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Concrete Island (Paperback)

by J.G. Ballard (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 176 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (21 Jul 1994)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 009933481X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099334811
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 1.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 187,496 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #32 in  Books > Fiction > Cult Authors > Ballard, J.G.

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Product Description

Product Description

A 35-year-old architect is driving home from his London office when his car swerves and crashes onto a traffic island lying below three converging motorways. Uninjured, he climbs the embankment to seek help, but no one will stop for him and he is trapped on the island, where he remains.


About the Author

J.G. Ballard was born in 1930 in Shanghai, where his father was a businessman. After internment in a civilian prison camp, he and his family returned to England in 1946. He published his first novel, 'The Drowned World', in 1961. His 1984 bestseller 'Empire of the Sun' won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was later filmed by Steven Spielberg. His most recent novel is 'Kingdom Come', published in 2006, his autobiogaphy 'Miracles of Life' was published in 2008 to much acclaim. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

9 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
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3 star:
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2 star:
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1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Crazy, crazy stuff!!!, 10 May 2002
"A man crashes into a traffic island and has to stay there - what can possible happen here?" I asked myself that question, not knowing what to expect. In fact, I couldn't see where, if anywhere, Ballard could go. But, intrigued, I gave it a go - and how wrong was I!!
The lead character, a doctor with little morals, begins life on the island as a useless case, struggling to sustain himself with food or water. But things change when he realises he isn't alone - there's not only another person living there, but two, totally contrasting human beings. And so the struggle to survive and ultimately leave the island begins.
The most interesting part of this novel: out of all the devious and dispicable acts committed on the island - the two inhabitants being a control freak and, well, a kind of inbred prehistoric man - the most calculated, gruesome act is carried out by the intelligent doctor. And it is he - the intelligent, sholared and succesful man - who's desire to be the most dominant is the greatest. It's almost like a survival of the fittest he's playing with himself. Is Ballard saying something about our own innate humanity here? Perhaps.

All in all a very entertaing read which, as another reviewr described, 'sticks in your side like a thorn'.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A disturbing and memorable story, 16 Jul 2000
This is Ballard at his malignant best. In a weird update of Robinson Crusoe, he tells the story of a man marooned in the middle of a London motorway, of his attempts to escape, of his survival strategies, of his encounters with the human wildlife of the contemporary urban environment. I read it years ago and it sticks in my mind like a splinter.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Classy and disturbing, 14 Jan 2002
By Neil Ford "Neil" (London) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
Top notch Ballard (does he ever write dull books ?). Who else could sustain a novel about an architect stranded on an Island surrounded by motorways, after crashing his Jaguar...Every facet of this scenario is carefully worked through until the architect discovers he's not alone. This book is a real page turner galvanised by typically tight and evokative prose.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Ballard at his best
If you have never read J G Ballard then you are in for a treat - this was the first of his books I ever read back in the 70s and wanted to re-read it many times. Read more
Published 3 months ago by A. Aylen

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but not the best!
You know when you find a book and cant put it down? Well this is not that book. I have just discovered JG Ballard and flew through Cocaine Nights, Super Cannes and High Rise with... Read more
Published 6 months ago by T. ELDER

5.0 out of 5 stars I am the island
This modern 'Robinson Crusoe' tale tells the story of an architect trapped in a concrete traffic island after a car crash. Read more
Published on 22 Jul 2006 by Luc REYNAERT

4.0 out of 5 stars A short, and normalish, dream in Ballard land.
For some reason I find that Ballard's prose is not the most lucid to read, and I think that I know one of the reasons for this. Read more
Published on 16 Jul 2004 by the great amphibian

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what it should have been
As I gradually devoured the masteful works of Ballard, Concrete Island was the one that gave me indigestion. Read more
Published on 18 Jun 2004 by kdonn2410

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
I read this book one day I was ill and finished it that night. Funny, insightful, tragic, this books holds more in it that you would assume from the synopsis, most notably huge... Read more
Published on 15 Jul 2000

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