A few years back now, High-Rise was adapted into a film including Tom Hiddleston and at the time I said to myself “I’ll watch that, but I want to read it first”. High-Rise is one of those books that took me so long to pick up, but once I did I was so gripped by it’s contents that I managed to read it in like two days. And so I can finally watch that film…
High-Rise by J.G. Ballard
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When a class war erupts inside a luxurious apartment block, modern elevators become violent battlegrounds and cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on “enemy” floors. In this visionary tale, human society slips into violent reverse as once-peaceful residents, driven by primal urges, re-create a world ruled by the laws of the jungle.
Fourth Estate
Throughout High-Rise we follow three POVs as the novel and building descends into madness. Anthony Royal, architect and penthouse owner is our upper class POV. We see him actively wanting to see dissonance occur in his project, just to see what would happen…
Then we have Robert Laing, a doctor who lives on the mid-levels and is our middleman point of view with a strong sense of survival but not as much intention as the other two POVs.
Then last, but not least, we have documentary maker Richard Wilder from the lower levels. Before the tensions rise, Wilder was already thinking about creating a film about the behvaiour of those living within the High-Rise and continues to do so as the madness breaks out.
The character POVs we follow are all men of differing social class, and whilst we do see the women in the high-rise, it’s always through the eyes of these men. Especially with the ending of the book, I wish we had seen a woman’s POV at minimum to better understand the societel changes and their view on the more violent acts throughout the story.
The story is about the tensions within the high-rise building, and the insular “world” this creates for all inhabitants which makes them start basically and all out war between the many segments of floors. With upper floors often signifying an “upper” class, going to war with the lower class levels.
In order to get into the story you do have to have a suspension of belief All the residents seem to have an unspoken rule where no one discusses what is happening in the high-rise with the outside world… even when many of the residents were still leaving for work. Then when the residents start not going to work, no one seems to come and look for these people.
The writing style is extremely repetative throughout the book, and on the one hand I want to commend Ballard as it replicates the annoyance of the residents. Talking about the electric going out, the trash chute being full, the air conditioning noises etc, are obvioulsy massive irritation factors for the residents, and the repetetive way we’re told about all of these is annoying for the reader too. On the other hand, if it wasn’t a purposeful choice by Ballard, it was just annoying and the book could have been much shorter.
Thematically, High-Rise is about the rules of society and what happens when all those rules are thrown out the literal high-rise window. Descending into tribalism, class warfare, violence and brutality – these residents are both self-aware of how absurd their actions may be but still do so because the society around them are doing it. The narrative and social commentary of these actions really engaged me when I was reading and made you want to know what will happen to this group of people.
Positives of High-Rise
- Super engaging premise
- Chilling scenes which are written so well
Negatives of High-Rise
- Focuses largely on male characters in the situation
- Suspension of belief on whether it would really happen
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