The Day of Creation
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"As Dr. Mallory watches his clinic fail on the parched terrain of central Africa, he dreams of discovering a third Nile that will make the Sahara bloom. When there is a trickle on the local airstrip, and soon a river, the obsessed Mallory claims it as his own creation. Joined by Noon, a silent adolscent girl who as a child ran with the local guerrillas; Professor Sanger, a documentary filmmaker with a fading reputation; and Nora Warrer, the widow of a Rhodesian veterinary surgeon, the remains of whose menagerie flourish exotically amid the land's new fertility, Mallory sets out for the river's source."--Dust jacket.
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I think, on reflection, that this is a minor Ballard novel. He seems at times to be recycling well-worn Ballardian tropes (abandoned airfields, a protagonist on the edge of psychosis, disturbing sexual imagery) with no clear purpose.
The “hero” Dr. Mallory somehow conjures a mighty river from the dust of the African desert and we are never quite sure if this and his subsequent adventures are real or the product of a diseased mind. The supporting cast are barely fleshed out, even the object of his obsession, teenage girl soldier Noon, is more of a metaphor than a real person.
Don't get me wrong, the quality of Ballard's writing never falters and some of the hallucinatory images are vivid and disturbing. But the plot is weak, the story drags and you never quite connect with Mallory and his river.
Ballard has written better novels, both before and after this one. So, three stars for the writing, but it's not one of his best.