The Atrocity Exhibition: Annotated (Flamingo Modern Classics) Book

Although perhaps more famous for works such as Empire of the Sun and the controversial Crash, The Atrocity Exhibition is arguably J.G. Ballard's finest novel. Hugely experimental and non-linear in style, pinning down the plot of The Atrocity Exhibition is no easy busy but it is effectively an examination of the extreme levels of violence found in modern society. Set against a postmodern background of psychological experiments that have gone awry, the central character is a man in the midst of a nervous breakdown, a man whose altered reality is filled with images of celebrities, dead astronauts and car crash victims. Trying to reclaim his sanity, he adopts various personalities becoming in turn a pilot, a presidential assassin and a psychopath. The Atrocity Exhibition is a hugely inventive, if a little disturbing, book of addled musings that is compulsive from start to finish. Every page is full of violence, vice, genocide and insanity. This edition of The Atrocity Exhibition is particularly good since it features extensive notes on the text by J.G. Ballard himself as well as four additional stories and an introduction by William Burroughs.

First published in 1970 and widely regarded as a prophetic masterpiece this is a groundbreaking experimental novel by the acclaimed author of 'Crash' and 'Super-Cannes' who has supplied explanatory notes for this new edition. The irrational all-pervading violence of the modern world is the subject of this extraordinary tour de force. The central character's dreams are haunted by images of John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe dead astronauts and car-crash victims as he traverses the screaming wastes of nervous breakdown. Seeking his sanity he casts himself in a number of roles: H-bomber pilot presidential assassin crash victim pscyhopath. Finally through the black perverse magic of violence he transcends his psychic turmoils to find the key to a bizarre new sexuality.

The Atrocity Exhibition : Paperback : HarperCollins Publishers : 9780007116867 : : 09 Mar 2012 : A prophetic and experimental masterpiece by J. G. Ballard, the acclaimed author of 'Crash' and 'Super-Cannes'. This edition includes explanatory notes from the author.