One of his mid-period masterpieces
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I couldn't disagree more with the previous reviewer. While I've always favored Ballard's early classics, this mid-period novel is also a classic.
As Dr. Mallory wanders through this 'fever dream' landscape of modern Africa, much like the river than bears his name, you get glimpses of Ballard's brave new world. The one in which we live today: a wasteland, one littered with "beer bottles, cigarette packs and French pornographic magazines" , old air conditioners, water coolers, tires and fuel drums, in short "a terminal moraine of modern technology".
Ballard is a social theorist, as well as the best writer of English fiction of the 20th Century. Certainly that informs his writing.
All in all, this is one of Ballard's best novels of the 80's. I've owned them all, and have read some of them a dozen times. I recommend this book to all who love his prose, his vision, and his view of the world.
You decide, do you believe me or the previous reviewer?
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nonsensical, but not in a clever way
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a "metaphysical" novel apparently. i recently read paul auster's new york trilogy which seems to try to work on a similar level, but where auster succeeds in creating a wonderfully eerie confusion of events which cannot be questioned, ballard fails. it tries to be clever, but you find yourself being able to pick apart why it really doesnt make sense.
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