ead this one, half on a train, half at my mom’s mountain lair. It’s written by J.G. Ballard (famous for Empire of the Sun) and is the story of a mixed-class forty story (or is that “storey”) high rise residential building in London, specifically out on the Isle of Dogs. And how, when the social order breaks down, how bad it can get.

The story centers on three people, each representing one of the social classes. Richard Wilder, a documentary-maker down on the lower ten (the lower class). Then in the middle-reaches is Dr. Robert Laing. And up on the top floor, the architect and designer Anthony Royal watches with interest as the social structure (and humanity) of his residents slowly comes unglued.

There is no slow progression towards savagery. not like Lord of the Flies. It’s pretty quick – from loud parties blasting out of balconies to shit getting thrown down to smash lower balconies (and cars in the parking lots), to kids being denied access to the kids rooftop park to control of the elevators. And every jogging step on the way is worse than the last.

And in the end, you have the surviving residents enjoying their savagery, unified in hopes that the authorities won’t look into this totally darkened tower, surrounded by rubbish, smashed cars and an ominous smell (and no, they don’t).

I think the most horrific scene is the final one, the tenth floor swimming pool, mostly drained, a reduced pool of piss and rotting corpses, the shallow end filled with gnawed human bones. Yes, that’s how fast the fall came.

I think, if I had to comment on anything, I wish the fall of social order in the tower was a little slower, just a tad. when things fell apart, they fell fast.

But then again, we’re watching a democracy fall apart in six short months, so there’s that. Depressing.

But yes, I’d recommend it.

>>>AS I WOULD MY BOOKS<<<