The Beach in Around the World in 80 Books

Feb 19, 2012 Jason rated it liked it

This is one of those novels that I had been waiting to read for years. Circumstances just always prevented it, even after I'd seen the movie three or four times. I could never find a copy in China where I was living, I'd forget about it each year I came home and wouldn't order it from Amazon. But finally, I picked this up for my Kindle (bootleg, as it doesn't seem to have an official Kindle release) and dove right in. I started it at the perfect time, too: on a bus ride through central Malaysia, This is one of those novels that I had been waiting to read for years. Circumstances just always prevented it, even after I'd seen the movie three or four times. I could never find a copy in China where I was living, I'd forget about it each year I came home and wouldn't order it from Amazon. But finally, I picked this up for my Kindle (bootleg, as it doesn't seem to have an official Kindle release) and dove right in. I started it at the perfect time, too: on a bus ride through central Malaysia, on the way to a beach on the east coast of the country!

With all that said...maybe it's just been built up too much for me. Lord of the Flies for Generation X? If this is the modern take on it, then please send me on a time machine back to the Golding days (pun intended) when LotF was released.

Other reviewers are correct about the storyline itself: the book just breezes by. Because I had it on Kindle, I never knew how many pages it was in paperback. I read this book in three days, a feat usually reserved only for Michael Crichton novels and travel books. So I will hand Garland that. The guy can certainly spin a yarn, and there were times when this novel was genuinely exciting, especially en route to the island and beach themselves.

But this novel has so many things that just bugged me in the end, both as a reader and author. On the technical side, Garland's dialogue is just full of adverbs in the quote tags and ellipses in the speech, two things I consider poor writing and have other greater writers to back me up on. The chapters (if you can call them that, as they're more like segments or something, and only last a few pages each, like an early Ellis novel) often have immature or outright pretentious titles. Come to think of it, the novel itself seemed rather juvenile at times, with gratuitous foul language and pop culture references, as well as video game motifs that did not fit in with the book at all (much like the video game sequence in the movie).

Now on to the plot itself. Spoiler alert...

The frequent lapses into Mister Duck hallucinations and sidebars got old for me, fast. And then they just stop the moment he leaves the island? Garland steams ahead to an ending that seems both bizarre and unlikely, with a "blood orgy" of sorts involving a bunch of crazed, stoned (only on weed and palm wine) islanders tearing some tourists' bodies to shreds, then attacking the narrator. Did I mention this is all during Tet? And that a bunch of dope farmers have shown up? It just all seemed contrived and a bit improbable to me. I didn't like the movie's ending much either, but it actually met with less incredulity from me!

But again, I finished this in three days. I couldn't finish one of my own novels in that short a time. Garland can weave a tale, no question about it. ...more

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May 28, 2007 Ryan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, multiple-reads, 2015

Deciding to re-read this book over fifteen years since reading it last had me a bit wary. I worried that it would feel dated; something a younger me thought was powerful, but an adult me no longer connects with.

I was wrong.

This book is every bit as energetic and sun-soaked as it was the first time around, and left me wondering what the characters would have made of the world to come. They seek to find someplace new because tourists and crowds swallow up every other interesting place on the trail ...more

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Sep 12, 2018 Windy rated it liked it · review of another edition

I found this a strange book as, whilst it was compelling, I was also unable to read it in big chunks because it was quite oppressive. I can see why it has become a "cult classic" but I can't say I'm a massive fan ...more

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