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The Beach
Alex Garland. Riverhead Books: 1998 (paperback). ISBN: 1573226521. 436 pages.
Guide not available
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Movie critics were disappointed with the film, and it is fairly easy to
see why this story of been-there, done-that, thrill-seeking young backpackers in search of the ultimate unspoiled
destination might not work without Alex Garland's taut, precise prose. Somehow, even though this book has been repeatedly
compared to Lord of the Flies, repeatedly called the Heart of Darkness or On the Road for the postmodern X Generation,
Garland's novel manages to avoid cliché, to sidestep simplification, and to say something new about some things that are
very old-the human desire for utopia and the teenage desire to escape authority and tradition and to embrace something
more real than real life. This novel has lots to reveal about the new breed of politically correct colonialism, asks lots
of interesting moral questions, and is an amazingly irresistible read about what happens when an international cast of
young people try to recreate paradise lost on the most isolated, forbidden, and secret of beaches.
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