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JG Ballard
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Book
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Publisher | Flamingo | ||
ISBN | 978-000655064 | ||
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Reviewer
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Gareth
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Synopsis
This is the remarkable bestseller from one of the giants of modern British literature - at once an engrossing mystery and an unnerving vision of a society coming to terms with a life of unlimited leisure. When Charles Prentice arrives in Spain to investigate his brother's involvement in the death of five people in a fire in the upmarket coastal resort of Estrella de Mar, he gradually discovers that beneath the civilised, cultured surface of this exclusive enclave for Britain's retired rich there flourishes a secret world of crime, drugs and illicit sex! What starts as an engrossing mystery develops into a mesmerising novel of ideas - a dazzling work of the imagination from one of Britain's most original and controversial novelists - author of "Empire of the Sun" and "Crash"
Review
There is something very compelling reading a Ballard novel - none more so than Cocaine Nights. It's almost like watching a car crash - you know you shouldn't stare when you drive past but you can't help yourself... Well, the subjects in Ballard's later novels are very much like that; they deal with the moral ambiguity that is inherent in modern day society. Crash is the most obvious example of this; closely followed by High Rise, but Cocaine Nights is more subtle (or as subtle as Ballard can get...).
It starts as a simple whodunit - Charles Prentice travels to the Spanish resort of Estella De Mar to try and uncover the truth behind the mysterious fire that killed five residents as his brother, Frank, is the chief suspect. But as the narrative unfolds Charles soon realises that words such as guilty and innocence no longer have the same meanings - and there is no distinction between good and evil; for the world of Estella De Mar exists in a world of grey where nothing is what it seems.
Ballard is a rare breed of writer that is able to make contemporary society seem like science fiction. He looks at the forces that shape us from a unique angle and holds a warped mirror to our fears and motivators. Cocaine Nights looks at the resort homes such as the Costa Del Sol and how a life of leisure might not be everything it's cracked up to be. He makes the, at first, questionable comment that it is crime that brings a community together; and in modern day society there is no togetherness. I can certainly attest to that - living in a nameless "block" of flats where I rarely see my neighbours on a day to day basis, but if a crisis happens then we all will pull together (depending on the type of crisis, of course.) We all live in our tightly wrapped lives and only really socialise within type groups of similarly wrapped "friends" - there is no sense of community anymore.
Cocaine Nights is a thoroughly engrossing read, treading the fine line between science-fiction (in its concepts) and crime fiction. I really think they need to make a film of it, actually - I'm really surprised no one's thought of it!!
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