The Siege of Trencher's Farm complex examination of modern-day masculinity and liberal values." "Slant Magazine" found that "Much of the novel's prose reads like a screenplay, with tedious descriptions of props, settings, and physical actions ... tension only really matters if you identify with the characters and care about their predicament, which I found too implausible, fantastic, and crudely sketched to do so." Legal scholar Melanie Williams wrote of how the 1971 film had coloured reception of the book: "The book is now republished by Bloomsbury (2003), with the title "Straw Dogs". This seems particularly sad given that past critical commentary on the book has
Crash (Ballard novel) Crash (Ballard novel) Crash is a novel by English author J. G. Ballard, first published in 1973. It is a story about symphorophilia; specifically car-crash sexual fetishism: its protagonists become sexually aroused by staging and participating in real car-crashes. It was a highly controversial novel: one publisher's reader returned the verdict "This author is beyond psychiatric help. Do Not Publish!" In 1996, the novel was made into a film of the same name by David Cronenberg. The story is told through the eyes of narrator James Ballard, named after the author himself, but it centers on the sinister figure of