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I lit my second cigarette of the day, not wanting it, just feeling it was the right thing to do.
Here is a great example of how a teenager thinks. I never watched the movie adaptation of THE BEACH, featuring teenage heartthrob of then Leonardo Di Caprio and my reasons had nothing artistic or righteous. I just figured that since it was called a disappointment after ROMEO + JULIET and TITANIC, it must've been pretty painful since my angsty, tweener self disliked the first two. Of course, I didn't know anything about Danny Boyle then and it's not before perennial favorite of mine Chuck Klosterman, dropped Alex Garland's name in interview that I knew it was a novel. So yeah, because I was young and stupid, I ignored the existence of the preternaturally gifted British writer. So put that in your pipe, YA writers who love soulful teens. Put it in your pipe, smoke it and read THE BEACH, because it's wicked.
British traveler Richard has a surreal encounter on his first night in a Bangkok guest house. A mysterious, mystical Scotsman, rambling on the edge of coherence about a secluded beach. The next day, Richard found the Scotsman dead in his bedroom, having apparently slit his own wrist. Before leaving this world, he left Richard a gift, a map of how to find the said beach. Along with two french travelers he befriended, he goes on a journey to find that beach. They eventually do, but they find way more than a beach. They find a society, a world that seems untouched by the civilization they've ran away from, amongst people who think like them. But human nature is a funny thing. A funny, deceitful thing and Alex Garland happens to understand a thing or two about that.
I'm sure everyone of you reading this has that Facebook friend, who posted five thousand photos of his travels and who seems to have found the meaning of life through them, while you keep pecking away at the day job, wondering where all these years have gone. THE BEACH addresses that longing for truth and everything else over the expansive horizon that travelers have. It's a tricky thing that evolves within Richard, and throughout his first person narration (the book wouldn't have worked so well otherwise), he gradually gains perspective of what level of engagement you need to take in giving meaning to experience. I know it sounds abstract said like this, but THE BEACH is about what happens when you don't take responsibility for your experience and let human nature take over. It can get ugly, even in paradise.
That split second is the moment you comprehend you're just about to die. Different people react to it different ways. Some swear and rage. Some sigh or gasp. Some scream. I've heard a lot of screams over the twelve years I've been addicted to video games.
I'm sure that this moment provides a rare insight into the way people react just before they really do die. The game taps into something pure and beyond affectations. As Leo heard the tapping he blurts, "I'm toast." He says it quickly, with resignation and understanding. It he were driving down the highway and saw a car spinning into his path I think he'd react in the same way.
One thing that makes THE BEACH exceptional is that it's a first novel that's above certain basic notions of storytelling and it works beautifully. There is no real plot to THE BEACH. Alex Garland just put several young people together, seemingly with common ground and just observes human nature swallow them. It has a slow, predatory pace and such a thorough understanding of what makes people beautiful and fascinating. It's a slow, contemplative novel (sometimes a little much to my taste) examines the concept of Eden and human interaction with the divine and also with accomplishment. That a twenty-six year old came with this level of subtle introspective thoughts through so many character. Illustrating different faces of the same question through various personalities.
THE BEACH has been compared to LORD OF THE FLIES a lot, but I found it to be a little bit a Diet Coke-spinoff of HEART OF DARKNESS and a lot of it is original. I'm a sucker for character-driven novels, but I think it's the hardest thing to pull off. Alex Garland did it brilliantly and almost effortlessly with THE BEACH. I still haven't seen the movie, but I doubt you can convey so much through the little time window cinema allows you. It was such a pure experience. I thought at first it had nothing to do with my preoccupations as a human being, that it tackled such a specific culture, but Alex Garland has his own way of keeping the big picture in sight. THE BEACH is graceful, light-footed, almost evanescent. It's a work of patience and minutiae more than a work of power, but the more you invest yourself in it, the more rewarding it gets. A fantastic, unlikely psychological novel.
4.5 STARS