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Summary: Wonderful book!
Review: One of the best 3 books I have read.
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Summary: A thrilling travel novel
Review: The Beach is definitely the best novel I have read in the past few years. It has the elements of literary travel, adventure, and suspense all blended into a thrilling and cleverly-written story. While the characters in Garland's story were not developed in any deep sense, the plot progressed with ample detail so as to encourage the reader's interest in the story. If you are into roughing-it travel you will probably appreciate this traveler's adventure gone wild.
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Summary: One of the best books I've ever read
Review: This book moved incredibly quickly. It is broken up into fairly short chapters each ending with a cliff hanger begging you to read one chapter further. I finished the book in 3 days and it is one of the top three books I have ever read.
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Summary: The Beach, good but could have done without "Daffy"
Review: Great book, but the parts that contained the "Daffy" character went on too long, without a real point.
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Summary: A genre-bending classic that reads as easy as pulp fiction
Review: You're bound to read phrases like "paradise lost" and comparisons to William Golding's masterwork, "Lord of the Flies" (which is probably my favorite novel of all time) ad nauseum, but the bottom line is Alex Garland has created an engaging novel that hits the ground running and loses no steam until its conclusion. And, yes, it happens to be about an Eden-like island in the Far East and the characters' struggles to maintain order amidst splits in their group will remind you in places of Sir Golding's book.Because it moves so well, it will be easy to overlook how well-written it truly is. In one fell swoop, Garland captures the irresistible adventure of exploring "virgin" lands, the hitches involved in creating a miniature society that effectively governs itself, the difficulty of maintaining one's sanity in such a society, the horror of encroachment from outsiders and of exile by one's peers. Throughout each chapter, Garland also proves a master of capturing moments that, at the outset, appear to be insignificant, but are really true litmus tests of character. Because of many such moments, everything about his characters and their interactions rings true. As a result, the story unfolds with easy grace and it leaves the reader feeling both entertained and affected.
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Summary: Lord of the Flies? I think not!
Review: I've read Lord of the Flies, and The Beach, so when someone says "Lord of the Flies meets the 21st Century" etc. then I get a bit annoyed. Lord of the Flies is about a group of kids on a desert island who quickly become psychos hunting in packs, it documents the change from little kids to something more deadly. The Beach is about one man and his search for paradise and the price other people will pay to keep that paradise. It is NOT Lord of the Flies! A drug-filled 450 page book that although could be seen as slow, others could see it as methodical, I see it as a well-crafted novel with a lot of original writing techniques, Alex Garland deserves every penny he made. Also, don't be put off with the movie tie-in label this version has been given, it's just the same as the original (released 2 years earlier) plus you get some pictures from the film.
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Summary: Life's A Beach
Review: This is Richard's story. He's an English backpacker who lands in Thailand and can't resist an adventure into the unknown. He finds one on offer at a Bangkok hostel, where he meets Daffy, an emaciated, pot smoking mad Scotsman who gives Richard a map to a secret island community - The Beach. He heads for the island with a beautiful young French couple, Etienne and Francoise, and they find a secret community that's very different indeed. The Beach is a fast-paced adventure story which examines how, no matter where we go, we cannot escape the ideologies our culture has ingrained in us. The narrative moves along at breakneck speed as Richard takes you into 'beachlife'. With his guidance, you'll grow to love some of the characters and hate others from the outset. I found this to be a really enjoyable read and couldn't put it down.
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Summary: The Beach vs. The Lord of The Flies
Review: Like "The Lord of The Flies", "The Beach", is about a group of people trying to maintain a type of peaceful government on there own on a deserted island. Unlike "The Lord of The Flies", in which the characters are waiting to be rescued, "The Beach", is where minimal contact with the rest of 'the world' is obstained from and frowned upon as an invasion of their own private Eden. That's why when an Englishman, and his two French traveling companions, who are given a map to this tropical utopia by "Daffy", are very unwelcome when they reach their destination. As they are assimilated into the commune, they are assigned jobs to help out the rest of the population. However, discontent arises among the masses, and a rift between two opposing factions is revealed. This break in unity is the group's tragic downfall into oppression and murder. The book's simple language, and it's short paragraph structure made for a very fast paced novel, although the protagonist's hallucinations were very annoying, and not engaging. Also, as in reading "The Lord of The Flies", the ending left my stomach queasy, and my thoughts disturbed. Although I will read more from this exceptionally talented author, the calibre of this novel was not up to par with the great classic.
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Summary: Absolutely amazing!
Review: After having read some of the other reviews I don't have much more to add. I read The Beach this summer on my holiday in France - it was supposed to be a family-holiday but I just could not put my book down. Alex Garland is such a talented author - the way he sees people and describes their relationships with eachother. I was surprised in a positive way! You should definitely buy the book - and read it over and over again! But take this advise along with you: Do NOT go and see the film - huge disappointment! Oh, and you should read The Tesseract by Garland as well - this book is more mature and different than The Beach in many ways - but it is fabulous as well.
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Summary: Darn good for a first time author!
Review: Following the ever so similar plot line of Lord of the Flies, The Beach is instantly liked. Like Lord of the Flies, the story takes place on an uninhabited tropical island and traces the conflicts between each person. Also included are the usual problems with being separated from the rest of civilization. Injuries, lack of professional care, shortages of food and water, and everything else that comes with the territory. The tale starts with a map given to a tourist visiting Thailand. As curiosity builds, the man (along with a French couple that also discover the map) decide to find what the X points to. Following the drawn path, they find what they were looking for, the perfect world. Upon landing, they find a tropical paradise with infinite marijuana fields, any 20-something's dream. After further wandering, the group finds a small band of islanders, who, like them, also came following a map. Without taxes, pollution, boring jobs, or the rest of humanity (along with an abundance of mary jane), no one has ever wanted to leave. However, like the currently popular TV show, Survivor, problems between the group members occur rather suddenly. The trio of newcomers has a hard time fitting in to the new world. The main character's fear of confrontations and habit of keeping discoveries to himself creates distrust between the rest of the group. The monarchy used to govern the colony also creates difficulties since many don't believe the right choices are being made. It's an interesting adventure novel, but the attitude of the main character got on my nerves a bit. He trusts very few people, and finds problems with lots of things. He lends a helping hand only when told to and often tries to hide from authority to keep from obtaining a chore. In a way, he caused most of the problems on the island. This problem occurs just enough to be noticeable and annoying, but if you can brush that aside, and read the book for its story and deeper meaning, then I suggest it.
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