Three years after I started, I finally completed Ballard's urban trilogy comprised of Concrete Island (1974), Crash (1973), and High-Rise (1975). I must say at the beginning that High-Rise is in my opinion the best novel in the trilogy. It has the most interesting plot which continually progresses through the novel (slow at the beginning and then speeding up as it moves towards the end) and it also creates the most engaging experience for the reader. The reason for that lies in its carefully crafted form. Ballard's novel consists of 19 chapters with three different characters as its focalization points, which periodically interchange throughout the novel. The focalization structure of the novel is thus the following:
chapters 1-3, 10-11, 16, and 19 are narrated from the perspective of dr. Laing, a teacher at the medical school and a tenant on the 25th floor of the apartment building.
chapters 4-6, 12-13, 17, and partially the 18 are focalized through the perspective of Robert Wilder, TV reporter who lives with his wife and two children on the 2nd floor
finally, chapters 7-9, 14-15, and partially the 18 are focalized through the perspective of Anthony Royal, who is one of the architects of the building, and who lives with his wife on the 40th (the highest) floor.
Such structure of the novel contributes to the tension of its plot. As a result, the reader learns about what is happening in the building, and about the slow decay of its tenants into madness, through the perspectives of three characters, all of whom want to use the degradation of life in the building for the realization of their own subconscious wishes, drives, and impulses.
It is a typical Ballardian story about how the modern environment (in Concrete Island), the modern technology (in Crash), and the modern architecture (in High-Rise) create new and unprecedented possibilities for the realization of the basic, animal drives in the human. Thus, each of these novels serves also as a cautionary tale about the dangers of interactions between the human animal and technology.
What makes High Rise the most accomplished of the three novels is that it integrates into itself the commitments of the previous two novels. It thematizes both the slow regression of human into animal, which is the main theme of Concrete Island, and the development of new sexual perversities, which is in the focus of Ballard's pornographic masterpiece, Crash.
In terms of style, the novel bears all the stylistic traits characteristic of Ballard's work from that period, most notably metaphors and comparisons which establish an analogy between psycho(pato)logical states and artificial landscapes. By doing this, Ballard famously dissolves the boundary between inner and outer space. Inner space is externalized, while outer space is internalized.
Finally, the novel is permeated with Ballard's characteristically dark humor.
