Miracles of Life: Shanghai to Shepperton: An Autobiography

It shouldn't be a surprise to find that the author of such key examples of modern short fiction as "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan" and "The Assassination of John F. Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Bicycle Race" is optimistic, personable, and a doting father and grandfather, but somehow it is a bit jarring to learn from J.G. Ballard's autobiography, Miracles of Life: Shanghai to Shepperton, that such is, indeed, the case. From his early life in Shanghai, including a stay at the Lunghua internment camp during World War II, to his later life reinventing science fiction while raising three children as a single father, Ballard's life-story is riveting. The century is still young, but one suspects that this will stand as one of the great literary autobiographies of our time.