Tag Archives: JG Ballard

Great Opening Paragraph 136… ‘High-Rise’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months. Now that everything had returned to normal, he was surprised that there had been no obvious beginning, no point beyond which their lives had moved into a clearly more sinister dimension. With its forty floors and thousand apartments, its supermarket and swimming-pools, bank and junior school – all in effect abandoned in the sky – the high-rise offered more than enough opportunities for violence and confrontation.” JG BallardFrom ‘High-Rise’ by JG Ballard

And try the first paragraph of SUPER-CANNES, another novel by JG Ballard.

Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
‘Affinity’ by Sarah Waters 
‘Divisadero’ by Michael Ondaatje 
‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’ by Haruki Murakami 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara HIGH-RISE by JG Ballard https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-79L via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph…25

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Super-Cannes“The first person I met at Eden-Olympia was a psychiatrist, and in many ways it seems only too apt that my guide to this ‘intelligent’ city in the hills above Cannes should have been a specialist in mental disorders. I realize now that a kind of waiting madness, like a state of undeclared war, haunted the office buildings of the business park. For most of us, Dr Wilder Penrose was our amiable Prospero, the psychopomp who steered our darkest dreams towards the daylight. I remember his eager smile when we greeted each other, and the evasive eyes that warned me away from his outstretched hand. Only when I learned to admire this flawed and dangerous man was I able to think of killing him.”

‘Super-Cannes’ by JG Ballard

Great opening paragraph 25… ‘Super-Cannes’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“The first person I met at Eden-Olympia was a psychiatrist, and in many ways it seems only too apt that my guide to this ‘intelligent’ city in the hills above Cannes should have been a specialist in mental disorders. I realize now that a kind of waiting madness, like a state of undeclared war, haunted the office buildings of the business park. For most of us, Dr Wilder Penrose was our amiable Prospero, the psychopomp who steered our darkest dreams towards the daylight. I remember his eager smile when we greeted each other, and the evasive eyes that warned me away from his outstretched hand. Only when I learned to admire this flawed and dangerous man was I able to think of killing him.”
JG BallardFrom ‘Super-Cannes’ by JG Ballard

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Illywhacker’ by Peter Carey
‘The Children Act’ by Ian McEwan
‘Couples’ by John Updike

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara SUPER-CANNES by JG Ballard https://wp.me/p5gEM4-8x via @SandraDanby