Kingdom Come

Format:	Paperback 304 pages

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Synopsis

A masterpiece of fiction from J. G. Ballard, which asks could Consumerism turn into Facism? Richard Pearson, unemployed advertising executive and life-long rebel, is driving out to Brooklands, a motorway town on the M25. A few weeks earlier his father was fatally wounded at the Metro-Centre, a vast shopping mall in the centre of this apparently peaceful town, when a deranged mental patient opened fire on a crowd of shoppers. When the main suspect is released without charge thanks to the dubious testimony of self-styled pillars of the community -- including Julia Goodwin, the doctor who treated his father on his deathbed -- Richard suspects that there is more to his father's death than meets the eye, a more sinister element lurking behind the pristine facades of the labyrinthine mall. Determined to unravel the mystery, Richard soon realises that the Metro-Centre, with its round-the-clock cable channel and sports clubs, lies at the very heart of his father's death. Consumerism rules the lives of everyone in the motorway towns and feeds the cravings of this bored community with its desperate need for something new, whatever the cost. Riots frequently terrorise the streets, immigrant communities are set upon by roving bands of hooligans and sports events mushroom into jingoistic political rallies. Gradually, Richard finds himself drawn into this world, caught up in the workings of the mall, exposed to the insides of the consumer dream, and starts upon dismantling this wayward vision his advertising career helped to found! In this gripping, dystopian tour de force, J.G. Ballard holds up a mirror to middle England, reflecting an unsettling image of suburbia and revealing the darker forces at work beneath the gloss of consumerism and flag-waving patriotism.

Book details

Published
02/07/2007

Publisher
HarperPerennial

ISBN
9780007232475

Publisher and industry reviews

Jacket review

'Dystopias are Ballard's stock-in-trade and, when on song, he animates them better than anyone else!it takes a master novelist to pick out the small details!fascinating.' Sunday Telegraph 'It is his ability to summon a deteriorated but recognisable modern world into being that makes him among the finest dystopians at work.' Sunday Times 'We're in Ballard-land, his old archetypes at war in a familiar-yet-strange terrain, and that should be compelling enough for any reader!Ballard, paradoxically, with all his characters gripped by obsession and necessity, is one of the great novelists of freedom.' Financial Times '"Kingdom Come" looks like a report on the state of modern Britain, but it's really a report on the state of J.G. Ballard's head, and the good news is that it's as fertile as ever!"Kingdom Come" is impressively packed with brilliant apercus.' Observer 'Mesmeric!you read this novel for his prescient vision, his acute insights and his shards of wit.' Tatler 'The magus of Shepperton is on tip-top form. No-one writes with such enchanted clarity or strange power as James Graham Ballard.' Scotsman '"Kingdom Come" encapsulates everything for which J.G.Ballard is admired!Simply put, "Kingdom Come" distils the best of Ballard to confirm he is still one of our finest living novelists.' Metro '"Kingdom Come" is important, germaine, timely and creepy, a tidal wrack of ideas washed up on the artificial beach of our resort culture.' Will Self '"Kingom Come" is a worthy addition to an extraordinary body of work. It is impossible to read one of JG Ballard's books and not to marvel at his style and ability to capture the times in which we live. His writing has been a source of excitement and inspiration to me since I was reading library books under the covers by the light of a battery torch.' Louise Welsh 'Entertaining!fragmented narratives!emerge as perfect, threatening little Ballardian vignettes.' TLS 'J.G. Ballard is the undisputed laureate of suburban psychosis!"Kingdom Come" is a brilliant novel.' Literary Review

About the author

JG Ballard

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. 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 was 'Kingdom Come', published in 2006.