Slothrop
Tight but Polite
So...
A lot of people here rave about Ballard, but the only book of his that I've read is Super Cannes, which I couldn't stand - is there other stuff that he's written that I'm more likely to like / that is acknowledged to be better?
Fwiw, my problem with Super Cannes is that it reads like a literary novelist trying to write a thriller with 'big ideas' in, and discovering that writing thrillers isn't as easy as you'd expect. It's very hard to suspend disbelief, the pacing's extremely dodgy, the sex and violence get a bit tedious after a while and he seems to underestimate the readers intelligence in a big way, in particular leaving us about two steps ahead of the central character most of the time. This last one is so blatant that I'm never quite sure whether it's actually intentional, but it comes to a head in the scene where the protagonist figures out that what he thought was an appointments list was in fact (drumroll) a hit list! This wouldn't have been a job for Sherlock Holmes on its own, but Ballard helps the reader by making it the dramatic climax of a chapter called 'The Hit List.' Gah.
So yeah, have I missed the point or is it actually not very good, and are there other, better novels to read? I think I've read some of his writing for the Grauniad review section and been impressed by it, so I'd hope so...
A lot of people here rave about Ballard, but the only book of his that I've read is Super Cannes, which I couldn't stand - is there other stuff that he's written that I'm more likely to like / that is acknowledged to be better?
Fwiw, my problem with Super Cannes is that it reads like a literary novelist trying to write a thriller with 'big ideas' in, and discovering that writing thrillers isn't as easy as you'd expect. It's very hard to suspend disbelief, the pacing's extremely dodgy, the sex and violence get a bit tedious after a while and he seems to underestimate the readers intelligence in a big way, in particular leaving us about two steps ahead of the central character most of the time. This last one is so blatant that I'm never quite sure whether it's actually intentional, but it comes to a head in the scene where the protagonist figures out that what he thought was an appointments list was in fact (drumroll) a hit list! This wouldn't have been a job for Sherlock Holmes on its own, but Ballard helps the reader by making it the dramatic climax of a chapter called 'The Hit List.' Gah.
So yeah, have I missed the point or is it actually not very good, and are there other, better novels to read? I think I've read some of his writing for the Grauniad review section and been impressed by it, so I'd hope so...