The Beach

Rating:
Summary: profiling the society and human being
Review: Garland's Beach is good and sometimes astonishing story of people escaping from their usual life trying to find a paradise, which, under the inner human factor abruptly fails to be so. Is a good book for every traveler, who think he is smart and special traveling 20.000 miles from their home and in particular moment recognises that he is just non-special bunch of hundrets with same special self-recognicion. But to participate in a real adventure? Book is more then that, it is a precise description of moral standards of a society gathered from the whole world, dealing with normal situtation in non-normal enviorment. Garland's work is special of describing a society, with modern-breed moral standards, but easily forgoten and declined without any superior social agreement. In this part it's needed for every law student to understand practiacal issues of lowest social agreement. Beach become at the end very dull and sometimes pointless, but still very strong in shocking the paradise environment. At the end narrative was very flat in the same lower level, slightly boring and nonsensly dull, and without it this book would be really good.

Rating:
Summary: Unique in every way
Review: The Beach is an unforgettable story. I have never read a book so well written. By the end you feel that you know Richard personally and although long and detailed, it flows so easily and keeps you hooked so that you simply can't bear to put it down.

Rating:
Summary: Satisfying...
Review: I was mesmerized by this novel. It was the first book that I've read that has really tuned in to my generation. Being born in the late 70's, I could easily tap into the social nuances and memories Garland weaved throughout the whole story. This is an excellant, nonstop tale that is hard to put down!

Rating:
Summary: The Beach: Bogged down and boring
Review: Having read shining reviews for The Beach and expecting it to be a next-generation Lord of the Flies, I was disappointed to find that the novel fell far short. The author spends 350 pages providing a mundane travelogue and spinning out pointless dialogue that leaves the character development weak, at best. I plodded through the book, though, expecting a well-crafted, thoughtful climax but was disgusted to find the trashy, pointless waste of words that were the last 50 pages of the novel. Don't waste your time with this one. It is highly overrated.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but no "Lord of the Flies"
Review: I picked up a copy of this book because of the reviews on the back: "Generation X has its first great novel" (Sunday Oregonian). "A Lord of the Flies for Generation X" (Nick Hornby). "You have in your hands one great book" (USA Today). "A furiously intelligent first novel" (The Washington Post).

I found that the book almost lived up to the praise. It's about a bohemian group of back-packing men and women seeking authentic experience in southeast Asia. They are unwilling to spend a moment anyplace that has a McDonald's, to waste their time anyplace that can be found in a guidebook...so they find their way to a remote island paradise. There's some predictable conflict between the "insiders" who have been on the island for weeks or months, and the newbies who stumble onto it...and a well-handled bit of role reversal when the newbies find themselves resenting a later batch of newcomers.

The suspense comes from a sort of "hot truce" with the heavily armed guards who manage the marijuana farm on the other half of the island.

As in Lord of the Flies, the fun begins when all the rules go topsy-turvy, civilization falls apart, and people are free to discover and indulge both their better and their darker natures. Who will live to escape?

Garland's writing is clear and rhythmic. Suspense is high throughout, and you really do sympathize with his believable characters--even if you don't consider yourself a member of Generation X.

Rating:
Summary: destination: paradise
Review: I read this in 1 day, I couldn't put it down. This book is great. It shows the depth of human character and how quickly good can turn bad so well that you often forget you're reading and feel like you are on the beach and wishing like crazy you could get the hell away.

Must see the movie, even if Leonardo Decaprio IS in it.

They should read this is school instead of Lord of the Flies which so pales to The Beach that it is nearly invisible!

Rating:
Summary: Stick this in your Backpack
Review: I first purchased and read this book while traveling in Thailand. I remember thinking it was a good read and I could connect with it due to my circumstances at the time. However, upon returning home I put it on the shelves and forgot about it - until the adverts for the movie began appearing on television. Then I thought I had better read it again to refresh my memory. I still liked the book and have recommended it to selected people. However, I believe its appeal will be greatest to those whose own adventures keep them connected to the book's theme. Those who stay home may be happier reading "Little Women." Alex Garland is obviously a young writer and this book is certainly not destined to be a classic. But his characters are interesting, especially the inscrutable Daffy Duck. His story line wavers in places, but I believe he does a credible job of tying it together. This is not a perfect book, but it is a fun one to read, especially while traveling.

Rating:
Summary: a Stunner of a Debut
Review: Garland's "The Beach" far surpasses the limpid film version. For one so young, Garland has created a shimmering coctail of suspense, angst, shock, and accusation--all set in a deceptive paradise and communicated in superb prose. This book has the distinction of being a page-turner that really allows the reader to marvel at the splendid quality of writing and storytelling. A definitive and irresistible work, destined to be very hard to repeat. Poor Garland.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Believe the Hype and You're In for a Nice Read.
Review: The Beach does not live up to the hype reviews on its back cover: "GenX has its first great novel," "A Lord of the Flies for GenX," "Reads like a comet," etc. This book is a slow 436 pages of little action and seemingly endless repetition (swim, smoke dope, and play Game Boy while orbiting closer and closer to danger). Brilliant MTV style speed found in books like, say, Less Than Zero actually do "read like a comet." (And Garland does seem derivative of Bret Easton Ellis at times -- but, hey, who can blame him). The Beach reads more like the sun slowly moving overhead as you're sitting by the pool in sunglasses. Pleasant but not earth shattering. The Beach also reads much slower than Lord of the Flies, which has more action and well defined, sweeping themes like; anarchy vs. order, nature man vs. civilized man, and good vs. evil. Garland's covers the themes of Yank encroachment, McEverything, and environmental destruction pretty darn well. But so do Beavis and Butthead every few minutes and they don't get media raves. USA Today writes on the back cover: "Garland shows that our global popular media has saturated (GenXers) brains." USA Today? No irony there. Ellis and Lord of the Flies are off the charts. Garland is good. If you don't let the saturation media hype raise your expectations you're in for a really nice read. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy The Beach.

Rating:
Summary: Hip read.
Review: Kind of a cool book. I was well entertained by it. I liked the Daffy Duck character. Thought he was kind of a neat piece of magic-realism or something. There were a lot of good laughs in here, nothing whacky, just real cooool. I also had a good time reading this because I related to Richard so well. I thought and felt almost exactly like him. I kind of got to laugh at myself reading this. This book has a problem though. Problem: nothing really happens. At least, nothing happened that would really interest a non-traveler. I kept on thinking there was going to be a big Vietnam-style shoot out climax. It seemed to be being built up to, but then it turned out it was just another decent-into-savagery jig. The message worked, but it wasn't profound enough for this to be a message book. It's cool alright, but by the end, you wonder if the 300something pages was really worth it.