The Beach by Alex Garland Reviewed by Steve Rudd

Escape through travel works. Almost from the moment I boarded my flight, life in England became meaningless. Seat-belt signs lit up, problems switched off. Broken armrests took precedence over broken hearts. Before the hit movie there was the cult novel written by an unknown 26-year-old writer called Alex Garland, with this being his astonishing debut novel. His exhilarating writing style and beautifully executed use of prose is astounding for Alex's age, with The Beach literally being a thrill-fest of vividly brought-to-life set-pieces that all lead up to a shocking climax once trouble in paradise erupts.

If I'd learnt one thing from travelling, it was that the way to get things done was to go ahead and do them. Essentially a thriller novel, elements of action, adventure and drama all intertwine to stunning effect, set against the backdrop of solo world travel, in this occasion to a remote island off Thailand to which Richard - the main character who narrates the extraordinary story - feels drawn after he hears a rumour that there is THE fabled beach on such an island that is almost untouched by human habitation or visitation and is the closest place to paradise for miles around. So Richard sets out with a French couple that he meets, and they all swim to the island to see how such rumours reflect reality. Sure enough, there is a beautiful beach on which a group of travellers are secretly living the good life. There is one major worry, however... and that's a plantation of drugs on the island that is been grown and duly guarded by some Thai dealers, and once the dealers come to learn about the travellers' self-made retreat nearby, tensions funnel to terrifying levels of violence that are shot through with heart-attaching bursts of sheer fear.

I wanted to witness extreme poverty. I saw it as a necessary experience for anyone who wanted to appear worldly and interesting. Garland, who went on to write The Tesseract after this debut, is a truly amazing writer and even though The Beach is a long story, I felt compelled to read on and on and on once I'd started, seeing the book right through to the finish in the best part of just one day. Garland successfully pits thrilling sections of action against some tender spurts of compelling human drama, as all the travellers interact and develop their relationships with each other: romances develop between some and hate builds between others.

Also, Garland - through his characters - offers some fabulous moments of philosophy. For instance, 'If you accept the universe is infinite, then that means an infinite amount of chances for things to happen, right? Well, if there's an infinite amount of chances for something to happen, then eventually it will happen - no matter how small the likelihood.' Even if you've seen the Leonardo Di Caprio-starring movie adaptation, the book is still more than worthy of a look. I always think that it's far more exciting to read the original story if the novel preceded the movie, as it infamously did in this particular case. This way it's perpetually interesting to witness how filmmakers interpret the stories and visualise the words set down on paper. What say you? I say The Beach is a masterpiece of modern times. ISBN 0-140-25841-8 (first published in 1996; Penguin)

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