I’m looking forward to seeing the film now. How the heck did they adapt this?  3.5 stars.

The blurb: When a class war erupts inside a luxurious apartment block, modern elevators become violent battlegrounds and cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on “enemy” floors. In this visionary tale, human society slips into violent reverse as once-peaceful residents, driven by primal urges, re-create a world ruled by the laws of the jungle.

My take:

Well. That was weird.

I’ve been trying to trace the source of the deep sense of unease you get while reading High-Rise. Yes, most of the characters are insane, but I don’t think it’s that. I believe the pervading sense of odd comes from the disconnect between the third-person narrator’s incredibly detached, colourless tone and the bloody, grimy events described. However, we should be grateful for this narrative distance, because otherwise I think this book would be too disturbing to get through. What’s more, the tone becomes almost hypnotic, pulling you through a reading experience which becomes something like driving past a traffic accident: you don’t want to look, but you feel compelled to turn your head in the direction of the flashing lights.

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