Empire of the Sun
by JG Ballard.
This powerful and harrowing book provoked mixed responses.
It certainly is not a light holiday read and makes considerable demands upon the reader.
To some it was overlong and self-indulgent and the violence and brutality were excessive.
Nonetheless most of us appreciated Ballard’s undoubted talent as a writer and many of us found the book excellent, absorbing and enjoyable.
The dark themes of war, man’s inhumanity to man, racism and snobbery made for interesting discussion though the novel is not without a certain amount of humour and humanity.
The foundations of many of the themes of Ballard’s science fiction were laid in his Shanghai experience and much of his writing deals directly or obliquely with these themes.
NS August 2010
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