Kingdom Come - J.G. Ballard

I've always enjoyed the work of Ballard, but his final novel does rather coast along on the reputation of former glories. It is a typical Ballardian investigation into a contemporary phenomenon (here, the shopping mall) that reveals a kind of social psychosis. The misanthropy has an unpleasant class-inflected tone, much of the dialogue and plotting is preposterous, the central character is ambivalent to the level of incoherence, and the analysis of modern life is undermined by any role for the internet or mobile phones.

I only really started enjoying it once I threw any notion of reality out of the window and instead took it as a kind of dystopian romp, on which level it's not bad. Any novel which is basically an extended shoeing of Bluewater can't be all bad.

And then there's the odd moment of brilliance that recalls his mighty prime. How's this on the architecture along the M25:

“The entire defensive landscape was waiting for a crime to be committed”