J.G. Ballard: Rushing To Paradise

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Rushing to Paradise - J.G. Ballard

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J.G. Ballard’s latest psychodrama is an intensely raw, tense, and bloodied tale of extremes set in the mythical “paradise” of Saint-Esprit, a desolate atoll somewhere in the South Pacific. The novel is thinly veiled as an adventure story as seen through the eyes of its narrator, 16-year old Neil Dempsey. This is no swashbuckling, hero-saves-the-day novel, however. In fact, there are no heroes to be found here at all.

The story centers around the strange relationship that develops between Neil and a middle-aged woman with a tarnished past, Dr. Barbara Rafferty. Neil sees her as a surrogate mother mentor, and lover all in one.

Neil, whose radiologist father died from his involvement in nuclear tests in the South Pacific, is obsessed with The Bomb. (much like Jim, the damaged boy from Empire of the Sun, Bailard’s not-so-fictional alter ego). His chance to get at the root of this obsession comes when Dr. Barbara invites him to join her disparate crew on an ill-fated journey.

Dr. Barbara’s dynamic single-mindedness galvanizes a virtual army of supporters, eager to help her save the albatross of Saint-Esprit from the French government’s proposed nuclear tests on the island.

Upon arrival on Saint-Esprit, “the spiritual ground-zero of the twentieth century,” Neil suffers a minor injury at the hands of French soldiers. Dr. Barbara deftly manipulates the world media, showing the videotape of the incident to anyone willing to listen. She soon becomes an environmental Mother Teresa, proclaiming Saint-Esprit to be a world sanctuary, an open-door haven for all endangered species. But her benign facade soon begins to degenerate as she takes on a far more sinister role.

Even Neil chooses to ignore the atrocities being committed as he becomes a human guinea pig for Dr. Barbara’s breeding experiment. Blinded by his unswerving loyalty and an unfulfilled lust for the madwoman, he rationalizes her decisions and actions, no matter how twisted - until he becomes the target.

A cross between Greenpeace-gone-black and Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Rushing to Paradise is Ballard’s most powerful novel in years, a terrifying, all-too-real “what if.” Which is exactly what Ballard does best, what-iffing Armageddon-like possibilities in this paradise we call Earth.

Posted on September 1st, 2001.

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