Arbieroo reviewed Rushing to paradise by J. G. Ballard
Review of 'Rushing to paradise' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Initially, faced with another physician-of-questionable-reputation character and a character with a nuclear weapons fascination and the inevitability of an isolated microcosm of society setting for most of the book, I found myself wondering if I really needed to read any more Ballard? All of these were old hat; nuclear obsessions: Empire of the Sun, Dubious Doctor: Day of Creation, microcosm; Concrete Island, Day of Creation, Empire of the Sun...well I stuck with it and was very well rewarded. The slow pace picked up dramatically once the scene was set and continued to accelerate through the book, which turned out to be quite a 'friller, which is not the first thing that would enter my head if you asked me to describe Ballard's work. It is also a supremely well constructed novel where the history of the characters prior to the novel's opening appears on the face of it merely to …
Initially, faced with another physician-of-questionable-reputation character and a character with a nuclear weapons fascination and the inevitability of an isolated microcosm of society setting for most of the book, I found myself wondering if I really needed to read any more Ballard? All of these were old hat; nuclear obsessions: Empire of the Sun, Dubious Doctor: Day of Creation, microcosm; Concrete Island, Day of Creation, Empire of the Sun...well I stuck with it and was very well rewarded. The slow pace picked up dramatically once the scene was set and continued to accelerate through the book, which turned out to be quite a 'friller, which is not the first thing that would enter my head if you asked me to describe Ballard's work. It is also a supremely well constructed novel where the history of the characters prior to the novel's opening appears on the face of it merely to be an excuse to set up a situation but in fact ramify through-out the novel's action. It's the type of combination of character, setting and incident combining to make the story seem inevitable that I normally associate with Ursula LeGuin at her best (and I can offer little higher praise).
Many have noted the fact that Ballard's career has followed a reverse trend from that of many main-stream novelists in the sense that most start heavily autobiographically in theme or content and get less so as time goes on where-as Ballard did the reverse. This book shows considerable biographical influence: a boy with a nuclear bomb fascination who is used and abused by a surrogate mother-figure whose psychological influence he apparently never escapes from, despite his physical escape from her horrors and depradations - and what a woman! Ballard has often portrayed women that are mentally stronger and more demanding than most men and Dr. Barbara Rafferty is perhaps the epitome. She is also slow revealed as being utterly unhinged - frighteningly crazy in fact - and the dangerously insane but convincingly real character is another Ballard theme. People with a will to power in a world isolated and small enough for them to obtain it. Rafferty's insane urge is not merely to control but to test everything; as things and people fail these tests so the survivors are pushed to ever more stringent tests. In Rafferty's world, only the fit deserve life and she judges who and what is fit. In the end everyone and everything is found to be weak; only she is strong enough to thrive - everything else is judged and found wanting.
Of Ballard's bleak attempts to show how the modern world continually builds its societies and how they subsequently collapse, this is perhaps the one I like most - at least so far as I've read. Do I need to read another Ballard? Perhaps I do.