The novel opens with the narrator recovering in hospital after a serious car crash in which he has killed the husband of a young woman doctor. In his pain-filled dreams he finds himself dominated by strange sexual fantasies, and he determines to find the real meaning of this horrific experience. When he leaves hospital he revisits the scene of the crash, and meets the woman doctor. During their affair they begin an exploration of the motor-car in all forms, attending stock-car races, watching test vehicles being crashed, conducting a variety of sexual experiments on London motorways. A disquieting vision of the future in which sex and technology form a nighmare marriage.
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.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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31 March, 2013:
Finished reading
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31 March, 2013:
Reviewed