The Beach (Penguin Celebrations) [Import] [Paperback]

Alex Garland (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; First edition & printing in this form edition (September 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141035099
• ISBN-13: 978-0141035093
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,421,177 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars A good rip-roaring adventure story, but its more serious aspects are diminished by clumsy writing, May 12, 2009

By 

Christopher Culver - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Beach (Penguin Celebrations) (Paperback)

Alex Garland's 1996 novel THE BEACH unfolds among backpackers in Southeast Asia. As the novel opens, Richard, a young Briton, has checked into a guesthouse in Thailand. Through the night, he is kept awake by a guest in the next room, a manic Scotsman who speaks of a mysterious beach. The next morning, Richard finds that the Scotsman has slit his wrists, but not before drawing a map to the island where this beach may be found. In the company of French couple, Richard heads off to this island, which turns out to be an off-limits part of a national park. The trio thinks up a way to cross the sea to get to it, and they find there a small band of travelers living a seemingly idyllic existence far from the over-touristed spots nearby. This island, however, holds dangers, from the Thai gangsters secretly growing dope on the other side to the dark cabins underneath it. But as THE BEACH reaches its climax, it is revealed that the backpackers' worst enemy is themselves. Their paradise falls apart in an orgy of violence that outdoes William Golding's THE LORD OF THE FLIES in gruesomeness.

I travel as lifestyle, and I was very sympathetic to Garland's description of the angst that grips travelers as they see locales going from exclusive to touristy in just a couple of years. But the book has a few flaws that are irksome. Alternating with a description of life on the beach, there is a parallel plot where Richard struggles with the ghost of the dead Scotsman. This eventually takes on resonances of the Vietnam War, which seem very badly integrated with the main plot. It's almost like Garland wanted to write two books, one about the beach and the other about how kids of the 1980s were influenced by Vietnam War films like PLATOON and APOCALYPSE NOW. Alex Garland's writing is also of the airport paperback variety, and has no claim to being serious literature.

Still, THE BEACH is pretty entertaining as straight up adventure, especially if you've been in these sort of places. And you can get through its 400+ pages in just a few hours (so it may well be a good airplane read).