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The Kindness of Women (Paperback)

by J. G. Ballard (Author)

4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

List Price:	CDN$ 16.01
Price:	CDN$ 11.56 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
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Product Details

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Picador USA (November 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312422849
ISBN-13: 978-0312422844
Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 13.5 x 3.3 cm
Shipping Weight: 250 g

Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #92,366 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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#6 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( B ) > Ballard, J.G.

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Ballard's sequel to his autobiographical epic Empire of the Sun treats the subsequent events of his life, offering visceral immediacy and piercing honesty. This title was cited in PW 's 1992 "red-and-black" issue as disappointing publishers' sales expectations in hardcover.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This elegantly structured sequel to Empire of the Sun ( LJ 11/1/84) begins again with a boy's traumatic experiences in Japanese-occupied Shanghai and ends some 40 years later with his viewing a film based on his novel about those experiences. Before this "last act in a profound catharsis," however, the narrator Jim stumbles through medical study at Cambridge, trains briefly as an RAF pilot in Canada, marries, and suffers domestic tragedy. Jim both documents and participates in the violence and excess of the 1960s, but at various moments of crisis he is fortunate enough to experience the redemptive love of women. With penetrating topical commentary and abiding wisdom, this well-crafted novel should enjoy wide appeal. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/91.
- Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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	51% buy the item featured on this page: The Kindness of Women 4.5 out of 5 stars (8) CDN$ 11.56
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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews

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4.5 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars The biography as fiction, Feb 18 2002

By	Michael Battaglia - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Kindness of Women (Paperback)

Empire of the Sun was one of the best examples of putting your life up to a critical analysis and staring unflinchingly at it . . . Ballard's portrayal of himself during World War II as a child has to rank as one of the more honest (even when it's not so flattering) attempts at a self-charactization that I can really only compare to Norman Mailer's Armies of the Night. Here he continues his own story, using the first person this time out and extending the narrative past World War II and nearly into his present. The beginning is a bit off for those who have read Empire of the Sun since some of the details gone over don't seem to coincide with the events we learned in the previous book but he manages to again evoke its' dreamlike qualities. From there it's mostly episodic and carried by Ballard's keen eye for events and gift for description, through his eyes the sixties and beyond become almost a shared hallucination, something that you wake up from and you're not sure if it really happened or not. There's no overarching narrative to the book, though his quest to overcome the wounds that were opened by his time in the internment camp is a running theme that partly gets resolved in the end, during the time of the making of the Empire of the Sun movie. Still, like real life there are jagged loose ends, lost characters and a graceful melancholy that holds everything together well. Perhaps the only complaint are the sex scenes, far from offensive, they seem almost cold and sterile, like Ballard was sitting there taking notes during the acts themselves, which could be the point for all I know. Because it covers so much more time it doesn't have the searing focus that the previous novel did, but the wide variety of events and times are engaging in their own right and just when you think Ballard has exhausted his ability to put a new spin on describing things, he pulls another effortless phrase out that can't help but stick in your head. A book you probably have to experience more than read, those coming out of Empire of the Sun wanting to see more will probably come away satisfied.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Light Your Heart Here, Jul 5 2001

By	Mark Twain - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Kindness of Women (Paperback)

'The Kindness of Women' is one of the most extraordinary books I have ever read - it gripped me with the shock of seeing deep into a man's hurt but inspired psyche, it left me weeping in pity for Ballard and marvelling at his survival. And laughing out loud. The account of Ballard's life after Singapore, this is no ordinary narrative autobiography - rather, a series of chapters each of which might stand as a small masterpiece alone, each like the fragment of a smashed mirror reflecting a piece of Ballard's life in microcosm - his wife and her tragic death, his friends, his children (the chapter called 'Magic World' should open every 'anthology of happiness' ever published), his involvement with the 60s through his crashed car exhibition (out of which came Crash, the basis of Cronenburg's film) and his fascination with television. Women provide the linking thread through it all - the ones who Ballard loved, made love to, or in turn loved him - his wife, Miriam, most unforgettably. But the key is an account of a man coming to terms with himself and his violent childhood - in the end what one leaves this book with is a sense of the kindness of Ballard. For this beautiful, modest, deceptively simple book, shot through with images and symbols of suffering, pain, madness and death, is in the end, more than any of his other books, a celebration of life, of love, of friends and of people. Towards the end, Ballard remarks how it had taken him most of his life to realise how these simple things were what made him happy - the rest were just dross. For anyone who has ever questioned their life, or felt great pain in their heart or in their soul, or experienced suffering of any kind - this book offeres the promise of redemption and catharsis. READ IT. It is a work for us all, a book of which one can truly say it has enriched the world. Thank you, James.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, Dec 14 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Kindness of Women (Paperback)

Truly an excellent book. Important to read Empire of the Sun first since this is something of a sequel.

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Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Profoundly depressing attempt at pornography
Sets out to be pornographic, succeeds in being profoundly depressing. "Vermillion Sands", written at the beginning of Ballard's career, remains, sadly, the best thing he... Read more

Published on Sep 2 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous
The Kindness of Women is a compelling semi-autobiographical novel -- look no further for a terrific book, and a great example of Ballard's skewed and surreal sensibilities.