Then DiCaprio spoilt it all! (The Beach - Alex Garland)

Member Name: missbrowneyedgirl

Product:	The Beach - Alex Garland
Date:	25/08/00 (178 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The best book I have ever read!

Disadvantages: It ends too soon!

The Beach, as in The Beach - The Book, is the single most powerful piece of fiction that I have ever read... and I read the whole think in roughly 36 hours, well the first time at least!

Alex Garland has the most incredible talent for weaving a tale which doesn't simply make you want to carry on reading, it makes you NEED to carry on reading! This becomes even more outstanding when you discover Alex was a mere 26 years of age when he wrote this - his first novel! I went on holiday with a group of 5 friends last year and each one of us read this novel in a similar amount of time - which kind of spoilt the holiday as one the group was always away reading!

I haven't dared to watch the movie as everyone I have spoken to who has read the book was bitterly disappointed. I am also extremely dubious of the casting as my mental picture of the Richard, the 'hero' for want of a better term, I travelled alongside in the novel could not be further from the American pretty boy they chose to portray him! In reality, Garland himself looks very much like how one would imagine Richard to be.

Please, please read this book, particularly if you have seen the film, as I promise it will be a hundred times better than what you have seen. You also wont believe that a book can captivate your interest this much!

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