Rating: 
Summary: Very good book with a very new concept
Review: I found this book to be very vivid and detailed like all of Ballard's works, and I have to say the concept is one that I have never read/heard/seen before. The setting is very dark and could be easily compared to Fight Club's enviroment and mood. The story unfolds in a very cryptic manner and really draws you in from chapter one.
Rating: 
Summary: Kind of dumb.
Review: I bought this book for two reasons. First, I like David Cronenberg movies a lot and I wanted to read this before I watched the film. Secondly, Ballard was recommended to me because I liked "Fight Club" and other books of the genre. I didn't like "Crash" a whole lot though. Sure, the idea of people obsessing with the sexuality surrounding car crashes is original, but it's a bit tiresome when it's dragged on for 200 pages (thank goodness the book isn't longer). I guess the book would have been a lot better if it hadn't repeated itself so often. I tired after the fourth or fifth time the main characters had sex after either causing a car crash, witnessing a car crash, or staging one. I gave this two stars rather than one because it has potential to be a good book. I don't know if I'll like Ballard's other works. I also want to say the Cronenberg film was pretty dumb too.
Rating: 
Summary: Certainly not for everyone...
Review: I have only been aware of this book since the movie was released in 1996. It is amazing that this was actually published almost 30 years ago. I'd love to know how it was recieved back then. This is the 3rd Ballard book I've read (Atrocity Exhibition and Concrete Island, were the other 2). He is interested/obsessed with the dehumanizing effect that modern technology is having on the human race. This is one "icky" read. If you're revolted by textbook-like discussion of body fluids, trauma wounds, and pathologically self-absorbed human beings...stay away. The character Ballard's obsession with Gabrielle's scars from her accident was the most vivid and disturbing image that I will take away from this book...yecch. For all the sex (of any and every flavor you'd can imagine, and some you'd best not) it is written so clinically that it isn't very erotic. Indeed, I don't think Ballard (the author) used one four-letter word in the whole story. Now that's quite a feat in a story that averages a sexual coupling (of whatever with what-have-you)every 2-3 pages. I bought the three books, because Ballard's name kept popping up on my reco list (Thanks, Amazon). The synopses sounded intriguing. I like dark stuff, I guess. What's missing from this work and from "Concrete Island" is humor. For such "out-there" material, Ballard takes everything far too seriously.
Rating:
Summary: One idea doesn't make a book.
Review: Ahead of its time, yes. Disturbing, yes. Would make a great 5 page short story, yes. Is it a good book? No. It's prolonged and boring. After a hundred pages reading the same thing over and over again becomes a torture, the characters are underdeveloped, and the plot is almost non-existent. This book would've made a wonderful short story. It's written in good style, but if you skip a page, or two, or ten at a time, you're not missing much. I recommend it only for its novelty value.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrible movie/ Terrible book
Review: This could have made a great short story, and I don't mean if only the ideas in this book were shortened- because there is only one good thing in this book- and that is the techno-eroticism thing which admittedly puts this book ahead of its time. But one great IDEA a good book doth not make! Reading this book was TORTURE. Characters? Hello!
Rating: 
Summary: perhaps not Ballard's best . . .
Review: ...but certainly his most unforgettable. I've read this book several times, and it is still just as disturbing, if not more disturbing, each time I read it. There aren't many books you can say that about. Some of his other books may be better--"Day of Creation," "The Crystal World," and "Unlimited Dream Company" are all marvelous fantasies, written in that same fluid, dreamlike style. But they won't haunt your nightmares like "Crash" will. I think what affected me the most, more than the cold, clinical, but still erotic sex scenes or the terrible brutality of Vaughan's deliberately engineered crashes, was simply the unflinching look at the nature of obsession. Ballard (and it's so much more disturbing, somehow feeling that the author is, or may be, the narrator) shows how we can become fixated, whether on sex, death, violence, another person, whatever, to the point that nothing else in the world matters--and there is nothing particularly unusual about this! He is perfectly matter-of-fact, unalarmed about his growing obsession. This is simply the way people's minds work, he seems to be telling us. People aren't rational. They're controlled by their obsessions, some of which are more benign than others (Vaughan's would have to be among the least benign). What's most frightening about this is that we realize how true this insight is--I think that's Ballard's greatest achievement, something that he returns to again and again in other works. (I think especially of the two rival scientists carrying on their petty, personal war as the jungle around them turns to glass in "The Crystal World.") As much as I have been moved and impressed by this book, I haven't the least interest in seeing the Cronenberg movie--I don't see how a film could hope to do justice to the perfect beauty and horror of this little nightmare.
Rating:
Summary: The Strangest Novel Ever Written
Review: Perhaps it is the strangest. Is it good or not? That doesn't really matter. What the reviewers, both favorable and not, seem to miss is that JG Ballard is a Surrealist. His fiction presents some of the most bizarre and uncanny images and situations in the driest, most matter-of-fact style; in other words, the essence of Surrealist style. He is also an avant-gardeist in that style, interested in the experimental possibilities of the novel. Plot, characters and the usual customs of the novel are not so important to Ballard, and the satisfaction of those elements will not be found in his work, which is more involved with situations and ideas. "Crash" is not his very best work, but certainly his most controversial. If you have a taste for, or are intrigued by Surrealism, then you should read this novel, whether you end up 'liking' it or not. If you saw the movie and are interested in reading the book, keep in mind the movie was incredibly mild compared to the book. If you are interested in a unique vision of the possibilities of the imagination, especially in the sense that technology can literally transform the human mind and body in a way that hints at the possibility of a new species all together, then read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Yaaaaaaawn............
Review: Even though the images in this book disturbed me at times and turned my stomach the plot of this novel was very mudane and boring. The characters were never fully developed and I had no compassion or even interest in their lives. Perhaps with a little more character development and a faster moving pace (the book was very repetitive) it would have been a more worthy read.
Rating:
Summary: Lame
Review: This book -despite a provocative concept- is not good. I don't recommend reading it. Ballard's language makes no sense and tries way too hard. If you read the last two pages you'll find out just how unworthwhile -blatently stupid- this work really is.
Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking, good
Review: Crash is an incredibly strange book. You've probably guessed that already, since it's about people with an erotic fascination for car crashes. The book isn't nearly as disturbing as some people would have you believe - sure, it's controversial, graphic, and a very strange, but it's not as disturbing as you might think. Ballard's writing style takes time to get used to. Crash probably has, if you put all of it together, about four pages of dialogue, tops. There is very little talking among the characters; most of the story is in the vivid descriptions and elaborate detail. The story has an incredibly amount of detail when it comes to describing the crashes and the sexual fascination that revolves around them. Which brings me to my next point - what makes this book good isn't necessarily it's plot or characters, as the plot is not incredibly cohesive and the characters are not in any way dynamic (even the twisted "TV scientist" Vaughan can be surprisingly normal at times). What makes this a really slick and cool book is the subject matter, detail and ideas implied. "The keys to a new sexuality born from a perverse technology" is an apt description of the books theme. However, summaries of the book often talk of the character's staging of accidents. This is a red herring; after the characters get into a crash and develop this fascination, most likely they don't crash their cars again. There is much description of the implied sexual elements of vehicle collision and after-effects of it - much detail is paid to the wounds crash victims suffer, probably more than anything else. However, from the first line it is apparent that a principle character died trying to stage a crash. Crash is a book that after you've read it, you won't forget it. The subject matter is brilliantly thought-provoking and thoroughly strange. The only reason I give it four stars is the lack of plot it has sometimes makes the book difficult to read and understand. It's really more of a four and 1/2. To close: read Crash. Whether you like it or not, you most likely won't regret reading it.
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