The novel opens with the narrator recovering in hospital after a serious car crash in which he has killed the husband of a young woman doctor. In his pain-filled dreams he finds himself dominated by strange sexual fantasies, and he determines to find the real meaning of this horrific experience. When he leaves hospital he revisits the scene of the crash, and meets the woman doctor. During their affair they begin an exploration of the motor-car in all forms, attending stock-car races, watching test vehicles being crashed, conducting a variety of sexual experiments on London motorways. A disquieting vision of the future in which sex and technology form a nighmare marriage.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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'A work of very powerful originality. Ballard is amongst our finest writers of fiction' Anthony Burgess
'One of the few genuine surrealists this country has produced, the possessor of a terrifying and exhilarating imagination' Guardian
'Ballard has issued a series of bulletins on the modern world of almost unerring prescience. Other writers describe; Ballard anticipates' Will Self
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.From the Publisher
Like many of Ballard's other novels, the seeds for Crash were sown in a short story or, in effect, the series of stories that were eventually published as The Atrocity Exhibition (or Love and Napalm: Export USA). Described by Will Self as representing `the zenith of the experimental novel in English' and `a profound and disquieting book' by William Burroughs, The Atrocity Exhibition is composed of seemingly disconnected, almost shard-like tales, some made up of short listed paragraphs. Full of extreme imagery and, as its author admits, `rather obsessive sexual fantasies about the prominent figures of the day', it strove, in its fragmentary structure, to emulate the confused (and confusing) messages of news broadcasts, advertising billboards, television commercials and technical manuals. In an author's note readers were advised to `simply turn the pages until a paragraph catches your eye'.
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By RH
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
One of Ballards most disturbing (and sensationalised) books, I bought this to replace a copy I loaned out
years ago and never got back. Re-reading it, (sometimes a mistake), it still has the power to make one squirm
and the promise to make one keep turning the page, sometimes against one's better judgement.
years ago and never got back. Re-reading it, (sometimes a mistake), it still has the power to make one squirm
and the promise to make one keep turning the page, sometimes against one's better judgement.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By squirt
Format:Paperback
Erm!! Probably the weirdest book I will have ever read in my lifetime. I am nearing the end and cannot really decide whether I am enjoying it or not, although to say you are enjoying it does make you sound a bit perverse considering the content!! I did read the reviews before I brought it but because the reviews were so interesting and varied from absymal to absolutely amazing I had to get it to find out for myself. Pretty sick in places and very dark, also (as others have said) fairly repetitive. And yes, the word 'stylized' is way way way over used and its now getting to the point that the word makes me cringe LOL! One of those books that people will have different opinions on depending on how they wish to translate the script. At the end of the day whatever Ballard was trying to achieve with this book to me it is still, at the end of the day, very much just PORN !! Been rushing to finish it so I can start a 'normal' book :-)
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By G. J. Marsh
Format:Paperback
The publisher who famously suggested after reading Crash that Ballard was, to paraphrase, mentally unhinged, was probably not that far wide of the mark. This book was clearly not written by a well man, and Ballard later admitted much the same, this strange novel being part of his therapy to exsorcise the pain of losing his wife so young. An attempt to debase humanity, to relegate nature and raise the machines.
In Crash, cars are organic and humans are mechanic. Sex is routine, loveless. The car crash is lustful, orgasmic. The novel is written in the detached, cold clinical prose that became Ballard's trademark, and the result is like reading the world's most peculiar car owners manual.
But despite the sheer oddity of this book, Crash is a very hard book to finish, let alone enjoy. The endless amount of extreme sex and violence soon becomes a bore, and the characters are, typically for Ballard, no more than cyphers used to act out his demented nightmare.
In Crash, cars are organic and humans are mechanic. Sex is routine, loveless. The car crash is lustful, orgasmic. The novel is written in the detached, cold clinical prose that became Ballard's trademark, and the result is like reading the world's most peculiar car owners manual.
But despite the sheer oddity of this book, Crash is a very hard book to finish, let alone enjoy. The endless amount of extreme sex and violence soon becomes a bore, and the characters are, typically for Ballard, no more than cyphers used to act out his demented nightmare.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Pablo K
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Relentlessly aggressive and pornographic in a psycho-geographical kind of way. Brilliant even though lots of people say so. Deeply unsettling and explicit even though countless commentators have initiated it into the bland halls of literary classic. Not misogynistic even though it is, in a way, all about misogynism and inadequate manhood. Its vivid portraits (after Francis Bacon?) of genitalia and instrument panels, blood and torn flesh and semen and scars, all of that, is brought forth by a detached and clinical eye. Which is (a good bit of) the point. I found it both more engrossing and repetitive than I expected. And occassionally moving. The refluxes of libidinal modern landscapes mirror the obsessions of Ballard and Vaughan, rendered universal by their compulsions to repeat (even if some of the rest of us aren't particularly keen on sex and death in the twisted wrecks of four-lane motorways and airport bypasses). As Ani Difranco says: "my c*nt is a wound that won't heal" - that's what Crash is like. Despite (or because of) this unforgiving repetition, it seems to have more essence of Ballard than anything else that I've read of his. Yes, its original. Yes, its revolting. Yes, it offends the right kind of people. But this is a deeply affecting and memoral book for more reasons than that.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By pingpong
Format:Paperback
I'd been wanting to read Ballard for ages but after begining a novel I would find his style over-done, amateurish.
Having persevered with this novel though I can say I am a Ballard convert.
He has a particular perspective, in this novel, of mixing the organic with the technological. Which I suppose he has inherited from his medical background.
The story is entertaining. But I have not given it 5 stars 'cause it is not totally satisfactory. It does become a little repetitive and the ending seems a wee bit anti-climactical....
Having persevered with this novel though I can say I am a Ballard convert.
He has a particular perspective, in this novel, of mixing the organic with the technological. Which I suppose he has inherited from his medical background.
The story is entertaining. But I have not given it 5 stars 'cause it is not totally satisfactory. It does become a little repetitive and the ending seems a wee bit anti-climactical....
By J. Craven
Format:Paperback
This book divides opinion, and understandably, but if you like to read to be challenged and pulled outside your comfort zone, then this is one for you. You'll feel squeamish, you'll feel uncomfortable, but by the end you'l realised you've been on a journey few other authors would dare to take their readers on. The only writer doing something similar at the moment would appear to be Morton Bain (Psychopath!).
By Maggie
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It was a good read but a little hard going as it was a little unorthodox. It would not be everyones cups of tea
By RR
Format:Paperback
Anyone reading this for its erotic content will be as disappointed as those reading it for its literary content as the titillation is as bland and repetitive as the prose.
Most readers will find this book not shocking but tedious and like many similar books aiming to deliver the shock factor it fails from too much effort.
Statements such as "exploring the depths of the human psyche" and "the collision of sexuality and technology" are misnomers this is a fantasy story (not sexual fantasy) with a threadbare storyline.
Most readers will find this book not shocking but tedious and like many similar books aiming to deliver the shock factor it fails from too much effort.
Statements such as "exploring the depths of the human psyche" and "the collision of sexuality and technology" are misnomers this is a fantasy story (not sexual fantasy) with a threadbare storyline.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant
That words become changed over time, their over-use contributing to the dilution of the potency which they once held is an altogether sad truism. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Andrew W
1.0 out of 5 stars
Horror
When I read a book I attempt to soldier on to the end, before I make any comment. I feel I owe it to the author.
In this case, I have to admit defeat. Read more
In this case, I have to admit defeat. Read more
Published 9 months ago by T. J. Ellis
3.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely Bonkers
After reading this book I am looking forward to getting back to normality! Crash is a very weird, highly insensitive account of a man, Ballard, who finds sexual pleasure in car... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Jonathan Ryan
1.0 out of 5 stars
Uncomfortable reading
I'm usually a big Ballard fan so was looking forward to this as maybe his most cult-ish and well-known work. Sorry to say, then, that I gave up halfway through. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Marie
1.0 out of 5 stars
A tedious excuse to write about sex
I read the reviews referring to this as a modern classic, and Ballard as a great surrealist writer. I cannot help but think that in the case of this book it is an excuse to... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley
4.0 out of 5 stars
Believe the hype!
Yes, it's controversial and deals with a rather disturbing subject matter, but it's only so, if you take the book for it's literal meaning. Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2011 by Joe Consumer
1.0 out of 5 stars
Unpleasant and without much literary merit either
It's quite difficult to review this book because, while I thought it was absolutely horrible to read, I get the feeling that that was exactly what I was supposed to react. Read more
Published on 14 Oct 2010 by Katie Stevens
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