Rating: 
Summary: not a single luxury--except Gameboy
Review: This wildly over-hyped first novel, which was followed by a supposedly dreadful Leonardo DiCaprio film version, gets by mainly on the strength of
references to classic (especially Vietnam-era) literature and modern pop culture and a sado-masochistic plotline where Gen-X gets taught a lesson. In
the story of a young backpacker in Southeast Asia, who finds a kind of utopian commune on an island beach off the coast of Thailand, Garland seems
to be quite consciously summoning everything from Lord of the Flies to Gilligan's Island. And he explicitly invokes The Heart of Darkness,
Apocalypse Now, Platoon, etc., and a wide range of video games with which I'm not familiar. The result is a book that's achingly aware of where it's
coming from, but teases us by wandering down the paths of its various sources only to end up in dead-ends. So, when we finally do get where we're
going we feel a tad ill-used.The book begins with our putative protagonist, Richard, in Bangkok, where a bungalow mate tells him how to find the island and then commits
suicide. Richard and a French couple set out to find the much-rumored beach and, after some reasonably exciting difficulties, do so. The denizens
don't seem to have much of a philosophy or a sense of mission; they're content just to have found a beach that other tourists haven't "ruined". Their
days are spent in fishing, gathering food, and performing a variety of other mundane tasks just aimed at keeping their community going. They divert
themselves with a few sports contests, a Gameboy, and a lot of dope, illicitly obtained from a local field that is the domain of a scary group of armed
men, with whom they have an implicit non-interference agreement. Over the course of the novel the tension begins to rise within the community and between the beach dwellers and the dope growers. Richard fears
that a couple fellow travelers with whom he shared the story of the beach may show up and get him in trouble with his reclusive comrades. And we
gradually realize that Richard is a rather unreliable narrator, as his drug use, which requires ever bolder incursions on the drug fields, and his
imaginary conversations with the dead guy who told him about the beach start to obscure reality. Even more startling is the way in which he seems to
want to create his own version of the Vietnam experience on the island. He's itching for trouble and we're pretty sure he's eventually going to find it. The book maintains a compelling atmosphere of dread and Mr. Garland is an effective story-teller, but there's a sort of dissatisfying hollowness to the
whole affair. The dialogue is almost entirely pointless and that seems to be the author's intent. The islanders lack of any meaningful goals makes
their group seem temporary almost by definition, so we're never emotionally invested in its survival. We know that as soon as they're found the group
will collapse, because the beach won't be "cool" anymore. Meanwhile, their coolness is an inadequate hook for our rooting interest. Worst of all,
because they don't believe in anything interesting, other than a kind of dubious communal ethos, and because they have nothing interesting to say, it's
not apparent that Mr. Garland even wants us to care that they and their Beach are doomed. In fact, there's guilty pleasure to be had in watching it all
come a cropper. It's not a bad book, and I can accept that Mr. Garland's message may be that this generation of young people lead lives that are so devoid of purpose
that they have to live vicariously through cultural reference to other people's experiences, that the highest aspirations of his generation, their visions of
Utopia, amount to nothing more than an unlimited supply of pot and an undiscovered beach on which to smoke it and play Tetris. But if that's all this
was about, it seems like he could have conveyed that message more quickly. Four hundred something pages was a long time to spend with a group of
characters who even their creator seemed to want dead. GRADE : C+
Rating: 
Summary: New waves, same old beach
Review: The upshot of this Gen-X reworking of "The Lord of the Flies" and "The Mosquito Coast" is that civilization is good for you so don't even THINK of trying to escape, because you'll only end up in the madness and despair that is the true legacy of human nature and the human heart. And since that's the case, don't bother about politics, either, because you'll just wind up in the same state. Thanks, Margaret Thatcher in drag. This thickly plotted (and therefore contrived) adventure story had a built-in audience among the backpacker set but really has nothing to say. Mild entertainment value.
Rating: 
Summary: If you've seen the movie, you will still like the book!
Review: I saw the movie first, and thought it was decent. Then I decided to read the book. I must say, that they are almost two totally different stories, and the book is (of course) much better. This book has a Lord of the Flies theme going for it, but it is much more up to date, and the message it sends is more subtle with symbolism and several smaller themes inside the main story. I think this is one of those books that if you detest the society we live in, you can relate to it, and be moved by the writing. If you have seen the movie you MUST read the book! The story the book tells is so much better, so if you liked the movie you will love the book - and if you hated the movie give the book a shot anyway. Garland is an unknown genius, I will be buying his other book very soon!
Rating:
Summary: Good start, boring finish
Review: Bought this on biz trip to London. Loved the concept and openng scenes. then it spiraled into cliche. action was not very believable. stick with lord of the flies, not this backpacker nostalgia
Rating: 
Summary: The Beach. It should have been kapt as the book.
Review: At first I was reluctant to read The Beach, because, frankly, the movie bites. I was afraid the book would be the same. But when I read it for an assignment, I was pleasantly suprised. This is one of the best books I've read in a while. I usually stick to romance like Sandra Brown, but I would read another Alex Garland book anyday.
Rating:
Summary: In Search For Something Beautfiul and Exciting Then Before
Review: This book shows very loose reminisence to the movie but is one of the best works I've read coming from a author of his first book. If you love adventure, and searching for somthing exciting, then you would love to read this. It was tantalizing, a natural page turner, reviting at points. It's amazing what this book can do to a person.
Rating: 
Summary: Good - But not my taste
Review: Alex Garland's book, The Beach has shown me the wonders of marijuana. This may be a good thing to certain individuals, but to me, it is not. I have been introduced to dope, and right now I suffer from many dope-related illness's. It was a nice high, but now I'm just a pothead.
Rating:
Summary: Dope Addicted Teenager Suffers Emotional Problems
Review: This book was nothing more than a drug-lovers novel written for crack-addicted hippies all over. Murder, lies, law-breaking and sex are common place, making a horrifying, yet strangely realistic story. A romantic eden collapses into hell, during which the characters minds develop towards insanity and memories that will never be forgotten... never judge a book by it's movie or those that star in it, horribly misleading. I watched the movie before I read the book and it gave me terrible preconceptions about the book, which eventually were proven untrue.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping, chilling, and a must read!
Review: This book is incredible. There is just no other way to put it! I have not seen the movie, it came out when I was younger and not allowed to see anything like that, but I stumbled across the book in my library, and it rung a bell. It is terrifying and wonderful all at once. The book explores the idea that a paradise governed by a little self-contained society has dangerous subtlies. I have read Lord of The Flies as well and I think it's a bit inaccurate the way they compare the two. While Lord of The Flies has a lot of room for interpretation and is not brought to it's fullest potential by the shortness of it, The Beach is an explosion for the mind. It doesn't leave so much room for interpretation as to confuse the reader, the story is fairly straightfoward, right up to it's conclusion, which leaves the exactly perfect amount of imagination as to what they want to see the story as to the reader. I was a little bit confused by some little bits but overall it was wonderful and maybe the reason for the confusion is that I'm only 14 and it was a little bit hard to grasp where the endings of the imaginings with Mister Duck ended and the story began, though I suppose it was designed to be that way. It tends to make you sometimes reread a passage to make sure you're getting it. However this helps explain Richard and how he fits in with the society all the better because the book is almost like his mind laid out in readable form before you. In conclusion, it is excelent, the kind of book that takes a little while to wear off after completing it, leaving you with a chill and a new appreciation for normalcy. READ IT!
Rating:
Summary: My favorite book!
Review: I was blown away by Alex Garland's debut novel, "The Beach". So blown away, that it's now my favorite novel! "The Beach" is just such an amazing novel. On the outside, "The Beach" appears to be an action adventure kind of book, but really it's much more when you take a closer look. There's so much symbolism, hidden meanings, and interesting moral questions embedded into the novel, it leaves you breathless. Some people have missed the point of "The Beach". Instead of trying to convey the realism of a backpacker, Garland is showing us how ironic the situation is. For example, the beachers, while on an island paradise, find themselves most concerned over whether they have enough batteries for their Nintendos. Another complaint that I often hear about "The Beach" is the lack of character depth. I believe that Garland didn't give his characters more depth because he wanted to show how depthless and superficial; these people really are. This was a very effective technique for Garland to use. The main character, Richard, is also quite interesting. Richard sees himself as if he is in a video game. Life is a video game to him, therefore he cannot relate to reality or the consequences of his actions. I've heard many people say that "The Beach" is a post-modern type of book. They're right. Much of this novel is showing, well, how messed up many of us from the "new generation" are turning out in this "drug crazy and pop cultured world" as one reviewer put it. "The Beach" is very similar to the film "Apocalypse Now" and the book that the film was based on, Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". Both show the loss of morality when people are separated from society long enough. It was really fascinating to see a rather moral man like Richard slowly deteriorate on the island. What really impressed me about "The Beach" is the moral issues that are presented in it. "Just how far would you go to keep a secret? Can people lose all morality if isolated from society for an extended period of time? Would you sacrifice your own self worth and morality to save the perfect paradise? What happens when that paradise becomes not so perfect? "The Beach" is also about mind games; the games we play with ourselves, the games we play with those around us, and the games we play with fate."
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