and it was all I could do to keep listening. I am truly baffled by the number of glowing reviews on Goodreads because I found nothing redeemable about it at all. I know everyone has different tastes, but I truly didn't enjoy this one.

Maybe I missed something pivotal, and I'm sure there are plenty of people who will be only too happy to tell me I missed the point, but I just didn't like anything about this one. I didn't like the characters, the plot, the pacing, or the dialogue.

I wouldn't have reviewed this one at all if not for my goal to review every book I read in 2020 because I typically don't review books I dislike. I deleted my first, more scathing, review for this, in an effort to write a review that didn't include thirty exclamation points and multiple all-caps sentences.

Story aside, Tom Hiddleston's narration was the only high point for me. He's an excellent narrator with a soothing voice, which was good because I needed to be calmed down while listening to this book.

[Cameron Trost]

The breakdown of social order in the high-rise results from the escalation of tensions stemming from petty annoyances and rivalry. With each chapter, as these middle-class residents return to a state of barbarism, they shed the apparel of their superficial civility item by item. Simultaneously, the high-rise becomes a savage society unto itself and a symbol of each resident's mindset. This is quite possibly the most entertaining, poignant, and effective novel I've ever read. It begins with, 'Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months.'

[inlibrisveritas]

Utterly insane
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If I had to describe what listening to High-Rise felt like, I’d say skydiving…with a near death experience. We get our start towards the end, where our parachute isn’t opening and we’re getting too low, and then we get a flash those moments of ascending, joy, turbulence, terror, and the finally the long long fall into something that could either kill you…or change you.

With the new movie coming out, i knew I wanted to read this one BEFORE I let myself watch anything and ruin it for me…it just so happens that Tom Hiddleston reads the audible audio and that was all the extra push I needed. High Rise is different from your average dystiopian. It’s not so much that people are fighting against a literal authority, so much as they are fighting what the building represented. We follow three characters Robert Lang (doctor), Wilder (film maker), and Royal (the owner of the high-rise) as they each deal with the high-rises growing problems and struggle to keep their standing within it. The problems within the high-rise start small, with a few power outages or broken trash chutes…but pretty soon people are finding reasons not to leave the building, and aggression becomes the norm. The decent in to chaos happens quickly, and the submission to the on coming storm is nearly universal. Basically what I’m getting at is, nearly everyone goes bat-shit crazy and they actually enjoy the chaos it’s brought to their once lavish apartments. It was pretty cool to note the progress in the change of social classes as well as gender differences, and over time they begin to subtly shift.

After listening to this I am not convinced that Tom Hiddleston needs to make a secondary career out of being a narrator. For those who don’t know, he’s pretty good doing voice work and he really taps into that here. Plus, his voice is really nice to listen to…even when he’s saying the craziest things.

High Rise is an excellent read! It’s really fast paced and full of chilling moments that refuse to let you press pause. It’s full on conflicting emotions like excitement and disgust, the want to improve things and see how far they fall. It’s one gigantic mess of human nature as it rises, falls, and changes.