Your favourite J.G Ballard book (novels, best, themes, teenage)

[Fear&Whiskey]

I've read all J.G Ballard's work and he is famous for many big screen adaptations of his works, primarily 'Empire Of The Sun' and 'Crash'. He was also a big influence on the band Joy Division who named one of their songs 'Atrocity Exhibition' after one of his short stories.

It has been a long time since I've read J.G Ballard but his novels and short stories introduced me to a world that was harrowing and unflinching in a way that alot of other authors that occupied my time weren't as a teenager.

My two favourite J.G Ballard books have not been made into films. They are 'Cocaine Nights' and 'Super-Cannes'. Both superbly written titles. 'Super-Cannes' tackles brutally (and hilariously) the "suburbanisation of the soul".

These themes are satirically ridiculed in what actually seems quite an implausible yet cathartic setting yet I remember enjoying these books when they first came out. 'High Rise' too is a another very good novel. The Complete Short Stories is well worth a read too.

Unquestionably a very talented writer I just wonder how which of his titles would stand the test of time and can be truly held up in 2012 as having stood the test of time as his greatest book.

[Ketabcha]

No doubt about it. My favorite is Empire of the Sun. I love that book and I learned so much history from it.

Ballard is easy to read. He's a comfortable writer even when he is describing something quite horrible.

[Bunjee]

For me it has to be Crash. There are passages of astonishing vision and brutal creativity. OTOH, Atrocity Exhibition is an incredible construction. Now I'm just gushing, though. I voted for Crash. R.I.P., Mr. Ballard.

[Fear&Whiskey]

Thanks for the great responses. I agree, I think Ballard was a magnificent short story writer and had a wonderfully accessible yet descriptive style of writing that is quite unique.

Even though 'Empire Of The Sun' was a very harrowing novel I also feel that Ballard had a way of guiding the reader through these unrelenting passages that made you feel at ease even though the descriptions were very often very difficult to contemplate.

The Doctor telling Jim to eat the flies in his food in the Japanese concentration camp is an image that has stayed with me forever. And in a way that was one of the more comforting and reassuring moments in a what was an unrelentingly bleak story.

I recall many years ago one of my neighbours refused to get in a cab not because the driver was Japanese but because the car was. I also often wondered how many Japanese people held similar resentment towards the Allied Forces, especially after the bombings that ended the war, depicted serenely with a flash and a grimace towards the latter stages of in 'Empire Of The Sun'.

As for 'Crash' it takes an author of real skill to pull off such a novel. Very exhilarating book, very provocative and unnerving. It reminds me also why perhaps some readers will never quite embrace Ballard but it is certainly one of his best and a work of startling originality.

[Bunjee]

I introduced an ex-roommate to Ballard and he remarked that the writing was too simile and metaphor driven. I disagreed, of course as a fan, since in a novel like Crash one would hope it's metaphorical! But I've kept the observation with me since then as a gentle reminder to myself.

[Fear&Whiskey]

Super-Cannes is probably a bit too metaphor and simile driven if you were going to be hyper-critical but I wouldn't say 'Crash' would fall under that bracket as provocative, descriptive imagery is the overarching focal point driving the story.

I think it would be very hard to undermine 'Crash' on the grounds that it's too metaphor driven but perhaps some of his other novels do have these traits.