Empire of The Sun by JG Ballard, author of Crash – my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/07/a-novel-with-some-unfavorable-reviews.html with a few thousand more reviews - 9 out of 10

 

Empire of The Sun by JG Ballard, author of Crash – my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/07/a-novel-with-some-unfavorable-reviews.html with a few thousand more reviews

 

9 out of 10

 

While the encounter with Crash was a disaster for this reader, Empire of The Sun was a delightful read, which gives me (some) courage to try the other two books by JG Ballard that are included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, along with the aforementioned, Millenium People and The Drowned World

 

Three out of four are Science Fiction, and that could be the root of the problem with Crash, and maybe the others, since I am not a big fan of this genre, Empire of the Sun may have worked because it is a War and Travel Book, that is we find it in that section, and it deals with the war experiences of Jamie aka Jim Graham

The name of the hero is in fact borrowed from the author, JG stands for James Graham, indeed, the narrative is inspired from what the novelist has been through, during World War II – this inspired a movie, and I remembered seeing Christian Bale, a great thespian, and some scenes where he is in a camp, but not much more

 

At the start of the book, we find Jamie enjoying life in Shanghai – he would be called at some point Shanghai Jim – with his family, well off, though they are not exorbitantly rich, and anyway, his father is, if not parsimonious, disinclined to spend too much, privileged white people, in a city supposed to be larger than London

The capital of the British Empire, which covered about one third of the world, was the center of the world in some ways, and the Grahams are English, they take part in the high life, own a pool, have servants, one young woman is a refugee from Europe, she escaped the march and mass killings of the Nazis

 

However, she lives in a room, with her parents, and when Jim asks about the size – ‘is it as large as this room’ – she answers that it is in fact as big as a cupboard, ‘not everyone is as lucky as you are’, which was an accurate depiction before Pearl Harbor, what with the chauffer, the Packard, amenities, all they wanted

This is changing dramatically, in the eve of the Japanese attack on the American fleet stationed (actually the term must be anchored) in Hawaii, what there is of it, I think luckily there were big ships missing, and thus saved from the onslaught, the subjects of The Empire of the Sun (the name refers to that country) get the power

It is a surprise in Shanghai, just as it was at Pearl Harbor, in the clash, Jamie ends up in the hospital, and he eventually escapes to return home, he does not find his parents, there are no servants, the hero has to stay alone for days, then it dawns on him that they are not coming back, he contemplates the idea of surrendering

 

Though not from the start, he tries to find his friend, but nobody is left there, at Shell, there is a keeper, but the white people have been taken prisoners, or worse, those that are from the enemy camp, the Germans are free, albeit the relationship is tense, between the Japanese and their allies, the Nazis, they are made to obey orders

When the soldiers of the Empire of the Sun stop the Germans, they are made to return, as they were bent on attacking those who lived in a Jewish area, they are searched…when he is at his friend’s house, one of the former employees kicks the protagonist so bad, he has an injury, he had never been hit that bad

 

He is roaming through the city on his bicycle, for as long as he has it, he tries to surrender, but he is ignored, sent away, the problem is that the food stocked in his home and elsewhere is running out, indeed, this would be a huge problem, during the years that the traumatized super hero has to live in camps

That is right, I call him a super hero, because he has a fabulous determination, what a courage, resilience, generosity (sometimes he has to be selfish, but otherwise there is no chance for him), emotional intelligence, humility, leadership qualities, creativity, curiosity, judgment, open mindedness and more

 

What happens to Jamie Graham reminded me of the psychology classic Man’s Search for Meaning https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/mans-search-for-meaning-by-victor-frankl.html by Victor Frankl, who has had to survive in a Nazi death camp, and we understand some of the essence ‘where there is a will, there is a way’

The boy meets with some Americans, and the connection is flawed, they try to use him, just as we could say that there are some advantages for him in having this (quite small) support from the adults, one of them thinks of selling the child, only he does not have an offer, eventually, they are caught by the Japanese

 

In the camp, life is very hard, especially as the provisions run low, and the guards would rather not have to feed those prisoners, the hero becomes a man under the circumstances, making this a bildungsroman, he has a crash on a woman that is also interned, with her son and ailing husband, at Lungha

With the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the war ends, in a way, only for Jamie the ordeal is not over, actually, he is very near starvation, he lives among the dead, the horrors he has witnessed will mark him for life, trying stupid joke, this explains why Ballard would write Crash, one of my least enjoyable reads…the saga of this teenager is overwhelming loved it, and made me change some of my rituals, kudos!

 

 Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”