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The Kindness of Women

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The Kindness of Women

By: J. G. Ballard
Narrated by: Steven Pacey
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About this listen

The fascinating, and largely autobiographical, sequel to J. G. Ballard’s prize-winning Empire of the Sun, that follows Jim to post-war England. The Kindness of Women continues the story of the boy whose life in Japanese-occupied Shaghai was described so memorably in Empire of the Sun, it sets those traumatic events within the context of a lifetime as we follow the narrator, Jim, to England and suburban Shepperton after the war.

Jim tries and fails to find stability as a medical student at Cambridge and a trainee RAF pilot in Canada. Then, after settling happily into family life, his world is ripped apart by domestic tragedy. He plunges into the maelstrom of the 1960s, an instigator and subject of every aspect of cultural, social, and sexual revolution. All this and much more, we see as the attempt of a bruised mind to make sense of the upheaval around it.

J. G. Ballard was born in 1930 in Shanghai, where his father was a businessman. After internment in a civilian prison camp, he and his family returned to England in 1946. He published his first novel, The Drowned World, in 1961. His 1984 best seller, Empire of the Sun, won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was later filmed by Steven Spielberg. His memoir Miracles of Life was published in 2008. J. G. Ballard died in 2009.

©1991 J. G. Ballard (P)2014 Audible Studios Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Medical Psychological War & Military Military War
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I enjoyed this story as the follow on from Empire of the Sun. However I felt that the book contained far too much graphic detail of Jim’s sexual encounters which I didnt feel was necessary and didn’t add to the story

Engaging story

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Both this and previous ‘memoir’ ‘Empire of the Sun’ are described by Ballard as novels, essentially autofictions in every sense that implies; the narrative frames through which he tells and we understand his past(s) vary with the camera lens dominating the patterns of his life.

I enjoyed the reimagining of his Shanghai childhood and what happened to him over the next forty years. I look forward to his final volume ‘Miracles of life’ which apparently is non-fiction.

‘Modernism is the gothic of the information age’ J G Ballard

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easy listening, very good to get into it, enjoyed it specially after Empire of the Sun

As always JG Ballard never dissapoints

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This defacto follow up to his all-conquering Empire Of The Sun was the last of Ballards books I completed on my deep-dive into the author. It worked well like that, almost as a greatest hits of Ballardisms wrapping up the series like a clip montage at the end of a film. Published in 1991 just before the final onslaught of his suburban terrorism phase, it catches Ballard in a strangely nostalgic mood. He claimed it was fiction, but there’s an affection here.

Picking up the story of young Jim, this thinly-veiled autobiography is set largely in England in the second half of the 20th Century and follows his journey through school, the army and into a life of writing. All the well known tropes of Ballard’s writing are here. The drained swimming pools (figuratively and real), the clumsy, almost mathematical sex, grim death descriptions and a celebration of the mundane recast as fantastical. Searching for a follow up to Empire Of The Sun, Hollywood must’ve been quite frustrated when the chance to make a proper sequel to that blockbuster ended up being, essentially, a grim kitchen sink drama. At times bleak, I’m not sure Spielberg could do much with his.

But that’s not the point. As it is, this is a fascinating work. With Ballard’s life so well documented, those with a keen eye will be able to work out the differences to his actual life. Perhaps play spot the difference with Ballard’s actual autobiography, the equally wonderful non-fiction version Miracles of Life: Shanghai to Shepperton, published just before his death in 2008.

It’s a tender book, and Steven Pacey’s matter of fact narration is perfectly suited to it. With its title reflecting on the women Jim encounters throughout his adult life, it’s sad and moving in places but overall somehow joyous. A comfort even. And it’s rare you get to say that about Ballard’s stuff much. If you like Ballard already, you’ve probably already got it. If you’re new to his work, it’s a great introduction. And if you like it, the same themes are echoed through the rest of his output and you’ll enjoy the voyage of discovery.

Empire of the Mum

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Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Possibly, but not for me.

Did Steven Pacey do a good job differentiating each of the characters? How?

The reader did a good job keeping the story going as best as possible.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

No.

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed Empire of the Sun, High Rise and The Concrete Island and so came to this novel with high expectations and settled in for an enjoyable read. However, I was to be very disappointed this time. I found the whole experience to be one of one third a repeat of Empire of the Sun. One third unnecessarily graphic descriptions of sexual experiences (maybe I'm a prude, but I would rather use my own imagination thank you!) and I didn't complete the last third of the novel.It would not put me off trying another novel by J.G.Ballard, but I was very close to sending this one back! Overall - just not that interesting.

Kindness of Women - very disappointing.

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