Rating: 
Summary: Boys and Girls, can you say "fetish"?
Review: I saw a documentary on Elizabeth Taylor's life recently. She herself was interviewed for it. It was an A&E's biography type of piece if not the actual program. It seems that Liz Taylor had befriended several extremely talented and beautiful gay men throughout her life and career. Most were dear and life long friends with names like Hudson (Rock), Dean (James) and Cliff (Montgomery). Dean lost his life in an automobile accident and Cliff smashed his Adonis features in one. So no wonder the name of this book is "Crash," as it is based on one sick puppy named Vaughan, the central character in this book though not the narrator, who wants to die in a "blazing glory" by crashing head on into Liz Taylor's motor vehicle in the streets of London. I first discovered J.G. Ballard's "Empire of the Sun" about his magical and tragic childhood in a Japanese concentration camp in Southern China. I wanted to find out more about him and bought an anthology with three novels in it: "The Crystal World", "Concrete Island" and "Crash." I have not finished reading two of the three books although I did manage to finish "Crash." Don't ask me why I finished this one first, it was like a car crash, I could not help but keep looking/reading, repetitive page after repetitive page of graphic mind numbing disgusting sexual fetish for car wrecks. Yes, this book is as weird, disturbing and strange as some SURREALIST art can be. The book depicts graphic and unfeeling sex between men and women AND men and men in a very blase and unemotinoal narrative. The characters in the book, J.G. Ballard, Dr. Helen Remington, and Vaughn all get obsessed and excited by a sexual fetish for car crashes. I am no expert on fetishes but do understand that fetishes are when random THINGS (like the human foot, shoes or even the Easter Bunny costume) are incorporated into someone's sexual life. The characters of "Crash" have it bad!! They adore metal carcasses of the actual car that is wrecked and the damaged human carcasses (dead or not so dead, metaphorical carcasses and non-metaphorical carcasses) which were once inside the wrecked car. I am not into sensoring books but I can recommend or NOT recommend a book. And in this case, do not bother to read this book (I am sorry Mr. Ballard, I am a fan or yours as you are the most interesting of writers, and I do applaud your bravery) unless you are just curious. There is a possibility though that there was something MORE profound to this book that I missed...something more DEEP and PROFOUND that went beyond me at this reading. Sure, there is always that possibility.
Rating: 
Summary: Technologically Erotic
Review: Crash truly shows how machines can take on the identity of people and how people can become wrapped up and almost controlled because of technology. This book demonstrates mechanization and the use of technology to bring about people's senses. The actions of the accidents almost have a human like feeling and simulation of sexual intercorse only between the automobiles that crash. While I have to admit that the bnook is certainly an unusual read, it was certainly rather interesting. The detail that the book gives far outweighs the detail which the movie portrays. I thought that the book shows how using technology can lead to a downward progression in the control of people's desires, sex in this case. It represented how a person can become so entenched in what he is doing that it will only come to a climax and become that which will ruin a person. This is the first of Ballard's work that I have read, but I just may have to go out and read more of his work.
Rating: 
Summary: Crash
Review: Well where do I begin? I read "Crash" by J.G. Ballard. One thing that I so not like to do is read. However, this books combination of violence and sex (which are both right up my ally) kept me on the edge. The book tell the story through a narrator, whose name turns out to be J.G. Ballard. I will discuse the significance of this later. Ballard gets into a serious head on collision in which he messes up his leg very bad. Riding in the other car, is Dr. Helen Remington and her husband, who during the crash goes flying through the winshield on to Ballards car, killing him instantly. While in the hospital, Ballard encounters an interesting man who seems almost facinated by his cuts and bruises from the accident. The man's name is Vaughn, and he has an interesting hobby. he roams the freeways in search of crashes. He is very facinated by them and takes pictures. He also sees the sexual significance of the crashes. He sees the sexual possibilities of a victim's wounds. His dream is to die in a crash with Elizabeth Taylor. This, to him, would put him in a long history of historical crashes such as James Dean. I find the book very interesting. I especially like the detail in which the author went into when describing the crashes and their victims. I also found it interesting how he named the narrator after himself. Almost like the author was living what he wrote. The book also combined sex with automobile accidents. It is like the author had some sort of fetish. It seemed like he got off on visualizing sexual actions in the crash. I liked the book, but probably would not recomend it. It takes some time and effort to understand it.
Rating:
Summary: Review of Crash
Review: Crash is the perfect example of the combination of technology and that which is organic. Although I feel the novel is much too descriptive, Ballard gets his point across quite easily. The characters in Crash all have the same sort of unrealistic fetish. Most people just have weird fetishes that do not really threaten their existence, such as the foot fetish, but Ballard and his posse have a sexual association with cars, speeding, and the inevitable crash that follows reckless driving, and they love the life threatening thrill. In the process of reading the novel, I found myself asking "Where in the world is the plot in all of this madness?" In all reality, there is no plot. Crash is simply the story of a random string of events in the lives of Ballard, his wife, and the crew of people that have car crash fetishes. The characters are constantly confusing fiction and reality in the way they act out their sexual desires. Vaughan in particular confuses fiction and reality, but he is not necessarily interested in sex, but in the technology of it all. Vaughan's strange obsessions with Kennedy and Elizabeth Taylor are mentioned quite frequently, and he acts out his sexual fantasies on a prostitute who is meant to symbolize a younger Elizabeth Taylor. Not only do the characters have sexual relationships with random prostitutes, they have sexual relations with each other's significant others. Vaughan has a sexual experience with Ballard's wife, and basically beats her up, but Ballard is turned on by the scratches and bruises all over his wife. He describes them as little "car accidents." All in all, Crash is the perfect example of the marriage between sex and technology. But if you have a problem with graphic pornographic material, I suggest you find another book to read.
Rating:
Summary: Something Different
Review: "Crash," by J.G. Ballard was one of the strangest books I have ever read. From the beginning of the story, the reader knows that the story they are about to read is going to be something very different, but very exciting at the same time. This science fiction title focuses on the lives of a few people that are obsessed with the fetish between sex and car crashes. Eventually, all of the characters interact somehow deeply affecting their lives forever. Throughout the novel each character eventually gets more and more interested in the idea of the car crash, and having sex in a car. This novel portrays a vast array of emotions to the reader from caring and tenderness, to violence and darkness. All of these emotions are weaved together very well by Ballard, somehow even fitting tenderness and violence together. I have never really looked at how car crashes and sexuality can be combined, but this book does is in a very good, although very strange way. Overall, a very good book that will keep your attention until the last page. Be prepared for something different, but entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: Dark and disturbing
Review: A very powerful and graphic novel that will suck you in and shock you. There are many explicit sexual and bloody scenes in this story - something you should be aware of before you start. I highly enjoyed it but I can see how it could offend someone else. I have never seen the movie, nor had I ehard of it until I realized the cover of my copy was an advertisement for it, but let me suggest to you that you do not skimp and see the movie instead - this does not seem like a story that could make an easy transition to the screen, and you will get a lot more emotional response from the book. As I read this book I went through a metamorphosis - going from disgusted to interested to final acceptance of their acts, as though it were a natural thing. Once I finished the book I realized what my mindset was, and was shocked that I had felt like that - any author that can make you react in a similar fashion is one to be awed, one you should respect and, in a sense, fear. This book drives home Don DeLillo's point that the novelist is a form of terrorist - novelists can change your mind and effect the mental form of an entire generation. JG Ballard is one of these novelists.
Rating:
Summary: zzzzzzzzz. . . .
Review: I couldn't have been more dissapointed by this book. I decided to read Crash on account of the numerous high reviews posted on Amazon.com by other readers. I felt nothing towards the characters of this novel. Indeed, aside from occassional disgust (with myself for actually continuing to tred through this garbage), this book stirred little or no emotion in me. In concept, the relationship between sexuality, modern society and technology is thought-provoking. Unfortunately, this book did little to analyze this topic beyond using it as a backdrop for the rather boring storyline. In the end, I just didn't care. Don't bother reading this book. You have better ways to spend your time.
Rating:
Summary: Overrated
Review: I have read three books by J.G. Ballard and I found this to be the worst. While it is one of Ballard's more well-known works it is certainly not his best. I heard a lot sbout the book and movie, mostly praise, so I had high expectations. It is not that I was disgusted or horrified by the graphic nature. I liked American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. I was bored, I had to struggle to finish a book in which I didn't even care about the characters or their outcome. Try Concrete Island or something else.
Rating:
Summary: When things collide
Review: What a fantastic book! For the record, it is not about sex. It is not about lust. It is not about cars...purely. This is a book about collisions...worlds colliding, people colliding, bodies colliding, cars colliding, and what happens in these cases. Even the author and the characters collide (author is JG Ballard, character is Ballard..coincidence? I think not). DO NOT RENT THIS MOVIE! Read the book. It is amazing...
Rating:
Summary: good grief
Review: Ballard, a writer of surpassing skill, is attracted to the grotesque beauty of car crashes -- the pretzeled steel, the smoke, the fountains of coolant and blood. I do not share his tastes, but I envy his ability to make me understand, or at least begin to understand, why his twisted mind might appreciate this gruesomeness. The writing in this book is gorgeous in a terrifying way. I recommend the book with little reservation.
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