Rushing to Paradise: Amazon.ca: Books

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First Sentence
'SAVE THE ALBATROSS . . .. ! Stop nuclear testing now . . . !' Read the first page

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Concordance

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

Average Customer Review

3.5 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Ballard bites off a big chunk with this one, Jan 19 2001

By	Dan Seitz "cinnatusc" (Somerville, MA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Rushing to Paradise: A Novel (Paperback)

And I'm glad to say it was easy for him to chew. This is a perceptive and actually pretty nasty take on the more extreme ends of enviromentalism and feminism, the points where the former becomes psychosis and the latter becomes sexism of a virulent and violent sort.

What I love most about Ballard is his willingness to probe the darker corners of the human psyche. It's a rare gift to want to explore these places, let alone use them to comment on our society. This is an excellent book and worth your cash!

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4.0 out of 5 stars An important book about Political Correctness., Oct 30 1999

By	Gordon Weinstein - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rushing to Paradise: A Novel (Paperback)

An extremely important work and one that should be read by anyone interested in the uses of Political Correctness for repression. In ordinary circumstances a person like Dr. Barbara would either remain harmless or would swiftly be judged an intellectual fraud and a homocidal maniac. What this woman succeeds in doing, however, is to use the "liberal" predilections of other people against them to contrive dystopic circumstances that are extraordinary, putting her outside the possibility of judgment and allowing her to murder at will. The models for Dr. Barbara derive from such ancient sources as the myth of the Women of Lemnos and such modern ones as Moby Dick: she is a feminist Captain Ahab and is endowed with all of Melville's madman's persuasiveness and executive skills. A brilliant book, which belongs on the same shellf with Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and Lord of the Flies.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Not your average book, Aug 18 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Rushing to Paradise: A Novel (Paperback)

I really liked Rushing to Paradise and I don't see how it generated such negative reviews; except to say that it IS a "politically incorrect" book. Author Ballard has strange, almost hallucinatory descriptive powers which he delivers in cool, matter of fact language. Above all, the book resonates with a twilight of the gods atmosphere. Maybe not for everyone, but this doesn't make it a bad book. Quite the contrary.

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Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars The WORST book I have ever read
I bought this book after reading the totally amazing "Crash". It took my a week to just get halfway through it before I said to myself, "You know, reading for fun... Read more

Published on Jun 19 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars Rushing to purgatory
In Rushing to Paradise, J.G. Ballard paints a memorable and disturbing picture of idealism run amok within the paradise of a Pacific atoll. Read more

Published on Jun 3 1999

3.0 out of 5 stars not his best, but it is James!
I have read several of Ballard's books, and many of his favorite ideas are here: tyranny, the cult of personality, "the kindness of women" (a real joke, that),... Read more

Published on Sep 15 1998

1.0 out of 5 stars Uninsightful and soulless
I give this book 2 stars only as I read it avidly. Two reasons for this. First, there was always the chance of a sexual or violent encounter on any page and Ballard seemed to do... Read more

Published on Jul 11 1998 by Damien Eames (damien@london.com)