Empire of the Sun

I read this book because I recently watched the terrific film for a second time. The film and book left me with a deep melancholy. The book.is very detailed, and the reader may find himself or herself skipping over some of the details to move on the story line. Well worth the reading and leaves a lasting impression.

At totally engrossing look at WWII in China through the eyes of a young boy. From an American perspective, accounts of the war usually start after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and rarely focus on battlefields of China, where the communists, KMT, and Japanese had been fighting since 1937. This aspect of the novel gives an interesting window into colonial Shanghai, which had a Euro-American colony since the mid 19th century, an era that essentially ended with WWII but despite its relatively lengthy existence gets very little attention today.The protaganist's viewpoint can be difficult to grasp at times, but this is deliberate as the author is trying to convey the way in which a young boy struggles to understand the circumstances around him and how he orders his life accordingly. The incredible amount of violence, suffering, and depravity he experiences is so far beyond the ken of a modern Westerner that it barely seems real that such a time and place actually existed.A must-read that truly expands one's horizons.

This is a beautiful book about an horrible experience. It’s the story about tenacity and adaption for survival of such a young person. Though I, and my children, read this years ago I bought 4 copies; one for each of our libraries.

This book provides an interesting angle on WWII from the viewpoint of a young boy living the good life in pre-war Shanghai and then kept by the Japanese for three years in a camp for enemy citizens. The boy's-eye-view provides an unusual insight into the mental workings of the mind in those conditions, and the way the individual adapts to circumstances that require a complete change of mind-set in order to survive.For me personally it provided a glimpse -- albeit vastly different -- to the conditions of life in a concentration camp, though in this case there was no organized mass-murder of inmates. The privation, lack of freedom, and situation in which many different individuals and nationalities were enclosed side by side forces the protagonist, young Jim, to find his balance and make the most of his ability to adapt and find his place in this very different environment.The book is well-written, and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, 'The Kindness of Women.'

This is the story of a young boy of wealthy British parents who had lived his entire life in Shanghai, China during the 1930s. As the Japanese army invades, he is separated from his parents and finds himself on his own. He learns to adjust to his rapidly changing and usually dangerous circumstances. With the aid of his keen intelligence and the unconscious charm of a bright, curious child, he survives the horrific experiences he faces in a Japanese prison camp, and the even worse aftermath of world war II. This book is packed with humor, wisdom, sadness, poetry...one of the best reads I have ever enjoyed.

Empire du Soleil c'est une aventure formidable, cette histoire-nouvelle de JG Ballard, basée sur ses memoires de Shanghai comme un jeune homme imprisonné pour les japonais au cours de la deuxième guerre mondiale.Actually I ordered Empire of the Sun in English, but was shipped the French version by mistake (although the image for the English version still shows Empire du Soleil), and the book seller promptly refunded my payment.

I have a mom crush on Christian Bale. My granddaughter told me about this movie and it came on cable. I watched it a couple of times and decided to buy it. Christian Bale is a great actor and I think he is another actor that is underrated. He can play any role he takes on. In Empire of the Sun he was only 14 years old. Amazing. He was the headliner of the movie. Also gives you an idea about what some people went through during WWII. He was in an internment camp not a concentration camp. The Japanese were a lot more civilized than the Nazi's. Not to say they were great just more civilized to prisoners. I bought the book and the movie.

Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!This is SARCAZIZM! Oh. Please wrap books in a sheetof old newsprint or stretchy plastick.Sending in that stinking rotten glueruins books and is hard to open.The jacket cover was almost destroyed.

Although I found this book a struggle to get through - something about the author's obtuse writing style I think - this is, at times, a compelling read and in one way quite exceptional. The story follows a young boy living in Shanghai from the day before Pearl Harbour to the end of 1945. It's the final period, the days following the Japanese surrender where the book explores the chaos that breaks out that is special. The end of the war is not the end of the problems. In some ways the dangers are even more acute.

Having just returned from a holiday in Shanghai, I was attracted to this book. I saw a poster of the film in a hotel (previously called The Cathay Hotel). Initially, I downloaded a sample and almost didn't bother with the rest of the book. But, I decided to give it another chance. It was somewhat interesting, a bit repetitive and confusing in places. It must have been a horrific time in the author's life, as well as the whole of China. The cruelty imposed by the Japanese must be told and never forgotten.

Incredibly well written and engrossing. I've read it three times so far - in the space of about 2 years. But there again I also read High Rise, Super Cannes and Cocaine Nights three times in the first year I had these books. Obviously much grittier and "realistic" than Cocaine Nights and Super Cannes. I won't go into the story and actual writing, as other review discuss this in detail.It's very sad that J G Ballard didn't gain a reputation as an author during his lifetime with the general public, he seems to have been more much acknowledged by literary types and by other writers. He's been described as not being "mainstream" for want of a better phrase, but I find his work far more readable than say, Martin Amis, and a whole lot less depressing than a lot of books my John Irving.

There's restraint and sensitivity here. Jim is a clever and inquisitive boy, often over-thinking his situation, reading clues and taking cues from the adults around him. It's all he has to help him survive in this war. He makes himself useful and makes friends with anyone who might help enable his survival.I've just bought the sequel, the Kindness of Women and look forward to more of our hero. Jim is loosely based on J G Ballard's own internment as a child living in Shanghai.

The movie is a classic and worth the read. I love the first part about the author’s young life in Shanghai. But after 30 pages about the internment I struggled and had to put some serious effort to finish it. I read other books describing imprisonments and managed to enjoy it but this one became heavy snd repetitive.