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List Price: $15.00Amazon.com's Price: $10.20 You Save: $4.80 (32%)Prices subject to change.
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9781573226523
ISBN: 1573226521
Label: Riverhead Trade
Manufacturer: Riverhead Trade
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 448
Publication Date: February 01, 1998
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
Sales Rank: 30410
Studio: Riverhead Trade
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The Khao San Road, Bangkok--first stop for the hordes of rootless young Westerners traveling in Southeast Asia. On Richard's first night there, in a low-budget guest house, a fellow traveler slashes his wrists, bequeathing to Richard a meticulously drawn map to "the Beach."
The Beach, as Richard has come to learn, is the subject of a legend among young travelers in Asia: a lagoon hidden from the sea, with white sand and coral gardens, freshwater falls surrounded by jungle, plants untouched for a thousand years. There, it is rumored, a carefully selected international few have settled in a communal Eden.
Haunted by the figure of Mr. Duck--the name by which the Thai police have identified the dead man--and his own obsession with Vietnam movies, Richard sets off with a young French couple to an island hidden away in an archipelago forbidden to tourists. They discover the Beach, and it is as beautiful and idyllic as it is reputed to be. Yet over time it becomes clear that Beach culture, as Richard calls it, has troubling, even deadly, undercurrents.
Spellbinding and hallucinogenic, The Beach is a look at a generation in their twenties, who, burdened with the legacy of the preceding generation and saturated by popular culture, long for an unruined landscape, but find it difficult to experience the world firsthand.
Amazon.com Review:
In our ever-shrinking world, where popular Western culture seems to have infected every nation on the planet, it is hard to find even a small niche of unspoiled land--forget searching for pristine islands or continents. This is the situation in Alex Garland's debut novel, The Beach. Human progress has reduced Eden to a secret little beach near Thailand. In the tradition of grand adventure novels, Richard, a rootless traveler rambling around Thailand on his way somewhere else, is given a hand-drawn map by a madman who calls himself Daffy Duck. He and two French travelers set out on a journey to find this paradise.
What makes this a truly satisfying novel is the number of levels on which it operates. On the surface it's a fast-paced adventure novel; at another level it explores why we search for these utopias, be they mysterious lost continents or small island communes. Garland weaves a gripping and thought-provoking narrative that suggests we are, in fact, such products of our Western culture that we cannot help but pollute and ultimately destroy the very sanctuary we seek
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
If someone hadn't thrown this book in with a bunch of gift books, I would have never read it. If I hadn't been working my way through said box while recuperating, I wouldn't have read it. If I had anything at all more promising to do with my time, I would have dumped this book in the garbage after 20 pages. But seeing as I didn't dump it, I didn't have to shell out my hard earned cash for it and I was momentarily incapable of doing anything more than reading - I'm glad that I didn't miss the gore ... Read More
Rating: -
Saw the movie first and then read the book. Director of the film took the blame for lackluster box office success. Not the case I believe. Book took the long way around in moving the plot along. Number of times left you hanging and moved in another direction from there. Film held the story together well in cause and effect. Back story was quick and conflict was progressive. Cinematography was great; makes you want to go to Thailand. If you do - stay with the tour - always. Read the book first, ... Read More
Rating:  -
When utopia goes wrong! A very good read - definitely a new favorite. I don't think it has the makings of a classic but interesting characters, great environmental descriptions. And here's a surprise, better than the movie (which was also good).
Rating: -
Writing Style - 4/5
Characters - 4
Storyline - 3
Resonance - 3
The Not-Too-Revealing Synopsis
A tourist, - no - a traveler who is a trek junkie searching for the next pristine, exotic, faraway land comes across a madman offering him just that. This is a hip, edgy-toned story of the journey, the findings, and the effects.
The Review:
This read was, throughout the book - disagreeable, annoying, shallow and boring while simultaneously amusing, ... Read More
Rating: -
for any one, any age who has done a tour in SE Asia. Or not done a tour and wants to.
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