The Unlimited Dream Company

This novel is pure surrealism in prose. Blake is a dangerous, fast and loose running kid - falling out with his school masters for raping a sportsfield, failing at a series of jobs, he finally finds transcendence from the sterile bonds of society by stealing a plane and crashing it into the Thames at Shepperton. Believing himself dead, he undergoes a transformation and finds himself melding and soaring with the dormitory suburb of Shepperton (Ballard's hometown). Like some kind of winged messianic creature, he transforms the town into a surreal paradise with vines dripping from suburban street properties, and mysterious tropical plants blooming in the cornices. With his mercurial sperm, he mates with the entire town, flora and fauna alike, both possessing and dominating the climate, treating it as his plaything, leading to an apocalyptic and transcending climax: a complete fusion of the self with nature.

I can't agree more that this work captures the true spirit of alchemical transformation and of elemental spiritual forces. A man crashes his plane in a small town and miraculously returns from the threshold of death. His return from the grave transforms him into what can be best described as a pagan god, though that does not even go half of the way towards explaining the story. This book is really about life and freedom, the bondage of civilization and the crude fortress of reality that we have walled ourselves into. It's about morality, the morality of a man made god and the truth of the universe. Does this sound interesting? Get this book.

This intensely visual book has the depth and mystery of the 17th Century alchemical works...like them, it is about transformation, and the solidification of the heart's essence, in this case, the desire to fly. Endlessly imaginative and obsessively generous, a glorious torrent of images that is almost an assault...this is one of my favorite books.