The Beach is an idealised paradise that quickly descends into a horrific fever dream.
76/100
Original Release: 1996
Author: Alex Garland
Favourite Quote:
“You fish, swim, eat, laze around, and everyone's so friendly. It's such simple stuff, but... If I could stop the world and restart life, put the clock back, I think I'd restart it like this. For everyone.”
Alex Garland’s The Beach examines a dream. A dream to escape society and civilisation, start our own lives in a new place, a paradise, and live without the controls of money, expectations and judgements. It is a dream of freedom, but it is a dream that Garland seems to think should stay as it is: just a dream.
Released in 1996, The Beach tells the story of English backpacker Richard's experiences travelling alone in Bangkok. One night, at his hotel, he is given a map to a secret beach by a man named Daffy. The next day Daffy is found to have killed himself and Richard, entranced by the idea of this beach, sets off to find it with fellow backpackers Etienne and Francoise.
Just before reaching the paradise Richard makes a copy of the map and secretly gives it to some Americans, just in case something happens to them on their journey. It is as if he is already anticipating the events that are about to unfold.
As a reader you begin to hope that the whole novel will just be like this first section. Just like the characters, you try to ignore the small warning signs that Garland has strategically placed within this paradise.
The trio reach the eden-like beach and are immediately infatuated by it. Garland does a great job of making the reader fall in love with the place and become attached. The beach itself is picturesque, the people all seem lovely and the lifestyle almost makes you foam at the mouth.
They all spend their days working for each other (the work includes fishing and gardening), swimming, getting high, drinking and basking in their freedom. They are living this dream. Even to the point that life before the beach begins to feel like the dream to Richard.
As a reader you begin to hope that the whole novel will just be like this first section. Just like the characters, you try to ignore the small warning signs that Garland has strategically placed within this paradise.
The first is their lack of connection to the outside world. Richard’s act of leaving a map for someone else to find them is the first sign of this and evidence that he was thinking about it before he even arrived. What would happen if any of them were to get hurt? Is it possible to ignore the civilisation they’re trying to escape from despite knowing the benefits of that world?
As the novel progresses Garland seems to answer these questions for us. Three of the campers are attacked by a shark and as a result are in desperate need of medical attention that can only be gained from the mainland. But if they do send them to the mainland they will most certainly be discovered and the dream will be destroyed.
Is it better to keep the dream alive at the expense of these people? They knew what they were signing up for. The countless excuses and masking of the horrors that are occurring just to keep the dream alive is such an interesting and human idea. You almost begin to agree with those that are committing the horrors.
The second downfall that the campers face is the inevitable boredom of the dream. It’s like when you take time off work after dreaming of time off for so long. And then on your time off you find yourself bored and missing work. Once the novelty wears off how will they keep themselves entertained?
Once again this is present from the beginning. Richard is infatuated with his friend Keaty’s game boy, he has recurring nightmares about Daffy and he’s obsessed with living out some idea of the Vietnam War. And when the Americans that he gave the map to eventually make it to the beach he is more excited than scared. As if he needs the drama. He can’t survive without it.
And then there’s the gun carrying locals running a marjuana farm on the other side of the island. As readers you can’t help but realise that they are going to cause trouble as soon as they’re mentioned. It also sort of symbolises this notion of foreigners taking over the locals’ land to live their version of this dream with no thought toward the people they are exploiting. Which is essentially what backpackers were doing in Thailand at this time.
The Americans make it to the island. The locals kill them and then leave their bodies at the beach for all of the campers to see. In a fever dream ending the campers, who have had their food spiked with marajuana, begin attacking Richard for leading the Americans to the island.
It is quite a horrific ending in which all of these small ‘inconveniences’ that are ruining the dream explode in some graphic images that seem straight out of Garland’s later films. It is a great representation of what the film has been boiling up to and really shows the frustration of human beings. All they wanted was some freedom, is that so bad?
Garland’s writing is fast paced and easy to read. He writes short chapters which make it quite the page turner. There were some issues with characterisation. Richard himself is given tons of depth and intricacies but the rest of the characters are pretty flat.
The biggest problem is Richard and Francoise’s relationship which never seems to make sense. As well as some of the dialogue and motivations of lesser characters. Because we aren’t given much on who they are it is hard to believe some of the things they say and do.
Alex Garland’s ‘The Beach’ is a nightmare disguised as a dream. It’s the exploration of a universal longing for freedom that we all want to live out. And thankfully reading the book lets us live it out and then shows us all the flaws involved in it.
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