High Rise: How A Skyscraper Descends Into Chaos

This year I have set myself the challenge to read 52 books in 2022 or one book a week. This is a decent challenge but I am very excited about it!

I am getting behind on my challenge a little bit but last week I finished book number 10: High Rise by JG Ballard.

This was what I would call a golden oldie, the book was written in 1975 and though the language has dated a bit, the book is still super relevant I think.

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The Book

The book is about a new sky scraper, or high rise building being made and it follows different tenants living in the building. I mean this is a building you would want to live in! It has two pools, a grocery store, a liquor store, a school, a sculpture garden and a restaurant. The residents of the high rise differ depending on the part of the building they live in. On the bottom floors we have the hard working citizens, many of whom have childeren. In the middle are the citizens that are better off, often in their middle age and enjoying life. In the hight of the building there is the upper class living in penthouses and enjoying the high life.

It doesn't take long for tensions to rise in the building. The different classes can't seem to get along in the building. The ones who do not have children are annoyed by the children and a fight breaks out over parking places and elevators. Laing, a doctor who lives in the middle of the building, is the first to notice that the parties in the building are spiralling out of control.

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What happens in what can only be called tribal warfare. The different floors team up against those they cannot connect with. Before long, the first murder, a jeweler from the top floor, takes place. The situation gets totally out of control when the inhabitants stop going to work and lock themselves up in the building instead.

The Style

What I love is the dystopian aspect of this novel. You can feel things spinning out of control, but at the same time you can sense that the inhabitants are unwilling or unable to stop it from spiralling. In the end the high rise becomes their lives and obsession. No longer caring about the world outside, they feel trapped on an island with all its intricacies. Despite failing power, death and destruction, most inhabitants refuse to leave the high rise and instead get completely muddled up in its inner workings.

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If you love dystopian novels like 1984, Oryx and Crake etc this is one you should read as well! Though the language is a bit old fashioned, its concept is still very much alive!