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Content snapshot
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Violence
A lot
WWII camp violence and deaths; depicted with restraint but genuine weight
Language
Barely any
Formal literary prose in Ballard's measured register
Sexual Content
Barely any
Minimal sexual content
Substance Use
None
No substance use
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The psychological portrait of a child who has adapted to extremity — and the question of what has been lost and gained in that adaptation — is the novel's brilliant and disturbing subject
What this book is about
J.G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical novel follows Jim, an eleven-year-old English boy who is separated from his parents when Japan occupies Shanghai and must survive the Japanese internment camps. The novel is remarkable for Jim's psychology — his fascination with the Japanese, with planes, with power — as much as for its historical accuracy. The violence of the camps is depicted with restraint; the psychological portrait is extraordinary. One of the finest WWII novels.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
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