Kingdom Come: A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Selection
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (Fiction)
“J.G. Ballard is the undisputed laureate of suburban psychosis.... A brilliant novel.” —Literary Review
A violent novel filled with insidious twists, Kingdom Come follows the exploits of Richard Pearson, a rebellious, unemployed advertising executive, whose father is gunned down by a deranged mental patient in a vast shopping mall outside Heathrow Airport. When the prime suspect is released without charge, Richard’s suspicions are aroused. Investigating the mystery, Richard uncovers at the Metro-Centre mall a neo-fascist world whose charismatic spokesperson is whipping up the masses into a state of unsustainable frenzy. Riots frequently terrorize the complex, immigrant communities are attacked by hooligans, and sports events mushroom into jingoistic political rallies. In this gripping, dystopian tour de force, J.G. Ballard holds up a mirror to suburban mind rot, revealing the darker forces at work beneath the gloss of consumerism and flag-waving patriotism.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With all the attention paid lately to terrorist narratives and novels of suburban malaise, the prescience of Ballard's last novel, receiving its better-late-then-never American publication after six years, will come as a shock even to hardened veterans of the late author's psychosexual parables and visceral sci-fi. This is a pitch-black comedy of consumer fascism hooked to wary hero Richard Pearson, a recently unemployed advertising exec who returns to suburban London to investigate his father's death inside the monolithic Metro-Centre mall at the hands of a machinegun-wielding madman. But something much more sinister is at play, an evil that lurks inside boutiques and car parks, transmitted by commercials that make it seem as if everyone is a suspect except for the killer. Racial violence is on the rise, suburban assassinations and bombings have become as ubiquitous as strip malls, and Metro-Centre looms as a new church awaiting its messiah (or its f hrer?). Pearson goes deep into a bizarre conspiracy that extends beyond mere capitalist critique to a murderous vision of 21st-century Britain. But it is the connections Ballard makes between anti-Muslim violence, elective insanity, and governments complicit with autocratic corporate agendas that make this novel a compulsory read and a wicked masterpiece of postmodern post-9/11 literature, a chilling vision of things as they are.
Customer Reviews
Difficult Read
This was a hard book to read and fully grasp as Ballard delves into a fictional, imaginary world where it is difficult for the average reader to understand what is going on and what is real and what is not. For science fiction fans I assume but not for me as I read for pleasure & knowledge and found very little of either here...EAF
Preachy
Too much cheap demagoguery for me.
Horrible
Probably one of the worst books I've ever read the plot made no sense and it was incredibly boring the whole time don't waste your money