[UPDATE: This story has been corrected to note the previous publications of Ballard's story.]
The New Yorker has published a short story by science-fiction icon J.G. Ballard, who passed away on April 19. Originally published in French for Etoile Mecanique in 1981 and later in English for Ambit (1984) and Interzone (1996), the piece entitled “The Autobiography of J.G.B.” tells the story of a man named “B” who wakes up one morning to find that the people of England, France, and possibly the whole world, have disappeared without a trace. Carolyn Kellogg on the L.A. Times book blog notes how the story seems somewhat incomplete:
It feels to me like he got up in the middle of the story and never came back to finish it. But then again, Ballard was always messing with readers’ expectations – maybe that’s exactly what he wanted.
Although the story’s ending is rather abrupt, the captivating quality of this short piece shows how Ballard could create a realistic fantasy world and leave readers asking for more. Read the story here.
It’s not JGB’s final short story, nor is it new. It was originally written for a French publication in 1981, and subsequently printed in Ambit (1984) and Interzone (1996) as “The Secret Autobiography of J. G. B******”.
And, it’s the people who’ve disappeared, not the countries.
I don’t see what’s captivating about it. Nothing happens. The character is as blank as his name, “B”. It sounds like the start of a rather run-of-the-mill post-apocalyptic story of the sort that most magazine editors would toss back into the slush pile as being just a thinly written cliche (were it not for the name attached).