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Crash
 
 
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Crash (Paperback)

by J G Ballard (Author) "VAUGHAN died yesterday in his last car-crash ..." (more)
3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

J. G. Ballard's graphic, violent novel is controversial wherever it is read, even on Amazon.com's own Web page! The book's characters are obsessed with automobile accidents and are determined to narrate the horrors of the car crash as luridly as possible. In the words of the novel's protagonist, the wounds caused by automobile collisions are "the keys to a new sexuality born from a perverse technology." Read this novel and learn why David Cronenberg, who had previously adapted Dead Ringers and Naked Lunch for the screen, fought to turn it into his latest film. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.


Product Description

In this hallucinatory novel, the car provides the hellish tableau in which Vaughan, a "TV scientist" turned "nightmare angel of the highways," experiments with erotic atrocities among auto crash victims, each more sinister than the last. James Ballard, his friend and fellow obsessive, tells the story of this twisted visionary as he careens rapidly toward his own demise in an intentionally orchestrated car crash with Elizabeth Taylor. A classic work of cutting edge fiction, Crash explores the disturbing potentialities of contemporary society's increasing dependence on technology as intermediary in human relations. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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VAUGHAN died yesterday in his last car-crash. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

26 Reviews
5 star:
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4 star:
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3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
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1 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.3 out of 5 stars (26 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars In Defense of James Ballard, Dec 30 2003
This review is from: Crash: A Novel (Paperback)
First of all to the half-wits who keep comparing this to Chuck Palahniuk novels- if you had any sense of time-space you would realize that this book was written a full 20 years before CP ever put pen to paper and a full 30 years before you discovered CP last week.

That being said, I think this is an amazing work of British literature. The repetition, the mechanical quality of the sex, the emotional flattening and detatchment, all of this drives the narrative forward and makes the total environment more mechanized which, genius, is the point. This is a heavily stylized work of fiction and any of the alleged "shortcomings" of the novel are not mistakes or flaws in Ballard's design, but rather a comprehensive theme of mechanization, depersonalization and the destruction of even transgressive sexual acts as passionate, warm, and human.

This is not a book about the process of depersonalization. It is a book about people who have already been depersonalized and only relate to other human beings as they would machines. Even that most vibrant of life forces- semen- from arguably the most human charachter in the book- Vaughn- takes on the smell of engine coolant. If the book has any shortcoming at all, it is the tendency of Ballard to hit the reader over the head repeatedly with his metaphor as if he were trying to kill the proverbial fly with the proverbial sledgehammer. However, I think that among those who "get it" his point is well received and the repetition of these themes is certainly not accidental or a ploy to expand the length of the book (which clocks in at a paltry 250 some odd pages in my edition). The story arc moves slowly, like the cars engaged in gridlock on the M-5 during rush hour.

Disturing? Yes. I found that there was one paragraph in particular (essentially a list of genital injuries which are commonly sustained in car crashes) took two weeks to read because it was just so hard to get through.

But hey, if you don't like disturbing literature there's plenty of Oprah's Book Club and Reading With Ripa selections for you to check out...

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4.0 out of 5 stars From a Ballard new kid, Jun 29 2007
This review is from: Crash: A Novel (Paperback)
I didn't like the movie, although I'm a big Croneburg fan. But I love this book. There's something very deadpan, essentially English about the humour. If you saw the BBC orginal version of The Office, you'll know what I mean. All the characters are pretty vile, but it's Ballard's vision of a mechanised, rainy future, oppressive in its banality, that really hits home. people have been telling me to read JGB for some time, but I held off. I think I'm hooked.
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4.0 out of 5 stars This is what science fiction is all about. Not Star Wars., Jun 25 2004
By Dr Goggles (AZ United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Crash: A Novel (Paperback)
Ballard wrote "Crash" some 30 years ago. However it is relevant today as a sci-fi piece that explores many interesting issues in ways that most sci-fi glosses over. It is a fascinating book, offering no opinions but only a voice in a passive tone, exploring the depths of man and machine. The idea of the two combining, becoming one piece, is at times the core of the science Ballard explores. The people in this novel mutilate themselves in reckless behavior and with little regard for their life as they seek to bring a bit closer the feeling of having their skin, their body, melded with the automobile.

Before Luke Skywalker, before Captain Kirk, this is science and fiction. But how fiction is it?

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 		 Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars crash
the very definition of awful. i read alot and even with bad books i press myself to never leave a book unfinished but this came close to pushing me over the edge. Read more
Published on Jul 13 2004 by dan raymer

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't Be Fooled
I've read a lot of books from various genres and written by crazy authors. I have to say though, that this book is without a doubt the worst book I have ever read. Read more
Published on May 18 2004 by Christina Jaschuk

5.0 out of 5 stars powerful and graphic
I bought this book with full knowledge of its controversial subject matter and I was not dissappointed. Read more
Published on Mar 14 2004 by writer and music junkie

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting theme, but poorly written
This is my first, and probably last, experience in reading J.G. Ballard. I gave this book three stars because this book does have significant value in its' exploration of the... Read more
Published on Dec 10 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars Sccccrrrreeeeccchhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!AAaaaahhhhhhh.....
Sexual...mechanical...beautiful. The best words to describe this novel. An erotic essay on man made machinery and the deformities caused by the misplaced actions therein. Read more
Published on Oct 16 2003 by Mark Slonsky

4.0 out of 5 stars Collision Course
Crash is brutal. There, I said it. Being that it was written over 30 years ago is equally disturbing. Read more
Published on Oct 2 2003 by Robby Nichols

1.0 out of 5 stars ...
I usually don't review books, but I disliked this book so intensely that I feel I have to warn people. Read more
Published on Jul 23 2003 by dara chalice

3.0 out of 5 stars Ever had the feeling you just didn't want to know
This book is an uncomfortable read at best. The book is monotonous but that's because the main character ( Ballard ) feels that his life is boring and that when he has this car... Read more
Published on May 4 2003 by filterite

2.0 out of 5 stars It would have been much better as a short story
I tried hard to get into this.

The idea of man's fusion with technology, his dehumanization by said technology, the consequences of man becoming more feeling and attracted to... Read more

Published on April 25 2003 by d-low

1.0 out of 5 stars One of the worst books I've ever read!
It's a shame that Crash was as bad as it is. The plot really isn't that terrible on its own; it reminds me a lot of Chuck Palanuik's work. Read more
Published on April 9 2003 by slipstream420

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