The Beach by Alex Garland Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $8.00 You Save: $8.00 (50%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Beach
Book Review: A fast pace, hard hitting, adrenaline pumpng read.
Summary: 4 Stars
I can't help thinking, those people who didn't like the novel were reading it wrong. This book hooked me from page one, I couldn't put it down. In bed, in the bath, on the bus, this book didn't close until I'd finished. If you don't want to read the most talked about beat generation book of this decade then don't!Your the only one who misses out.Book Review: A fast-paced adrenaline rush
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me start off by saying that Alex Garland's "The Beach" is a fantastic novel. It's perfectly paced, the premise is awesome, and the plot is pulse-pounding. And on a semi-related note, it's much better than Danny Boyle's film adaptation.
"The Beach" begins with a tourist named Richard coming into Bangkok, where one night in his crappy hotel he meets a Scottish guy named Daffy Duck who gives him a map to a secret beach, a perfect paradise that no one knows about. And here's the kicker - the next morning, the guy is dead. So Richard teams up with a couple of other tourists to find this secret beach to find that not only is it perfect, but it is too perfect - a beautiful nightmare full of Thai dope-traffickers and killer sharks.
What makes "The Beach" so good is how flawless the narration is from the lead character. After a few pages he becomes extremely likable and you constantly worry about his safety in case something dangerous happens around the next page. The plot is always moving and never gets stale at any point - like a roller coaster, and an emotional one at that. It also helps that there's some really good pop culture references that help make the novel both more enjoyable and more relatable. It makes you wonder whether or not Alex Garland really does play video games. All in all, this book is fantastic and if you don't read it, there's a thrilling experience here you're going to miss out on.
Book Review: A fast-paced intelligent piece of literature.
Summary: 4 Stars
This book captures the readers attention. It is clever and keeps you wondering what will happen next. The plot thickens with every turn of the page. The character, Richard, is complex and realistic and demonstrates true emotion.I would recommend this book to all college students.Book Review: A fun read
Summary: 4 Stars
The Beach is definately a good, fast read. The plot is great, even if it's not that original, and the writing style grabs you right off the bat. Still, there are moments in the book that seem awkward or trying to be a little too metaphorical. Alex Garland has taken up a wide variety of subjects to include within his narritve:the vietnam war, lord of the flies, man vs. nature, man vs. man, video games...etc. While all of these things keep the book from ever getting boring, they don't always seem to fit together consistently. Part of the problem with this is that they don't all neccessarily have that much to do with eachother. Still, this is definately worth reading, just for the sheer fun of the story.Book Review: A fun read that falls just a bit short...
Summary: 4 Stars
Perhaps I enjoyed it too much, read it too quickly for its plot intensity and character fun, but "The Beach" falls short in one critical area: it doesn't answer it's own question. That aside, the story does get ahold of you and demands your attention, even if our hero is far less than heroic and too befuddled by his own ambiguity to be any kind of moral compass, let alone interpreter of events. The point of the story, its lesson? Perhaps it's as simple as utopia not being a place on a beach or lost in a neverending marijuana fog, but anywhere but... Unfortunately, Mr. Garland isn't too sure either.