Comments on: JGB: A 'billionaire' in Shepperton?

By: Jim Lattin

Jim Lattin — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:30:04 +0000

I reckon the likes of Super Cannes and Millenium People also are reminiscent of JGB’s time in Shanghai. His parents’ comfortable middle-class lifestyle of cocktail parties was disrupted by the war; hence JGB disrupts the pleasant lifestyle of Paul Sinclair and also the main character of MP whose name I can’t remember!

By: Ian Parkinson

Ian Parkinson — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:07:55 +0000

Am I right in thinking that JGB has sent his hand-written manuscripts to a woman living in the same street as him for close to his entire career? Has anyone ever done an interview with her? I think it would be interesting to read what their relationship entails and what she thinks as she’s typing up JGB’s novels. Like Kerouac after typing up Naked Lunch for Burroughs, I can imagine that this anonymous housewife has had many sleepless nights………

By: Rick McGrath

Rick McGrath — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:15:48 +0000

My family? OK, I see your point, altho JG does manage to not have the Metro-Centre’s interior swimming pool empty… and tricky Dick Pearson seems to go through his own kind of beach fatigue… and yes, KC’s kinky konsumers reminds one of the Lunghuaese confused over the wealth of goodies falling from US bombers in EOTS. Lemmie squirm out of this gracefully by suggesting perhaps JG isn’t so obviously involved with his Shanghai images in the later work.

By: Simon Sellars

Simon Sellars — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:54:55 +0000

‘Translation service’! I like that. I agree about the later books, however the spectre of Lunghua is never far away. For example, what do the hostages in the Metro-Centre, bathing in soda water and scavenging for food, remind you of?

By: Rick McGrath

Rick McGrath — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 02:11:37 +0000

I agree, Simon… Empire of the Sun was a rosetta stone of images… but like everything else, they lost a lot of their mystery when explained. Hmmm… if you think about it, after the final translation service, Kindness Of Women, JG never really went back to Shanghai again… and the plots went from private to public psychosis…