High-Rise

High-Rise is a 1975 speculative novel by English author J. G. Ballard. The story explores the psychological effect of living in a Brutalist high-rise in a new development outside London. The private, pseudo-luxury living the building affords to its bourgeois tenants quickly pushes them into violent conflicts with each other and the building itself. The residents embrace these conflicts as an escape from their sterile, eventless lives, seeking self-realization in the disintegration of their environment and social relations. As they descend further and further into primal territorialism and extreme violence, a multifactional group of women plot to restore order and defeat the increasingly feral men.

This guide references the 2012 Liveright paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material features graphic depictions of sexual assault, violence, neglect, and cruelty to animals.

In a flash-forward three months after the start of the building’s descent into violence, Dr. Robert Laing sits on his 25th-floor balcony roasting the Alsatian dog of the building’s now deceased architect and penthouse resident, Anthony Royal. Content for the first time in his life, Laing reflects on how this new normal came to be.

Following his sister Alice’s advice, the 30-year-old Laing moves to the isolated development after his divorce, seeking a fresh start amid the private luxury of the 40-floor Brutalist building.