The Beach

Alex Garland

Wow. I can see, without having actually seen the film, why so many people were disappointed by it; it never could have kept its climactic scene and kept an R rating. For that matter, judging by IMDB's site, there would seem to be quite a lot missing (see spoilers, for those of you who saw the flick). If you did see the movie and were disenchanted, run, do not walk, to buy the book.

We all know the premise, right? Oh, maybe we don't-- after all, the trailers for the film did quite a good job of coverup, and the book itself has no plot synopsis at all (and may I take a moment here to say how much I despise book marketers in the last five years, who have come to assume we'd rather see either a full-page picture of the author or a bunch of blurbs that tell us nothing about the book itself? May they all rot in hell). A wayward backpacker, through a chance encounter, comes upon a map to a secluded area, and with the nextdoor neighbors in the hotel where he's staying, decides to try and find the place. The night before they leave, two more acquaintances of dubious standing let slip they've already heard about the place, and describe it in terms usually reserved for zealots' descriptions of pilgrimages to the holy land. The three of them jaunt off to the secluded island and discover... oh, go read the silly thing. I've used the term "compelling read" before, but this book redefined it for me. I literally had to force myself to turn out the light last night, and I kept snatching chapters when I had free time here at work. ****