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 A User's Guide to the Millennium by J.G. Ballard
reviewed by John Kenny
Original appearance: Albedo one issue 13, 1997
A Users Guide to the Millennium by J.G. Ballard is an absolute treasure chest for anyone interested in 20th century pop culture. It's a collection of essays and reviews that spans 30+ years, culled from a wide range of magazines and covers such subjects as art, history, science, cinema and science fiction and such personalities and icons as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, Dali, William Burroughs, Howard Hughes, Einstein, Warhol, Henry Miller, the list goes on.
Most of the pieces are short but pack a punch. Brilliant observations, a wicked turn of phrase and loaded with information, history and little-known facts, this gem has the effect of whetting your appetite for more. I, for one, will be tracking down books on various of the subjects and people explored in this volume.
One might think that a hotch-potch collection like this can't have anything like a cohesive quality to it, but, more than anything else, the sheer breath of the canvas painted and the uniquely skewed view of Ballard gives us an inside look at the mind of the writer. Of particular interest are the autobiographical essays which serve as the core of the book and paint a vivid picture of Shanghai in the 30's and 40's.
Highly recommended.
 Running Wild by J.G. Ballard
reviewed by John Kenny
Original appearance: Albedo one issue 13, 1997
I'm sad to say I was not so impressed by the re-release of Running Wild, also by J.G. Ballard. The quiet suburb of Pangbourne wakes up one morning to find all the adults murdered and the children missing. What happened? How did it happen? I'm afraid it turns out to be all too obvious, with no surprises or unique revelations. And even the inevitability of it all is not used as an element of the story.
Maybe the way it is laid out like a case study is meant to have a desired effect, like Gray's Anatomy: cold, detached, alienating, but, if that is what the writer was aiming for, I'm sorry, it didn't work for me.
 Cocaine Nights by J.G. Ballard
reviewed by John Kenny
Original appearance: Albedo one issue 15, Winter 1997-1998
Quite apart from the fact that Cocaine Nights is by J.G. Ballard, the book design (design and marketing does work, even if all that silver foil ends up on my sweaty little fingers. I have books where you can't see the title or the author until you open the cover) and the premise of the story were enough to attract me to this novel. Charles Prentice arrives in the Spanish resort of Estrella de Mar, an exclusive enclave for the rich and retired British, hot on the heels of news he has received that his brother Frank has pleaded guilty to the murder of five people in a house fire. Charles can't believe that his brother would be involved in such a thing, and, indeed, the police don't believe Frank's confession to be true. So, what is the reason for Frank's self-destructive impulse?
That is something we learn throughout the course of the novel, as we are introduced to the seamier side of life (drugs, pornography, prostitution, burglary, violent crime and murder) in the apparently idyllic resort and the masterminds behind the whole crime spree. As the basic theory behind this novel is revealed and fleshed out, it stretches credibility, but what we do get is a very convincing picture of the kind of decadence that, if it doesn't already exist, could be just around the corner and could be the ruination of us all as a species. Ballard has a wicked turn of phrase, a wry sense of humour and the unerring ability to observe the commonplace from a skewed, but nonetheless illuminating, perspective. He has taken imagery more typically to be found in his SF works, such as Vermilion Sands and Hello America, and transplanted it into the world as we know it today with frighteningly surreal results. Ballard's Costa del Sol (which, deep down, I think, is the real one) is no place I'd ever like to take a holiday in.
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