You are not going to be happy Cote

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Am halfway through my first Ballard. I keep falling asleep midway through sentences. There are sentences which are so badly written that they don't actually make any sense at all. The narrator is a twit. It's all really clumsy and trivial, pretending to be really deep. I don't know if I will ever reach the end, as this terrible weariness comes over my eyes whenever I try.

Help.

It is called, 'Kingdom Come' and it is about the evil of shopping centres.

I haven't read Kingdom Come. Is that one of his later books, where he repeats the same or very similar theme(s)? First books of that theme were interesting - Super Cannes & Cocaine Nights - the rest felt strained and lifeless.

I really enjoyed Vermillion Sands, his book of related short stories. The Atrocity Exhibition is brilliant. His autobiography Miracles Of Life is excellent.

Try one of those if you don't like what you are reading.

Until he passed away several years ago, Ballard was widely considered as Britain's greatest living writer. This is really not about me not being happy with you

1996 I think.

Will look out for Cocaine Nights. This one so far is an interesting idea, badly executed. Will try to finish it, as there are bits that are interesting IF I can stay awake!

What is the significance of 1996? He died in 2009, shortly after his autobiography was published. (I grieved )

Short stories I reckon - gives you the flavour of his world better. Agree that Vermillion Sands is the most enjoyable, but his less accessible stories give you more of a sense of what was so special about him. Once you've read Ballard entire chunks of the world are labelled "Ballardian" in your mind; he's carved out certain aspects of the twentieth century as uniquely his. I'd love to know what they'll make of him in 2100.

1996 is when Kingdom Come was published.

So far, I've managed another half a side - but have had a v busy weekend. Will try properly again tomorrow evening.

Will look out for Vermillion Sands. Dp has got that famous one of his, something about a king or an emperor or something - the title has completely escaped me for the moment. Is that worth a try?

page not side - was in marking mode!

Empire of the Sun I suspect - it's an autobiographical work about his time in a Japanese internment camp in Shanghai in WWII as a boy. Have not read, but vg by all accounts.

Or you can go directly to reading Miracles of Life, his autobiography, where he talks quite a lot about his childhood in Shanghai and his internment along with his family in a Japanese camp. It's fascinating.

Also very interesting was his description of what went on in an exhibition he curated with crashed cars where his "suspicions had been confirmed about the unconscious links that my novel ('Crash') would explore".