- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: UK General Books; 1 edition (Sep 21 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0007227892
- ISBN-13: 978-0007227891
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.6 x 1.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 118 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #778,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Part spellbinding story, part fable for our time, Ballard's new novel is a vividly cinematic but nightmarish vision of a corrupted world. Dr. Mallory has come to a backward, drought-plagued and poverty ridden African country to run a WHO clinic, but constant warfare between a ragged band of guerrillas and the local chief of police has caused the tribal residents to flee. By accident, Mallory uncovers a mysterious stream that soon becomes a swiftly flowing river, and he dreams of creating a green Sahara and "saving" the Third World. Naming the river after himself and obsessively identifying with it, he immediately finds himself in conflict with Dr. Sanger, a charlatan maker of TV documentaries, who believes that his "flattering revision of nature was an act of creation as significant as the original invention of the river." Mallory undergoes a sinister change of heart, acknowledging a self-destructive impulse whose origins in his past are only dimly described. Suddenly deciding he must destroy the river, he travels toward its source on a derelict ferry with a former guerrilla, a 12-year-old girl he names Noon, and who progresses in a matter of weeks from Stone Age primitivism to a fascination with technology. Mallory encounters terrifying dangers at every stage of his quest. The area surrounding the river, which at first seemed Edenic, becomes poisoned by the water's now miasmic influence, the people along its banks falling deathly ill with fever and starvation. Mallory himself slides into full-fledged dementia and delirium as he battles the guerrillas, the militia and the forces of nature. In a narrative filled with ironies, Ballard's prose is honed and supple, often flowering into vivid lyricism. His characters are larger than life, each carrying the destructive impulses that decimate civilization. Some readers may resist the unrelievedly dark, ominous atmosphere, a profoundly depressing nightmare that goes on a little too long, and find that Mallory is too much an opaque, unsympathetic character, almost a device. Ballard's scorn for technological "marvels" (the makers of TV documentaries are "the conmen and the carpetbaggers of the late 20th century") sometimes overpowers his storytelling skills, and the roots of Mallory's suicidal obsession are never made clear. Yet this is a mesmerizing tale by a master of the craft, one that resonates with dark implications for the future of humanity on this planet.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
Ballard's demented narrator, Dr. Mallory, believes he can fertilize the Sahara with a river he has "created" in a desolate, warring region of Africa. "The river and I were one," he announces as he embarks on a search for the source of the Mallory, reminding us repeatedly that a duel is taking place between them. His companion and the object of his puerile fantasies is a native girl named Noon, whom he treats like an exotic pet. When they finally reach the source, the river dries up as Mallory kneels in it. Mallory's delusions are all we know of him and of the misfits he encounters. Consequently, we cannot care for them; we can only wish for a swift end to their implausible ordeal. Ballard's other novels, notably Empire of the Sun , may spark interest in this otherwise forgettable book. Leonard Kniffel, Detroit P.L.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Dreams of rivers, like scenes from a forgotten film, drift through the night, in passage between memory and desire. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Dreams of rivers, like scenes from a forgotten film, drift through the night, in passage between memory and desire. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good but not his best,
By gnossos poppadopoulis "gnossos poppadopoulis" (Land of the Anonymi) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Day of Creation (Paperback)
The imagery in this book is very engrossing, and after reading particular chapters I put the book down and could vividly see the Mallory River flowing before me, Noon swimming in its flowing currents. Even with this imagery, though, I find that the characters were very poorly developed for Ballard, and that though it was written in the first person I did not get into the mindset of Dr. Mallory as I was able to get into the mind of James Ballard in "Crash". A reccomended read, yes, but read a few of his others first.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful imagery,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Day of Creation (Paperback)
What I liked best about this novel was the images that Ballard was able to evoke. To be honest, I started reading it and lost interest. I picked it up some years later and was hooked. He truly can create amazing pictures in the mind unlike most writers. It is perplexing to me to see a book like The Firm getting such good reviews and being read by millions when this one is hardly even a footnote, when this book is superior in just about every way. It is not his best. I would say Crystal World, High-Rise and The Drowned World are his best, but this is a very original novel.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
2.9 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews) 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful imagery,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Day of Creation (Paperback)
What I liked best about this novel was the images that Ballard was able to evoke. To be honest, I started reading it and lost interest. I picked it up some years later and was hooked. He truly can create amazing pictures in the mind unlike most writers. It is perplexing to me to see a book like The Firm getting such good reviews and being read by millions when this one is hardly even a footnote, when this book is superior in just about every way. It is not his best. I would say Crystal World, High-Rise and The Drowned World are his best, but this is a very original novel.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting idea that falls flat.,
By Betty Ragan - Published on Amazon.com
This is one of those books that clearly isn't meant to be taken entirely literally, the kind where all the events have some kind of metaphorical significance and the exterior landscape is an obvious externalization of an interior one. When done well, this can result in extraordinarily rich and rewarding fiction, the sort of story that does profound things to deep parts of your brain and can provide new insights and emotional resonances every time you return to it. Sadly, when it's done, er, less well, what you end up with is a story that fails to work on two levels instead of just one. And while it does have a few points of interest -- enough that I almost talked myself into giving it three stars instead of two -- this novel unfortunately is one of the latter kind. The metaphors and the imagery they're captured in never seem quite rich enough or subtle enough to be really engaging, either emotionally or intellectually, and the plot in and of itself is neither particularly interesting nor especially plausible. It's been quite a while since I've read any of Ballard's other work, but from what I remember he's not exactly untalented at this sort of thing. Even talented writers occasionally fall flat, however. I wanted to like and appreciate this story, I really did. But, in the end, I was counting down the pages until I was finished and could go and read something else instead. I suspect I only finished it because I'm stubborn. My advice: If you've never read anything by Ballard, start somewhere else. And if you like some of his stuff but don't feel a burning desire to read every word he's ever read, you might as well skip this one.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
A delirious psychological odyssey...,
By Mac Tonnies - Published on Amazon.com
Ballard's 1987 novel "The Day of Creation" is a sinuous odyssey through a surrealized Africa drunk on the potential of Western technology. Ballard's narrative voice is rich and engaging, the fluctuating exterior and interior landscape rendered with delirious conviction. "The Day of Creation" reads like a particularly brutal 20th century fable, deftly pointing the cool lens of technology on our secret fascination with the Dark Continent. "The Day of Creation" has been compared to Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." But Ballard's novel is at once deeper and more topical; by infusing his story with a compelling and unlikely romance, Ballard reveals a sensual versatility lesser writers would gladly kill for. Read as an adventure story or as erotic allegory, "The Day of Creation" is a pleasure. |
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