High-Rise by J.G. Ballard: a review

I think I probably first put this in my audiobook library when I watched the film adaptation of this book, but it has been sat in there for a ridiculous amount of time. Reading through my library means that it’s finally come around that I’m getting this read. The thing is, I don’t remember the film having that much of an impact on me, so I’m not entirely sure why I was so eager to use my credit on this book, but here we are.

We have a fair amount of content/trigger warnings for this book, and while I won’t be going into detail about much of that in my review, I do want to bring up the potentially triggering topics that occur in this book. No matter how good a book might be, no piece of media is worth damage to your mental stability.

CW: SEXUAL CONTENT, VIOLENCE, DOMESTIC ABUSE, ANIMAL ABUSE, SEXUAL ASSAULT, RAPE

High-Rise by J.G Ballard follows the tenants of a newly constructed high-rise building. It’s not only an apartment building, but there’s a supermarket, gym, hairdresser, and restaurant. It feels like a utopia at first. However, slowly but surely the barriers between tenants begin to break down, and all hell breaks loose. It is an exploration of class systems and human behaviour once confined.

There are a few moments scattered throughout the novel that made me go “oh, this as written in the 70s”. There is just something distinctly outdated about a lot of it. I don’t think it was especially egregious. I feel like some of it comes down to, were this stuff in any other book, I’d find it kind of tiring, but the outdated contents of this book are frankly the least tiring part of this book. Also, it isn’t half as bad as many of its contemporaries.

Tom Hiddleston’s narration is exactly as good as you’d expect from a seasoned actor. It’s expressive, and there’s a lot of variety with the different character performances. However, I will say, his welsh accent leaves a lot to be desired, and I don’t really think it was necessary. I don’t recall Wilder being referred to specifically as Welsh, meaning that Hiddleston could have simply not done that. I can only assume the reason (unless I did miss Ballard saying that Wilder is Welsh) is that, in the film, this character was played by Welshman, Luke Evans. This audiobook was released after the film, so it is certainly a possibility. It isn’t the worst accent I’ve ever heard, but Wilder is a really key character, and that means I have to hear him speak a lot.

Ballard doesn’t often leave much to the imagination. I’m not talking about the various violent acts, but more that there’s a lot of telling rather than showing. There isn’t really much time to absorb any metaphors the high-rise offers before Ballard explains them, often in incredible detail. It is a pretty fast-paced novel, but I do wish that I could have been left with just a little more time with the more metaphorical aspects of the book. He will lay out this brilliant groundwork about the class system of the high-rise, but rather than let you read into that he’ll then go into something about the high-rise being split up, so it perfectly reflects the class system of the outside world; the upper, middle, and lower sections of the buildings are a one-to-one representation of the class systems. There were so many times where I got genuinely frustrated; it felt like he didn’t have anywhere enough faith in his reader to understand what he was trying to say.

This book is honestly a lot to take in at times. I had to take a lot of breaks because the various acts of violence just got really heavy for me. It can feel pretty gratuitous at times. Now, I am aware that this is an exploration of some of the more depraved parts of human nature, but it’s just so much. It’s not a particularly long book, but I certainly couldn’t have only read it in a couple of sittings, otherwise it would genuinely have taken a toll on my mental health. I felt so exhausted going through this book, and I certainly won’t be reading it again. I’m not saying this book is bad because of any of this, but I implore you to bear this in mind if you do want to read this book, in any format.

I am glad that I read this book. I did enjoy it, despite the exhaustion. I don’t know that I necessarily recommend this book though. Certainly, if you want to read an exploration of class and depravity, then go ahead. However, knowing all of the horrific things that occur, I just know that this might not be for everyone. The thing is, I read crime novels, but I sort of know what to expect in a crime novel. It’s been a while since I watched the film, so I really had no idea just how rough it gets. I think that’s the note I’m going to leave this on. This is certainly a good novel, but you do need to know what to expect going in.

Just popping up at the end here to remind you that, if you’ve enjoyed any of my reviews of books with a bad reputation, I have a wish-list that you can check out if you enjoy seeing me suffer:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/33XX7MWZ3PD7A?ref_=wl_share