Still, to be fair, ‘Hello America’ is not one of Ballard’s best novels. It starts out promisingly enough, and the basic concept is both interesting and original, but once we descend into the jungles the other side of the Rockies it all starts to go a bit Pete Tong. Those last few (Manson) chapters just don’t work, lacking emotional depth and ultimately coming across like some deranged James Bond spoof.

Everything Umberto Rossi says may be true: at the ideational level the novel is fascinating. But as an emotional experience it just isn’t up to Ballard’s habitual high standard.

“Our universe is governed by fictions of all kinds: mass consumption, publicity, politics considered and managed like a branch of publicity, instantaneous translation of science and techniques into a popular imagery, confusion and telescopage of identities in the realm of consumer goods, right of pre-emption exercised by the television screen over every personal reaction to reality. We live at the interior of an enormous novel. It becomes less and less necessary for the writer to give fictional content to his works. The fiction is already there. The work of the novelist is to invent reality.”
-J.G. Ballard, from the introduction of the French edition of Crash

My first message is quite strong probably because of the Ballard fame. Obviously, that is and wants to be no more than my opinion on this specific book.

I also added the link to a real (even if brief) review which I think expresses my feeling the kind of feelings I felt reading “Hello America”, so that other people can agree or possibly disagree.

Thanks!