Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3035 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-04
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Financial Times
'Exquisitely written...Ballard's crowning achievement.'

Independent
'A jewel...as a writer, he can simply take the breath away.'

Tatler
'Compassion, humour and insight...it is infused with a tremendous generosity of spirit.'

Customer Reviews

Honest Accounting
I won't give a synopsis since this has already been done ably by other reviewers. Why this autobiography 'worked' for me is that Mr Ballard has reflected his past experiences to his present situation so movingly, and with characteristic modesty. As a young man he considered his unusual childhood to be of little interest to anyone; only late on in his life has it provided him with explicit material for fiction - and now, with this account - for fact - only latterly has he recognised that he had unconsciously used his childhood experiences as literary motifs.

Judging by his enthusiasm that came through in the middle part of the book, I suspect that Mr Ballard derived most satisfaction in his life from raising his three children on his own following the tragic death of his wife whilst on holiday - an event that he describes briefly, yet deeply movingly.

He doesn't say a great deal about his actual writing (apart from, in his earlier years, writing a short story between dropping off his children at school in the morning and picking them up in the afternoon) although he does refer interestingly to some of his books and short stories, and to his literary acquaintances. With some exceptions (Kingsley Amis, Michael Moorcock, Ian Sinclair and Will Self) he appears to have been more 'at home' with avante garde artists than with fellow writers.

I spent some time in a British expatriate community as a youngster, albeit some twenty years after Mr Ballard's time, so I could relate to this part of his life. I'm familiar with the type of people he observed, although I don't recall the grown-ups as leading nearly such dissipated life styles, neither did I witness such extremes of poverty and affluence as existed in pre-war Shanghai ... and neither was I interned by 'the enemy' for two years.

Miracles of Life is not in the slightest bit pretentious, it is simply written and lacks in any real rancour, which is so refreshing, given some of the back-biting one comes to expect from autobiographies these days, and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in what lies behind a considerable writer.

Beautifully told
This is a curious mixture of a book. Granted that it was written under strained and special circumstances, it is both revealing and concealing in equal measure. If you are familiar with Ballard's work and have taken an interest in him over the years, you will find nothing new here. It is, however, a joy to have it in one volume. And for all its apparent superficiality, we learn a great deal about Ballard from the structure and level of content of this work.

Nearly half the book is devoted to Ballard's first fifteen years, the time he lived in Shanghai and experienced the strange life of an expatriate community as well as internment by the Japanese. This is also the most fluent and vibrant part of the book.

It may well be that writing of his early life in his fiction, especially in Empire of the Sun, means he is well rehearsed. But it is clear these formative years are seared not just into his memory, but also his psyche. The things he saw and experienced have re-appeared time and again in his writings, sometimes filtered, but always from the same roots.

Elsewhere, there is a reticence, a shyness that produces a sketchy feeling, as if we are seeing an early draft. A pioneer of explorations into the sf of `inner space', his own inner space is closely guarded. Yet what he chooses to conceal is revealing in itself. He speaks of family life, for example, but whilst it is clear that his family was the bright sun at the centre of his universe, dimmed for a while by the sudden death of his wife, it is also clear that the rest is nobody's business but his own and theirs. I find this wonderfully refreshing - we are strangers, after all, those of us who read his books.

As a writer myself, I confess I was disappointed that Ballard did not discuss how he wrote or consider the processes by which developed certain styles, especially his concentrated novels. I would love to have known more of those early days and the discussions he had with other writers of the so-called `New Wave'. On the other hand I am not altogether surprised. Whilst undoubtedly a highly intelligent man and a skilled and innovative writer, he has never been one of the `literati', self-dissecting and self-obsessed. His work must (and does) speak for itself - with a voice that is robust, fluent, exciting, innovative, often tackling the controversial, but always worth listening to.

A Must Read
I couldn't put this down. Ballard writes about his time in Shanghai and makes it seem as normal as my own childhood. Then he returns to the UK - a country he has never been to - and feels a complete stranger.

Ballard's fiction is offbeat and surreal, but completely original - and this autobiography is almost an explanation of where it all came from. Fans of Ballard will find this almost an extension to his fiction.

I could not put this down. The writing is evocative without being wordy, and every page is filled with interesting thoughts.