Customer Reviews
great memoir - By: D. Glowacki, 17 Nov 2008 
l have never read a Ballard book,but found this auto-biography very enjoyable.His narrative is simple & direct,yet it delivers with vigour & zest.This is really two books.The first is the real feast for the reader,his growing upin China & all the English snobbery & meanness.Chinese starved to death,in front of the ex-pat communities, & brutally,tortured & killed by the Japanese.The second book is his lifein England.An Englishman who had never been to England.His shock at how the arrogance of the ex-pats contrasted that with the listlessness & low quality of lifein England.After the initial shock of finding Britain very different to ex-pat nostalgia,the book flattens out into a little more mundane expose of the rest of Ballards life,and it does not live up to the first book of Shanghai.The photos of him as a 4 year old & his subsequent children are a delight.Ballard was one of a dying generation that lived across the old,decaying world of the colonial ex-pat & new world of youth culture & modern art & fiction,pre 60s & post 60s,and his recollection make for a fantastic holiday or christmas read.A joyous ride through time
Honest Accounting - By: Michael J. Hunt, 13 May 2008 
I won't give a synopsis since this has already been done ably by other reviewers. Why this autobiography 'worked' for me is that Mr Ballard has reflected his past experiences to his present situation so movingly, & with characteristic modesty. As a young man he considered his unusual childhood to be of little interest to anyone; only late onin his life has it provided him with explicit material for fiction - & now, with this account - for fact - only latterly has he recognised that he had unconsciously used his childhood experiences as literary motifs.
Judging by his enthusiasm that came throughin the middle part of the book, I suspect that Mr Ballard derived most satisfactionin his life from raising his three children on his own following the tragic death of his wife whilst on holiday - an event that he describes briefly, yet deeply movingly.
He doesn't say a great deal about his actual writing (apart from,in his earlier years, writing a short story between dropping off his children at schoolin the morning & picking them upin the afternoon) although he does refer interestingly to some of his books & short stories, & to his literary acquaintances. With some exceptions (Kingsley Amis, Michael Moorcock, Ian Sinclair & Will Self) he appears to have been more 'at home' with avante garde artists than with fellow writers.
I spent some timein a British expatriate community as a youngster, albeit some twenty years after Mr Ballard's time, so I could relate to this part of his life. I'm familiar with the type of people he observed, although I don't recall the grown-ups as leading nearly such dissipated life styles, neither did I witness such extremes of poverty & affluence as existedin pre-war Shanghai ... & neither was I interned by 'the enemy' for two years.
Miracles of Life is notin the slightest bit pretentious, it is simply written & lacksin any real rancour, which is so refreshing, given some of the back-biting one comes to expect from autobiographies these days, & I thoroughly recommend it to anyone interestedin what lies behind a considerable writer.
Beautifully told - By: Pilgrim, 18 Mar 2008 This is a curious mixture of a book. Granted that it was written under strained & special circumstances, it is both revealing & concealingin equal measure. If you are familiar with Ballard's work & have taken an interestin him over the years, you will find nothing new here. It is, however, a joy to have itin one volume. And for all its apparent superficiality, we learn a great deal about Ballard from the structure & level of content of this work.
Nearly half the book is devoted to Ballard's first fifteen years, the time he livedin Shanghai & experienced the strange life of an expatriate community as well as internment by the Japanese. This is also the most fluent & vibrant part of the book.
It may well be that writing of his early lifein his fiction, especiallyin Empire of the Sun, means he is well rehearsed. But it is clear these formative years are seared not just into his memory, but also his psyche. The things he saw & experienced have re-appeared time & againin his writings, sometimes filtered, but always from the same roots.
Elsewhere, there is a reticence, a shyness that produces a sketchy feeling, as if we are seeing an early draft. A pioneer of explorations into the sf of `inner space', his own inner space is closely guarded. Yet what he chooses to conceal is revealingin itself. He speaks of family life, for example, but whilst it is clear that his family was the bright sun at the centre of his universe, dimmed for a while by the sudden death of his wife, it is also clear that the rest is nobody's business but his own & theirs. I find this wonderfully refreshing - we are strangers, after all, those of us who read his books.
As a writer myself, I confess I was disappointed that Ballard did not discuss how he wrote or consider the processes by which developed certain styles, especially his concentrated novels. I would love to have known more of those early days & the discussions he had with other writers of the so-called `New Wave'. On the other hand I am not altogether surprised. Whilst undoubtedly a highly intelligent man & a skilled & innovative writer, he has never been one of the `literati', self-dissecting & self-obsessed. His work must (and does) speak for itself - with a voice that is robust, fluent, exciting, innovative, often tackling the controversial, but always worth listening to.
A Must Read - By: The Soft Machine Operator, 23 Feb 2008 I couldn't put this down. Ballard writes about his timein Shanghai & makes it seem as normal as my own childhood. Then he returns to the UK - a country he has never been to - & feels a complete stranger.
Ballard's fiction is offbeat & surreal, but completely original - & this autobiography is almost an explanation of where it all came from. Fans of Ballard will find this almost an extension to his fiction.
I could not put this down. The writing is evocative without being wordy, & every page is filled with interesting thoughts.
Poignant and beautifully written autobiography - By: Gloucestershire Echo, 23 Feb 2008 Quite simply, this was a joy to read.
Ballard tells of his childhoodin Shanghai, internment there under the Japanese, his university yearsin England, right through to his writing career & the joys & tragedies he's experienced as a father & husband, & his love of family life.
What makes this book appealing is that it's not only well written & direct, but also that Ballard tells his story with an honesty & poignancy that is so rarein many autobiographies today.
This isn't about Ballard the writer, but about the circumstances & events that shaped & formed his personal values & beliefs.
You don't have to have read Ballard's fiction to enjoy this book either (although his Shanghai reminisces provide a fascinating insight into Empire of the Sun, the novel based on his internment experiences).
What stands out above all else is his enjoyment of childhood & subsequent selfless devotion & enjoyment of family through all the joys & tragedy he experienced.
His life affirming views on childhood, fatherhood, & single parenthood set this book apart from those hundreds of other autobiographies available that only tell of how individuals found (or lost) their fame or fortune.
