I have just finished reading Crash by J.G. Ballard. My verdict? I read it so you don’t have to. Well, you don’t have to unless you like reading 180 pages of absolute nonsense where the word semen appears at least once in every paragraph, and you enjoy the image of women who seem to enjoy being anally penetrated over a steering wheel on the literary equivalent of the M25 in rush hour while the emergency services look on. It’s like Top Gear meets Hustler but without the staples in the centrefold.
Yes. It is that dull.
And after I finished reading it I felt like I really ought to wash my hands.
Several times.
And then scour my mind with vim.
People claim it is arty and surreal because it is written by J.G. Ballard. If it was written by Steve who lives down the road; Steve who wears snorkel parkas and smells a bit funny, he’d have been arrested and tagged by now, for the good of the community.
And you’d never let your children near his house.
Or your dog.
Oh dear ;-(
BB says to try ‘Super-Cannes’ and ‘Cocaine Nights’ if you are willing to give Ballard another try, they are not at all like ‘Crash’. I can recommend ‘Empire of the Sun’ but I expect you have already read this.
Sharon
I know I’ve seen the film of Empire of the Sun but I can’t remember if I read the book. If I did it was years and years ago. Will give him another try. I will not be defeated, although if the word semen appears more than once a chapter I might have to leave!
There was a real fashion for reading JG Ballard novels when I was at uni, also Shame by Salman Rushdie was hugely popular (there’s many a Salman Rushdie novel I like but I think I managed all of 4 pages of that one) and whatsit by Marianne Wiggins – I’ve managed to blank it entirely from my mind. There was a load of other writers that had me abandoning book after book after book, and I tend to stick with it to the bitter end, Peter Hoeg I’m looking at you. All recommended by friends, all revolting. I’m now wondering if, unbeknownst to me, there was a ‘write the most unpleasant book possible’ prize going on.
Mind, these days the first whiff of unpleasantness and I’m gone, it may be a classic but I’ll pass on The Girl wih the Dragon Tattoo and go straight to Hiccup’s Horrendous Haddock the III’s latest adventure thank you.
Wuss but smiling.
Julia
I am a big fan of Hiccup myself.x