High-Rise: A Novel

J. G. Ballard

Mar 2012 · W. W. Norton & Company

About this eBook

"Harsh and ingenious! High Rise is an intense and vivid bestiary, which lingers unsettlingly in the mind." —Martin Amis, New Statesman When a class war erupts inside a luxurious apartment block, modern elevators become violent battlegrounds and cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on “enemy” floors. In this visionary tale, human society slips into violent reverse as once-peaceful residents, driven by primal urges, re-create a world ruled by the laws of the jungle.

Ratings and reviews

One of my favorites from high school AP English, very representative of the best, most intellectual, science-fiction of that era. The 70s was big for dystopian fiction. This is one of the better examples, touching both social and personal problems on a warped mirror of reality, with just enough futurism to make the premise viable. Ballard's writing is sharp, its like a dialog with the reader...where one side is so interesting you don't interrupt. It shows, in hyperbolic fashion, how easily society can devolve on flimsy, economic cast systems. its definitely a statement on privilege, that's as harsh on the have's as the have not's.

I am so glad I read this book. There is no doubt in my mind that I will read this book again. I absolutely could not put it down! Without giving anything away, High-Rise is an apocalypse tale of people living in a pre-apocalyptic world. As a reader, you become involved "watching" the residents of a brand new, upscale apartment High-Rise make an absolute descent into madness...This book is exquisitely written, fully describing the atmosphere that the residents are living in and the changes they aren't even aware they are making. I am very hard to please when reading. If a book does not grab my attention within the first few pages, I cannot finish it...on the first page of the first chapter, the main character is sitting on his balcony...eating a dog. How do you stop reading that? You kind of have to find out what brought him to that point, right? Anyway, try the free sample, if you can't stop reading at that point, buy it...simple.

This book is amazing, scary, well written and very disturbing. Its frightening to think that this could happen under dire circumstances.

About the author

J.G. Ballard was born in Shanghai in 1930 and lived in England from 1946 until his death in London in 2009. He is the author of nineteen novels, including Empire of the Sun, The Drought, and Crash, with many of them made into major films.