If you're looking for a light read that relates to the theme of consumption, don't pick up Kingdom Come by J.G. Ballard. However, if you're looking for something interesting and absolutely dripping with symbolic connotations, by all means check out this book.
"It's a new kind of democracy where we vote at the cash counter" – Ballard, Kingdom Come, pg. 145
For those of you unfamiliar with Ballard (as I was until recently), the movie Crash was based on his novel. The story is based in a futurist Britain around an ex-advertising agent. While the story is an interesting mystery about who killed the main character's father, the really interesting aspect of the book is Ballard's depiction of the mega-mall and what he feels over-consumption is doing our society.
In fact some of parts of the book are actually startling similar to real world events that have happened since it was written. For example, the Wal-Mart employee who was killed during a Black Friday sale is the kind of violence that Ballard feels consumption brings out in us. Whether or not you agree with the themes in the book, Kingdom Come is extremely interesting and worth picking up...when you're not in the mood for a light read.
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