Robert Maitland, a 35 year-old architect, is driving home from his central London office when his car has a blowout, it swerves and crashes into a traffic island lying below three converging motorways. Uninjured, Maitland climbs up the embankment to flag down a car. But he soon finds out that no-one in the rush-hour traffic will stop for him, and he is trapped on the island, where he remains.
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Robert Maitland, a 35 year-old architect, is driving home from his central London office when his car has a blowout, it swerves and crashes into a traffic island lying below three converging motorways. Uninjured, Maitland climbs up the embankment to flag down a car. But he soon finds out that no-one in the rush-hour traffic will stop for him, and he is trapped on the island, where he remains.
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The theme of the book and its setting is a piece of land isolated by intersecting motorways. Now a wilderness it was once part of a street, cinema and graveyard.
In 1970s, when the book was written, the motorway was a fairly recent addition to the English landscape and not so pervasive as it is now.
But Ballard recognised the changing times and found a fresh setting for a story, the Concrete Island, a modern unoccupied space. Shades of Robinson Crusoe but also reminded me of Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household.
