Really Enjoyed it!!
The Beach by Alex Garland
Gripping and highly entertaining is how I would describe this thriller / adventure story by Alex Garland, his first novel. A fast moving mixture of Lord of the flies and all the eighties Vietnam War movies I found it worked for me on many levels as in the narrative we have the main character and his imaginary alter ego, two psychological stories in one. Set in modern times against a background of the Backpackers who travel the world seeking excitement away from the rest of the "tourists", in fact right at the beginning we have the description of the differences between "Travellers" ( The Backpackers) and Tourists ( The rest of us ) . Drugs, revelry and general hedonism are the name of the game taking young people from the west to exclusive sun drenched beaches of Goa , Indonesia and Thailand. But as a new cool place is found word gets around more people go there and its exclusivity is lost, it is the search for the ultimate place free of tourist taint yet finding the perfect place ruins it. But there is a rumour of a perfect beach, free of tourist taint, a perfect place - an Eden.
This then is the story the main character searching for a new experience with the naivety of his youth pulling him toward his goal of this unreachable Eden in the form of a hidden beach - the directions to which are contained in a map passed to him by a manic man he meets in Bangkok. The simple plot is told in two ways - what happens on the ground and what happens in the main characters head. Marijuana fuelled paranoiac day dreams follow his actions and he becomes immersed in the life he finds on his new found paradise but his day dreams appear to become dangerous reality.
Quite brilliantly switching from reality to imagination Garland brings in the popular cultural land marks from several Vietnam war movies with their unique US military terminology like DMZ,KIA,FNG Klics etc and TV series like the "A" Team as well as things like Gameboys etc. All the standards from 80's pop culture and hedonism are here the novel takes on an almost "Apocalypse Now" style turn - quite thrilling and the pages just fly by as you are never quite sure what will happen next as the characters weird drug fuelled delusional paranoia's and imaginary friends take him over. Written in 1996 it has since been made into a weak film and so new readers will remember the film - but the book is a superb evocation of the mind or the weakness of the mind in the pursuit of pleasure - the film never did it justice its main character a shadow of the complex book character, but that’s Hollywood. Sometimes funny yet horrific too, quite horrific, in places hedonism and its consequences make a thought provoking mix. Thrilling yet light and easy to read it should be required addition to any backpacker's rucksack, I enjoyed this holiday read and fully recommend it.
The Beach by Alex Garland
Gripping and highly entertaining is how I would describe this thriller / adventure story by Alex Garland, his first novel. A fast moving mixture of Lord of the flies and all the eighties Vietnam War movies I found it worked for me on many levels as in the narrative we have the main character and his imaginary alter ego, two psychological stories in one. Set in modern times against a background of the Backpackers who travel the world seeking excitement away from the rest of the "tourists", in fact right at the beginning we have the description of the differences between "Travellers" ( The Backpackers) and Tourists ( The rest of us ) . Drugs, revelry and general hedonism are the name of the game taking young people from the west to exclusive sun drenched beaches of Goa , Indonesia and Thailand. But as a new cool place is found word gets around more people go there and its exclusivity is lost, it is the search for the ultimate place free of tourist taint yet finding the perfect place ruins it. But there is a rumour of a perfect beach, free of tourist taint, a perfect place - an Eden.
This then is the story the main character searching for a new experience with the naivety of his youth pulling him toward his goal of this unreachable Eden in the form of a hidden beach - the directions to which are contained in a map passed to him by a manic man he meets in Bangkok. The simple plot is told in two ways - what happens on the ground and what happens in the main characters head. Marijuana fuelled paranoiac day dreams follow his actions and he becomes immersed in the life he finds on his new found paradise but his day dreams appear to become dangerous reality.
Quite brilliantly switching from reality to imagination Garland brings in the popular cultural land marks from several Vietnam war movies with their unique US military terminology like DMZ,KIA,FNG Klics etc and TV series like the "A" Team as well as things like Gameboys etc. All the standards from 80's pop culture and hedonism are here the novel takes on an almost "Apocalypse Now" style turn - quite thrilling and the pages just fly by as you are never quite sure what will happen next as the characters weird drug fuelled delusional paranoia's and imaginary friends take him over. Written in 1996 it has since been made into a weak film and so new readers will remember the film - but the book is a superb evocation of the mind or the weakness of the mind in the pursuit of pleasure - the film never did it justice its main character a shadow of the complex book character, but that’s Hollywood. Sometimes funny yet horrific too, quite horrific, in places hedonism and its consequences make a thought provoking mix. Thrilling yet light and easy to read it should be required addition to any backpacker's rucksack, I enjoyed this holiday read and fully recommend it.
