High Rise is a 1975 novel by J. G. Ballard. It takes place in an ultra-modern, luxury high-rise building. The building seems to give its well-established tenants all the conveniences and commodities that modern life has to offer: swimming pools, its own school, a supermarket, high-speed elevators. But at the same time, the building seems to be designed to isolate the occupants from the larger world outside, allowing for the possibility to create their own closed environment. Life in the high-rise begins to degenerate quickly, as minor power failures and petty annoyances over neighbours... escalate into an orgy of violence. The high-rise occupants divide themselves into the classic three groups of Western society: the lower, middle, and upper class, but here the terms are literal, as the lower class are those living on the lowest floors of the building, the middle class in the centre, and the upper class at the most luxurious apartments on the upper floors.
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| Author: | J. G. Ballard |
| Genre: | Novel, Science Fiction, Fiction, Speculative fiction |
| Year published: | 1975 |
| Number of editions: | 6 |