| June 14, 1999 | Book Review of "The Beach" |
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My work friend Allyson just read "The Beach" last week, and she let me borrow her copy. I started it yesterday and finished it this evening. This book is completely and immediately engrossing. The story's about Richard, a young twentysomething British backpacker who acquires a map through very odd circumstances that leads him to a well-hidden Gen X enclave on a tropical island off the coast of Thailand. I won't say more because I don't want to give too much of the plot away. Though "The Beach" is compared to "Lord of the Flies" in the review blurb written by "High Fidelity" author Nick Hornby on the book's back jacket, the considerable pop cultural references to Nintendo's Game Boy, "The A Team," and Tetris made me think of Douglas Coupland's writing. Like Coupland, Garland understands the importance of pop culture to his generation of readers. I found it interestingly ironic that even though the main characters' shared goal is to live indefinitely sequestered away on an island paradise without contact with the outside world -- they still place high importance on obtaining batteries for their Walkmans and Game Boys, and almost all of their ideas of adventure and how to solve the problems they encounter come from popular American movies and TV shows -- notably "Platoon," "The A Team," and "Tour of Duty." One of my favorite parts in the book is when Richard talks about the game Street Fighter Two (a personal favorite) and the various ways people he knows react just as their Street Fighter characters' energy bars are going to be emptied. He calls this "the split second before Game Over" and he speculates that "Game Over" is one of the most widely understood phrases in the whole world. He also posits that the moment before Game Over "provides a rare insight into the way people react just before they do really die." Just as it would likely be true of myself and my friends, everything these characters know about survival they've gleaned from a lifetime watching video games and TV. One of the saddest themes in the book is about how you can't stop paradise from being spoiled - something's always going to come along and ruin Eden -- be it an onslaught of tourists, or even just progress. Labels: allyson, americanculture, book, popculture posted by Jess Barron @ 7:51 PM 
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