About this title: A young man backpacking in Southeast Asia meets a French couple, and together they follow a dead man's map to "the beach," a fabled island unspoiled by the tourist trade. Haunted by increasingly violent dreams about the dead man, he finds that, once there, the idyllic paradise slowly begins to shatter, giving way to escalating horror and depravity. This novel, which follows in the tradition of LORD OF THE FLIES, was a huge success in England upon its publication, establishing Garland as an "author to watch."
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Date Published: 02/1997
ISBN-13:9781573220484ISBN:1573220485
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 371 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Date Published: 02/1997
ISBN-13:9781573220484ISBN:1573220485
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 371 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9781573220484ISBN:1573220485
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Text in Chinese, English. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 371 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. Nice soft cover, lightly read, shelf wear to cover, light creases on spine, bend on corners of front cover, light curl to tips of bottom corners of first few pages, stk #1083i6. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 436 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Very Good. 1573227978 Great condition Soft Cover book, clean pages, mild creases to spine, light edge/corner rubs, this book is GREAT! Shop & Save With US. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Riverhead Trade, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9781573227971ISBN:1573227978
Description: Very Good. 1573227978 Previously read trade paperback book in very good condition, some very minor shelf wear, no rips or tears. 03331899 _ read more
"The Beach seems to clearly illustrate the problem I find with the "traveler vs. tourist" concept. Here is a Lord of the Flies-esque story, but at its heart, the characters want to be "real travelers," not tourists following along an ever-more-beaten track. Well, tough. They certainly aren't made real travelers by isolating themselves from the country's people - that's ridiculous. However, they each look down their nose at anyone they consider an intermediary traveler (not "advanced," like them) or - god forbid! - a tourist. This may be the truest thing about the book; not the justice of the categorization, but that the categorization exists at all. I think it's stupid, myself. Tourist spots became tourist spots for a reason - am I not to got to Angkor simply because so many do? I understand the yearning to get away from the foreigners (which, ironically, is the exact opposite of what these characters do, creating an all-farang clique on a private beach), but I wish the stereotyping would jog on. You don't need dreadlocks to be a "traveler." You aren't a "tourist" if you carry deodorant.
This wasn't really much to do with the book at all, but it reminded me heavily. The book itself is an okay, though occasionally annoying, read. I found it very difficult at times to identify, or care about, the protagonist in the least. Read it if you have a spare afternoon, otherwise, I hear there's a movie."
"I had just finished reading this book this morning at thought it was really great. Just one of those books that you can not stop reading because you want to know what's happening next.
I must be one of the few that actually LOVES the movie. "Desire is desire..." and all of the philisophical points really touched me and made me think what would REALLY happen if I were living in paradise and everything was perfect. What would be next for me? Is there anything after reaching utopia?
I have even been to Maya Beach (where the movie was filmed) and the surrounding areas many times because I am Thai. The scenery in the Phi Phi Islands is absolutely amazing and breathtaking. I can see where Garland received his inspiration from.
So, I have a fascination with the movie and the location, the last thing I really wanted to was to read the book. Ive had trouble finding the book at first, after going to several bookstores that did not have it. Alas, I finally did get a copy and could not wait to read it!
I do not believe that the movie followed the book closely. I can see similar differences with using the same names of the character, the same setting, and maybe a few minor things. However, Richard does not hook up with Francoise, whereas the movie they do indeed. Richard also does not sleep with Sal in the book as he did in the movie. I believe that Sal's character was less a bad person in the book. Also, where are Jed, Keaty, Jesse, Jean in the movie? Jed and Keaty were such important characters that were left out.
Nonetheless, the differences are apparent, yet in a good way! Both sides were interesting. I believe that the book is more suspensful, and a bit of way, morbid! In the movie, Richard becomes crazy. But in the book, Richard becomes CRAZY CRAZY.
Not to forget about Mr. Duck. I'll tell you what, he had me freaked out when I would read about him. I would read this book at night and get chills whenever I saw Mr. Duck's name appearin the following chapters. Garland did such a great job with having this character as weird, creepy, and strange. Mr. Duck was much more of an influence to Richard in the book than the movie.
Overall, this was an interesting book and if this is your type of style, than I recommend reading it!"
"While some may see this as a coming-of-age story, I didn't. I saw it as more of an adventure. And while I don't condone the free lifestyle of the main character, I could relate to him in other ways. One thing that bothered me is that him seeing Mr. Duck was never fully resolved. I know he disappeared after Richard left the beach, but it was never clear why Rickhard was having those hallucinations about him or why Mr. Duck left the beach and committed suicide, AND left a map for him to find. If the beach caused him to kill himself, why did he leave the map for someone else?
I liked the book up until the point where the beach community began stabbing the dead people with their knives and cutting them up. What was the point? What suddenly sent them over the edge into insanity? It just didn't fit with their personalities. That part was just weird to me. And I'd like to know what happened to all of them. I think the ending could have been more detailed, the raft trip, how his wounds healed, how he got home and his family's reaction. There was some detail, but I would have liked more."
"I first read this book about 10 years ago and I've read it at least 10 times since then. As a simple adventure story, it doesn't lose its punch, even upon rereading. Richard, a young English traveller, is given a map in Bangkok by a man named Daffy Duck, who promptly commits suicide. The map leads Richard to a secret beach, where a commune of travellers live in apparent paradise. Unfortunately, this tiny microcosm of existence, while idyllic, is also prone to disasters - from the banal, like a bout of food poisoning, to the catastrophic, like drug farmers bearing arms.
However, the true delights of this novel come from its numerous layers. It's a profoundly intelligent book, which can be read in many different ways, emphasising many different aspects. There's barely a wasted scene, and each one opens up more possibilities for literary analysis. That it is also an effortless read is a testament to Alex Garland's abilities as a writer.
With allegorical finesse, Garland addresses globalism, communism, war, matriarchy and masculinity, what it means to be a Brit who grew up on a diet of American movies, magic realism, madness and much more. Yet the novel never feels weighty - you can choose to ignore any or all of these allegories and allusions if you like. On this particular reading, I began thinking about the idea that the beach could be a drug-induced hallucination, since Richard mistakes Daffy for a heroin addict initially, only later learning that it's the beach he's addicted to. Richard is also a fascinating unreliable narrator; his lack of reliability doubling due to the fact that Garland never demands that you like him very much as a person.
That I do, in fact, like him shows the nuance of Garland's writing. Despite the fact that it's a first novel, Garland shows a grasp of plotting and continuity of a much more mature author. Everything ties together neatly, and even minor characters possess warmth and depth. While Garland clearly draws on knowledge accrued while he was travelling himself, there's no show-off quality about it: he merely drops in hints of exoticism that not only enhance the novel's scenery but also forward the plot.
The Beach is truly a rare pleasure: a fun read that's also profoundly literary."
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