- Paperback: 351 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo; New Edition edition (12 Sep 1994)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006547001
- ISBN-13: 978-0007766406
- Product Dimensions: 18.8 x 13 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 52,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
‘Remarkable…form, content and style fuse with complete success…one of the great war novels of the 20th century.’ William Boyd
‘Gripping and remarkable…I have never read a novel which gave me a stronger sense of the blind helplessness of war…unforgettable.’ Observer
‘Ranks with the greatest British writing on the Second World War.’ The Times
‘A brilliant fusion of history, autobiography and imaginative speculation. An incredible literary achievement and almost intolerably moving.’ Anthony Burgess
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.Product Description
Based on J. G. Ballard’s own childhood, this is the extraordinary account of a boy’s life in Japanese-occupied wartime Shanghai – a mesmerising, hypnotically compelling novel of war, of starvation and survival, of internment camps and death marches. It blends searing honesty with an almost hallucinatory vision of a world thrown utterly out of joint.
Rooted as it is in the author’s own disturbing experience of war in our time, it is one of a handful of novels by which the twentieth century will be not only remembered but judged.
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First Sentence
WARS CAME EARLY to Shanghai, overtaking each other like the tides that raced up the Yangtze and returned to this gaudy city all the coffins cast adrift from the funeral piers of the Chinese Bund. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
WARS CAME EARLY to Shanghai, overtaking each other like the tides that raced up the Yangtze and returned to this gaudy city all the coffins cast adrift from the funeral piers of the Chinese Bund. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Although everything I have read by Ballard is excellent, I would recommend this book as a starting point. The author weaves autobiography with fiction in a compelling way; in some places the novel hints at the dream-like sequences that he has deployed in other works, but the story is firmly grounded in reality. The most apparent theme is that of survival, but I don't think Ballard wrote this with any kind of agenda; perhaps that's what's so refreshing about it.
One of his greatest talents as a writer is finding moments of beauty in what, for lesser writers, would be mires of ugliness. Ballard's voice is thoroughly modern throughout, despite the book's retrospective narrative: you can instantly tell this is the author of 'The Concrete Island' or 'High Rise', despite how remote those novels are from the second world war.
Those who have seen Spielberg's film will be thoroughly shocked: there is little sentimentality here, and the story is quite different in its later stages. Not that the film is a poor adaptation - rather, it's a seperate entity. Always read the book first!
It's wonderful that an author can use his past as a starting point for fiction, rather than being either grounded in it or evading it. It's hard to tell what is fact from what isn't, and surely that's a good thing.
Finally, I must stress that this is a book which not only survives several repeated reads but seems to require it.
One of his greatest talents as a writer is finding moments of beauty in what, for lesser writers, would be mires of ugliness. Ballard's voice is thoroughly modern throughout, despite the book's retrospective narrative: you can instantly tell this is the author of 'The Concrete Island' or 'High Rise', despite how remote those novels are from the second world war.
Those who have seen Spielberg's film will be thoroughly shocked: there is little sentimentality here, and the story is quite different in its later stages. Not that the film is a poor adaptation - rather, it's a seperate entity. Always read the book first!
It's wonderful that an author can use his past as a starting point for fiction, rather than being either grounded in it or evading it. It's hard to tell what is fact from what isn't, and surely that's a good thing.
Finally, I must stress that this is a book which not only survives several repeated reads but seems to require it.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Empire of the Sun is one of JG Ballard's more accessible books which tells the story of a young boy, Jim, and his experiences in Shanghai during World War Two. How many of the events in the book are taken directly from his experience is not entirely clear but the fact that he is informed by first hand experience gives the book a chilling authenticity.
The book is written entirely from the boy's point of view; all events and situations are described in Jim's own words and grounded in his own experience. Ballard makes no attempt to interject any adult interpretations or provide a retrospective opinion and maintains the integrity of the style throughout. This is no mean feat and is a clear indication of Ballard's talent as a writer.
A magnificent work by one of the greatest living English speaking novelists.
The book is written entirely from the boy's point of view; all events and situations are described in Jim's own words and grounded in his own experience. Ballard makes no attempt to interject any adult interpretations or provide a retrospective opinion and maintains the integrity of the style throughout. This is no mean feat and is a clear indication of Ballard's talent as a writer.
A magnificent work by one of the greatest living English speaking novelists.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Empire was a gret book to read. As an 18 year old doing his HSC in Australia, i found it complex in both the area of the themes as well as the plot and setting. Ballard, who obviously has an experience in this area, but does not claim this to be an autobiography, has captured the audience from the first chapter to the last. Empire is well worth the buy. The only negative about the book that I came across was the monotony of the scenes in places, other than that, excellent!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
In my humble opinion
At last I have finished " Empire of the sun " Ballards depressing and surreal account of his war years in captivity . Read more
Published 1 month ago by M Marlow
Heart of darkness
The quote on the back of this book from a review by Anthony Burgess is true - that it is 'almost intolerably moving'. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Scarficus
Tennis Racquets, Rickshaws, Zeros, Mustangs and B29s
The blinding light from the atomic bombs dropped on Japan... A group of colonial prisoners from a Japanese interment camp on a death march carrying suitcases, tennis racquets and... Read more
Published 4 months ago by silvercycler
This book was slow and badly organised.
I read 3/4 of this book and then I finally gave up. I have read many books and in none of them did I get lost like I did in this. Read more
Published 5 months ago by this is...
IMHO, excellent book.
Excuse the absurd comparison, but is like watching Dexter: the hero does bad things, but you feel it's not his fault, and you want everything to go better for him. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Gia
All the hype is justified....
This isn't just one of the best books about the Japanese occupation of China, it's one of the greatest works on the second world war and deserves all the praise and hype that's... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Dr. Regis Phillpot
cd Empire of the sun
Very good reading of this book but sadly over-abridged, I purchased it as a gcse revision toool for my daighter and we did enjoy listening to it in the car, however large chunks... Read more
Published on 21 May 2010 by J DAWSON
Empire on the run
Everything I've read by Ballard is brilliant. You can't go wrong:
Shanghai Docks - a chaos of junks, sampans, and iron warships. Read more
Shanghai Docks - a chaos of junks, sampans, and iron warships. Read more
Published on 7 May 2010 by Mr. N. Foale
Did I miss something?
I'd read a lot of enthusiastic references to J. G. Ballard and his tales of distopia, and was disappointed to find that this, my first J. G. Read more
Published on 17 Mar 2010 by Katherine McGrail
Buy it for the nearest teenager - open their minds
Of course I didn't just mean teenagers.
This is an important book in the true sense of the phrase - the sort that will puncture the hard heart of all budding hoodies... Read more
This is an important book in the true sense of the phrase - the sort that will puncture the hard heart of all budding hoodies... Read more
Published on 23 Feb 2010 by Taz
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