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Title: Crash by David Cronenberg, Cronenberg ISBN: 0-88910-497-2 Publisher: Consortium Book Sales & Distribution Pub. Date: 01 September, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95

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Average Customer Rating: 3.44 (82 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Thought-provoking, good
Comment: 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.

Rating: 4
Summary: An Orgy of Skin and Steel
Comment: "Crash," despite its excesses, is a cautionary tale, a tale of crossed boundaries and the infringement of technology into the realm of sexuality and vice-versa. And this violation, central to the novel's success, makes "Crash" an uncomfortable, yet enthralling, read.

London, the locus of the novel, is a domain of autoeroticism to the small band of deviants who experiment with the "erotic atrocities" of the car crash. Led by Vaughan, a "nightmare angel of the highways," each member of the clique is on a path of self-discovery, searching the fringes for a new definition of identity, usually culminating in a twisted, disjointed sex act among the remains of the shredded, mangled metal of automobiles. But this avenue of discovery leads to the devaluating of any humanity in sexuality, for bodily fluids soon hold no significance over engine coolant, and the scars of past automobile near-fatalities exuberate more eroticism than the standard sex organs.

Excess? Absolutely. And at times the excess becomes almost unbearable in its monotonous perversity. But this surplus of imagery serves a purpose; it is an apocalyptic vision of a downward road that should be familiar to all, one in which technology and sexuality are allowed to mingle freely. The results are not pretty. They are frightening.

"Crash" is one of those novels that is more important than enjoyable. A must read for anyone interested in and disturbed by the state of the human condition in the face of technology in the late twentieth century.

Rating: 4
Summary: This is what science fiction is all about. Not Star Wars.
Comment: Ballard wrote "Crash" some 30 years ago. However it is relevant today as a sci-fi piece that explores many interesting issues in ways that most sci-fi glosses over. It is a fascinating book, offering no opinions but only a voice in a passive tone, exploring the depths of man and machine. The idea of the two combining, becoming one piece, is at times the core of the science Ballard explores. The people in this novel mutilate themselves in reckless behavior and with little regard for their life as they seek to bring a bit closer the feeling of having their skin, their body, melded with the automobile.

Before Luke Skywalker, before Captain Kirk, this is science and fiction. But how fiction is it?