This book has a double edge. Firstly there are is the recent growth of high rise 'executive' flats built in the UK since the early 2000s (slowed only by the recession). Secondly there are the 1960s and 1970s tower blocks, the then solution to slum clearance, sold to the residents as 'streets in the sky'.
First published in 1975, Ballard was sending out a dystopian warning about the social conditions of the residents that were to live within such tower blocks. Be that as it may, the High Rise, executive or council, is still part of our present and future. For sure, the english dream of a semi-detached, with front and rear garden in the suburbs cannot be accessed by everyone.
Of course Ballard would not have had the foresight of the current trend to build executive flats, and would have had in mind the tower blocks of the 1960 and 1970s, which were mainly imported designs from Europe (yet another indication of how European the UK actually is).
But one criticism of the Tower Blocks during the 1980s, was that the architects that built them, did not have to suffer the conditions in which the residents lived within them. In "High Rise" Ballard turns this on its head, and has his architect living in the Tower Block. Yet this makes little difference, as the conditions deteriorate and the residents turn on each other anyway.
An entertaining short read, and as relevant to todays' modern Britain as when it was written, as our relationship with the Tower Block shows no end in sight. This book gets 3/5.
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