It's always difficult to write a review of a work of classic literature - such as this one - but I never expected it to affect me that much.
A Tale of It's always difficult to write a review of a work of classic literature - such as this one - but I never expected it to affect me that much.
A Tale of Two Cities is a novel that works on several levels. Most study it as social commentary about the French Revolution, but I think that even those not interested in history will find it a book of interest, because it is quite possibly the most romantic love story ever told.
Sure, it's overtly sentimental (as most of Dickens's work), and at times you can clearly see that it was written to be published in weekly instalments, but don't let that stop you. There's a reason that Charles Dickens is one of the most popular storytellers and this particular novel is world's bestselling work of fiction. At times, Dickens's prose emanates pure beauty that's so missed in most of contemporary works. While I enjoy reading literature that deals with the ambiguity and uncertainity of contemporary life and the human nature, I also enjoy reading works that begin and end with everything solved clearly and with sense. And what a beginning this book has! And what an end! I dare to say that both the opening and closing scenes are some of the most beautiful I've ever read, in some of the most powerful and evocative prose ever written.
Dickens has created a broad cast of characters, of two nations and multiple social classes and political affiliations, and effortlessly weaved their stories. But the real topic of this book is love: the power of love makes us human, but it also gives us power to do things that we would never dream of doing. It's an encompassion of bravery, devotion and dedication that gives ordinary people strenght of such caliber that allows us to be more than human. I too believe that in the end love is one of the few thing that matters; but don't listen to me. Read A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens will tell you that and so much more, in words that are immortal and beautiful and magnificent and moving....more
Although I saw the movie adaptation with Richard Gere and Edward Norton, I wanted to read this book because I was curious how the author would presentAlthough I saw the movie adaptation with Richard Gere and Edward Norton, I wanted to read this book because I was curious how the author would present his story on paper. It turned out that William Diehl did a great job at mixing psychological suspense with legal coutroom drama.
Aaaron Stampler is accused of murdering Archbishop Richard Rushman - in fact police find him near the scene of the murder - hiding in a confessional, soaked with blood and gripping the murder weapon. Defense attorney Martin Vail is forced to take Stampler's case pro-bono - Vail has recently won a case against the city, county and the state police, which all hope that this case will humiliate and destroy him.
I'm not a big mystery or thriller reader - In fact I tend to avoid them. Novels in these genres usually run in series, with the same protagonist - usually a detective or a lawyer. However, I was impressed by the film which was made from this novel and I'm glad I decided to give it a go.
Martin Vail's characters is rich and vivid - if Gordon Gekko went to law school he'll be him. His supporting team is not shabby either - the private investigator Tommy Goodman, an ex-boxer who digs nasty details about the case and the murdered Bishop.Psychologist Molly Arrington analyses Aaron and is instrumental in bringing facts that Vail can use in court.
However, the real diamond here is the character of Aaron Stampler, an angelic faced, mild boy. A complex character, Aaron is seemingly inscrutable and denies comitting the murder. As Vail races against time to form a defense for his client, the novel drastically increases the level of suspense which literally explodes in the final coutroom scene, and - what's incredible - offers a conclusion that imprints itself in the mind of the reader and makes him think about what he has just read. A classic novel in the genre, Primal Fear offers much more than the rest of the lot and is a great fun to read. Recommended....more
It's difficult for me to rate this book, because it has an interesting premise, and touches interesting themes and topics and aims to provide plenty oIt's difficult for me to rate this book, because it has an interesting premise, and touches interesting themes and topics and aims to provide plenty of food for thought.
But it's also very dull. The characters are not characters, but the ideas of them. The prose is stripped down to bare essentials, and after a while becomes tiring to read. The book is short, and it's not a good thing in this case - nothing is fleshed out, and the whole thing feels like the author wrote down ideas and points he wanted to present and ornamented them in the barest rudiments of characterization and dialogue. The storytelling is practiaclly nonexistant here, and the book reads like a fragment from the diary of the protagonist (maybe that was intentional) but the situations that are so familiar and powerful to him leave the reader indifferent - we're never "let in" and therefore fail to feel anything for the characters and their dilemmas. I was not shocked, I was not moved, I was not even interested and in the end the only two words that I could say were "So What?"...more
Having recently seen a film called The Last Exorcism, I decided it was finally time to read the first exorcism, the one which made masses of people inHaving recently seen a film called The Last Exorcism, I decided it was finally time to read the first exorcism, the one which made masses of people interested in demonic posessions, scared the beejesus out of readers and was made into one of the best films ever.
I've seen the film several times, though I've never read the book. I always assumed that it was a cheap potboiler, heavy on shock value (who can forget the green vomit?) and thin on everything else. I was totally wrong. The Exorcist is a classic - but it is a good classic; it's not The Castle of Otranto or The Monk, both of which haven't exactly stood the test of time; The Exorcist is a classic in the way of Rosemary's Baby or I Am Legend, both of which will be remembered and savored by generations of readers in years to come.
Since its original publication in the 1971 (what a shock that must have been), the genre known as "horror" expanded broadly, and people's tolerancy towards controversy and shock in fiction has vastly increased. So what does make The Exorcist still so strong a novel after almost forty years since its first printing?
It's not the shock, nor the scare; The Exorcist was written when no one even thought about countless horror movies and novels that would be so cheap and poor that they'd make people think twice before watching/reading something that would be dubbed with that name. Falls of blood and mountains of dead bodies succesfully dimmed any scares and frights that the reader could have experienced when he was reading this novel in the early 70's. No, no; what affects us so strongly is the inner turmoil of people who live in this text. It's not the monster; it's those he's after. The scary things get old easily and are quickly succeeded by even more scary and gruesome creatures and concepts; the people dealing with them stay the same. Each decade, each year a new icon of evil is introduced and abolished, but fear...fear stays the same.
The plot of The Exorcist is widely known to practically everyone, but if you haven't read the book or seen the movie I strongly encourage you to do both - in that order - and then come back to read my ramblings. HERE THERE BE A DISCUSSION WHICH REVEALS PLOT POINTS AND THE CONCLUSION OF THE NARRATIVE.
The Exorcist opens in northern Iraq, at an excavation site where we first meet Father Lankester Merrin, an elderly priest who's the leader of the excavation dig and has just came upon an interesting discovery - a small statue of a demon juxtaposed with a St.Joseph medal. Father Merrin feels the omen of an ancient, malevolent force looming over him.
Meanwhile, in Georgetown, a young girl named Regan MacNeil becomes inexplicably ill. The enrgetic and happy child drastically changes and her mind seems to slowly deteriorate. But to her mother, Chris, something is wrong with Regan on an entire different level - strange noises are heard, objects move in her room. Chris seeks medical help, but the doctors can't find evidence for their theory about Regan's condition being caused by a lesion in the temporal lobe of the brain. Regan's condition worsens - she spits countless obscenities and starts speaking in several languages - and the most shocking image of all: she masturbates with a crucifix. She has strapped down to the bed for her own protection as well as of those around her - Regan's strenght is almost inhuman. The figure bound to the bed doesn't even resemble Regan - it claims to be the devil himself. Desperatedly, non-religious Chris turns to the Jesuit priesthood for help - she wants an exorcism to be performed on her daughter. Enter Father Damien Karras.
The descriptions of Regan's demonic behavior - the famous 180 turn of her head - are not as impacting as they were in the 70's, but they still serve their duty well. However, as I said before, it is not the physical manifestation of the demon that is important - it's how people deal with the posession.
Chris asks Father Karras to perform an exorcism - an ages old ritual used by the Church to purge the demons out of the posessed. Father Karras explains that a priest cannot simply perform an exorcism and has to get a persmission from the Church - speaking simply, he needs evidence. Father Karras is reluctant to approach his superiors - he is struggling with his own innter turmoil. The horrible sense of betraying his mother as he left her old and alone to enter the priesthood, with scatters of his childhood memories that deepen his sense of guilt. The Father doubts his faith, and he struggles to keep his belief. We see him as an emotional and troubled being, for whom a request to perform the ancient ritual comes as something totally unexpected and irrational. It is the Priest who encourages the non-believing mother to seek out medical help. The priest doesn't want to perform the exorcism, he wants Regan's case to be scientifically explainable; he wants to think of the exorcism as a forgotten superstition of past times. He seeks proof to encourage the woman that her daughter's condition can be healed medically, taunts what he believes to be Regan's unconsciousness taking the form of "demons" about whom she's heard or read in books. But his quest takes an unexpected turn when he sees two words appearing on Regan's stomach, like stigmatas: HELP ME
Father Karris turns to the Church for the persmission to do the exorcism, and it is granted to him though he's not allowed to actually perform the ritual. He will be the assistant to Father Merrin, who is revealed to have been suspecting the encounter all along - it's revealed that a long time ago he performed an exorcism in Africa, and it's suggested that the exorcism has wounded him physically, though not spiritually. Father Merrin is a figure that provides comfort and solace to the troubled, but he is old; when he faces the demon it recognizes him, and mocks the elderly priest by saying that this time he will lose. Nevertheless, Father Merrin and Father Karras set out to perform the exorcism.
The lenghty ritual tires the priests, both physically and mentally. Father Merrin is strong spiritually but his flesh is long past its prime; though he's desperate to perform the ritual till the demon is exorted, his body fails him and he dies before the demon is casted out. The demon lavishes in his victory, mocking the dead priest; but it is this moment where wheels are turned. The demon is arrogant and pitiless, doesn't consider Father Karras a worthy opponent because it detected doubt in him; however, it is Father Karras who will defeat him. After seeing Father Merrin's sacrifice, Karras decides to give his life for the life of the posessed girl. The demon operates by low means, occuping innocent, defensless children to gain its goals, and it doesn't even acknowledge the idea of selfless love displayed by the priest for the girl. The demon outmathced both priest in a spiritual duel, because of Father Karras's doubt; but faith is more than a matter of doubt, it is goodness and selflesness that is displayed by Father Karras in the ending sequences. The demon is not even sucpecting the troubled priest to be able for such sacrifice and when Father Karras becknons him to enter his body, he lets go of the girl and accepts the invitation; Father Karras uses the remains of his strenght to jump out of the window, and dies at the pavement.
In the finale of this dramatic conclusion Father Karras is not brought back to life by God, as some could have expected; he's dying fast, but he dies fulfilled, having captured the demon within him and therefore freeing the girl. He dies free of burden and guilt; his life had purpose, just like Regan's - The demon chose the girl to lure Father Merrin to face him, just as Father Karras was chosen to face the demon and defeat him. But chosen by whom? Blatty gives us the benefit of doubt and doesn't enforce any ideology on the reader, but he also gives us the benefit of hope by emphasizing the inner strenght of the human spirit and faith in the most dire conditions.
I'm glad I've finally read The Exorcist, though I'm also glad I waited so long to do it. The novel offers an insight into the mind and soul of the tragically troubled character of Father Karras, a profound vision that is much more fascinating that all of the demons combined. It illustrates how fragile human spirit can be, but also how strong when it is armed with love and purpose. Heartily recommended.
Having never heard of Lev Grossman I picked up two of his novels at the thrift store, basing solely on the premises from the back covers - Codex and THaving never heard of Lev Grossman I picked up two of his novels at the thrift store, basing solely on the premises from the back covers - Codex and The Magicians. I decided to read The Magicians first, because Grossman's first two books have both been bombs - Warp vanished without a trace, and Codex received largely negative reviews. But The Magicians was a huge success, so it couldn't be all that bad, right? After my admiration for Peter Straub's Shadowland (which deals with roughly the same topic, but is a far, far superior work) I was all set-up and full of expectations.
The Magicians failed to meet any of them. I found this novel to be largely tedious and uninteresting. Here are several reasons why:
1)The incredible amount of exposition and absolute lack of detail. Grossman spends page after page TELLING how his hero, Quentin, is learning magic but he never shows it. Part of the incredible allure of fantasy novels is the detailed construction of alternate worlds/universes; there's nothing like that here. Everything is extremely flat and without any flair of ,let's say, Hogwarts; where the reader can see for himself how unique magic really is - in vivid detail. Even the Fillory books - fantasy novels which Quentin is a fan of - are special because Grossman tells us they are special. It's as he distrusted his readers and had to tell them everything - hence the reader plods on, and never cares about the characters and setting whose features and qualities are forced upon him.
2) The book is extremely DERIVATIVE. It's as if after the failure of his first two novels Grossman decided to "borrow" the tropes of well known fantasy works (most notably Harry Potter and Narnia) and base his story around other people's accomplishments. Consider: A group of teenagers receive invitations to attend a school of magic, which is housed in a decaying gohtic castle, located just a few hours from a major metropolitan area. The castle is hiddent from public view by powerfull illusion spells and is governed by a childlike, yet powerful white bearded authority figure, who also happens to have a magical map showing where anyone is at any given moment. The process of learning magic turns out to be mostly tedious memorizing incantations and learning proper inflection. The school adapts a British educational system and is full of quirky effects, like disappearing doors. The Fillory is a magical land entered through a clock where "Sons and Daughters of Earth" fight evil to become the royalty. How is it possible to steal so many ideas and not get sued?
3) The book is full of filler. Grossman clammed 5 years of magical school (4 for some) and then squeezed adventures after the school (which include travelling into the world of Fillory) on 400 pages...most of which consist of students swearing, having sex, drinking booze and acting like pricks Grossman devised them to be. But everything is touched only on the surface; there's simply no room for anything to develop. Too much is trying to go on on a space too small - and that's why there's so little detail and so much exposition. It's almost as if we were presented with a summary of Quentin's struggle through magical school and his life after it.
4)The work is extremely self-indulgent. Grossman comes from an academic family and is a Harvard alumni (where he got a degree in comparative literature), currently holding a job of a reviewer at TIME magazine. This is not a man with an original vision (how many original ideas are there in The Magicians andyway? I counted two) who chose to express it on paper; we are unfortunatelly dealing with the case of a pretentious academic who considers himself above the genre he chose to write in, and who has produced a sour and joyless (and ultimately pointless) exercise in this very genre, designed especially for people just like him. Since Less Than Zero already came out 20 years ago he decided to use storylines and themes from famous fantasy works to sell his product and disguise his lack of originality. Much of Fantasy literature is didactic in nature. Young people can learn how to be a better human being, how to be brave in face of grave danger, to appreciate frienship and learn to be selfless when the situation requires it. There is nothing to learn in The Magicians. While the disilusion in Less Than Zero worked, it doesn't work here because the protagonist is a self-pityng, self-oriented miserable teenager simply because Grossman forced him to be one. Quentin is not happy before enrolling at magical school, he's not happy at the school and he's not happy after the school. He hooks up with the hot girl, but is not happy with her so she sleeps with someone else - then he's even more not happy. Quentin starts out as a selfish bastard, migrates into an even more selfish bastard and ends up after four hundred pages - yeah, you guessed it - as a selfish bastard. Grossman never once allowes Quentin to take his head out of his (Quentin's, not Grossman's) ass to see the wonder he was allowed to experience, but instead forces him to be a smug and miserable selfish asshole to the very end, to illustrate his disilussion with the magical world because he decided that the protagonist will be disilusioned, no matter what he will see there (To his credit: he didn't even try to present much). In Grossman's world (both fantasy and magical) everything is forced upon the reader, including his message - it's rather simple, but the reader is forced to undergo great pains to arrive at the conclusion that is painfully obvious from the very beginning.
If you want to be bored and depressed simply because the author bores you and tells you to be depressed, you might get something from The Magicians. If you're looking for "realistic" and "adult" protagonists who are said to posess these qualities simply because they are all selfish, drink alcohol and swear and have sex this might be your thing. If you think that the novel will offer an unique take on the loss of innocence in a magical world, you might be disappointed - our heroes could have been plumbers and hygiene technicians, and Grossman still would ram his point home. (THERE IS NO HOPE, GET IT? NONE, ZERO, NADA, WHY? BECAUSE I SAID SO!) This is a classic case of a pretentious navel-gazer, completely self-indulgent which smacks the reader in the face with its hopelesness and whining again and again and again. This emperor is naked as jay, and offers cliched insights masquerading as deeper truths covered by ideas of other (and better) authors. These insights are explored as superficially as possible, and in an adult way - with lots of booze, sex and swearing - so I sense some BIG PRIZE lurking around the corner, waiting for this very novel. After all, adults give these awards. Kids know better....more
I don't think one can truly rate Ghost Story as a novel without acknowledging the fact that it's a literary homage to the classics of the genre. IndeeI don't think one can truly rate Ghost Story as a novel without acknowledging the fact that it's a literary homage to the classics of the genre. Indeed, two characters bear the surnames of Hawthorne and James.
This is my introduction to the work of Peter Straub. Having read The Talisman and Black House which he co-authored with Stephen King I was anxious to know how he writes on his own, and Ghost Story came recommended by virtually everyone who has read it.
As mentioned in the first paragraph, Ghost Story is a homage to the old masters who paved the road of fright for future generations. Peter Straub himself says that "[Ghost Story] started as a result of my having just read all the American supernatural fiction I could find". It is noticeable; the first part is largely a reworking of The Turn of The Screw. The theme of a story within a story is everpresent, as the work deals with a group of old men who tell themselves ghost stories on regular meetings. Shades of Lovecraft, Poe and Hawthorne brood in the corners of the rooms they sit in.
The men find themselves terrorized by terrible, realistic nightmares. Terrible things start happening in the small, sleepy town of Millburn. They remember the crime they had committed years before...and wonder if the time of retribution has finally arrived.
What's not to like? Several things. first of all, the pace: the book is monstrous slog. A chore to get through. Straub switches between several narrative viewpoints (much like Stoker in Dracula) and the plot plods frequently and slows down so much that reading soon becomes a challenge. There's no doubt that Straub is a great writer - some of his passages I've read several times, because I simply enjoyed them so much - but he becomes lost in what he tries to do, the references he includes so subtly vanish in the detail he describes so voraciously.
The protagonists discuss ghost stories they tell to each other, but for some reason refuse to talk about the one they all share even when darkness has fallen upon their city. Instead of trying to scheme how to fight or at least delay the danger, they remain passive. No one fights back. No one things of moving away and running from the deadly force. The passivity, the stupidness of their actions drastically slows down the plot and kills any tension that might have emerged. It would be understandable if the novel featured only one protagonist who witnessed these events and who would be afraid to entrust his story to others (in fear of being considered insane) - but Ghost Story features a group of men who believe each other, and do nothing.
The theme of a town besieged by malevolent forces or beings has been done previously, most notably by Peter Straub's fellow writer and friend Stephen King in Salem's Lot. Straub acknowledges the influcence: "I wanted to work on a large canvas. 'Salem's Lot showed me how to do this without getting lost among a lot of minor characters. Besides the large canvas, I also wanted a certain largeness of effect." However, while Salem's Lot was swift, fast-paced and competent in dealing with the theme, Ghost Story doesn't quite deliver. The town of Millburn is described as a small town, but it completely lacks any awareness and interaction. The characters seem to be detached from reality - everyone walks everywhere, and there's little mention of pop culture - music, television and such. The novel is supposed to take time in the 1970s, but for all we are shown it might just as well be the 1870s.
Last, the Evil with a capital E. While the concept of the Evil is really interesting, the Evil is really inconsistent and incompetent. There's no sense of looming presence of Evil, ready to fall upon the heads of innocent people and end their lives at any moment, like in Salem's Lot or Phantoms. Evil seems to be employed when it is needed by the narrative, and then pushed back, only to be called again later. I don't want to spoil anything, but the nature of the Evil and it's actions don't follow any pattern of logic and reason. Evil is at times omniscient and capable of incredible power, only to have its abilities reduced to humanlike status, and then go back to the supernatural and all-powerful again. Evil capable of everything is boring - why, it'd take a snap of fingers to eliminate a human being, much like a child breaking a twig in two - but one might wonder why the author chose to grant his menace that priviledge, only to take it back...and then allow it to be all poweful again, several times.
Overall, I'm sad to say that Ghost Story doesn't live up to the hype that surrrounds it. While it is a complex, multilayered work, a homage to the creators of the genre, It's not very compelling and in fact is pretty easy to put down and leave unfinished. The concept, the idea of the novel - the premise, the prose, the situations - everything works, but not as a whole. I think I like the idea of the book better than the book itself - Peter Straub tends to be meandering and repetitive. There are sections of Ghost Story that are narrated brilliantly, but there are sections that are stale and uninteresting. For each flash of suspense and atmosphere, there's a whole lot of mundane and ordinary. The idea of the novel deserves five stars, but I can't give the novel itself more than three - I liked it, but I liked analysing the text more than reading it. Nevertheless, Peter Straub is an ambitious writer who's much more "literary" than most horror authors - his prose and style easily rivals the so-called "serious" writers - and I most certainly will read his other novels....more
Henry James is the kind o guy who enjoys hearing himself talk. He's the dude who will spend ten pages wondering what he will say, say it on the next tHenry James is the kind o guy who enjoys hearing himself talk. He's the dude who will spend ten pages wondering what he will say, say it on the next ten pages and then spend the next ten pages wondering if maybe there's something else to say. The Turn of The Screw is a short story that could be done on 20 pages, but was instead stretched to almost 130.
As for the story, well, I did not care much for it. It plods on and on, the screw turns very slowly and by the time the ambiguous climax arrives many will ask themselves: Do I even care? I don't. On the other hand, I'll recommend the movie "The Others" which is based on this novella. It took a completely different approach and held my attention the whole time....more
I had pretty big expectations for this novel, since it was somewhat of a happening in the horror genre and was praised by writers such as Harlan CobenI had pretty big expectations for this novel, since it was somewhat of a happening in the horror genre and was praised by writers such as Harlan Coben and Neil Gaiman. I was pretty disappointed. There is not a cliche that has not been used in this book, and not a single plot twist that I was not able to predict. It's a mish mash of things from various horror novels and movies - the protective dogs, the ouija board, the evil spiritualist, dead in mirrors, talking radios... The characters are unlikable. That in itself wouldn't be a problem, if they weren't also paper-thin. The I-do-not-give-a-crap ageing rockstar, full of cash but without substance, and his beautiful-but-emotionally-damaged sidekick, who also happens to be shallow as a cardboard. The only sympathetic character gets offed early in the story, and we don't hear much from him since.
The whole thing is extremely boring and not even remotely scary. The ghost that haunts our protagonists is literally a smelly old man whom they ignore and walk around. Yeah, because that's what you do when there's a ghost near you.
I can't help but think that Joe Hill set out to write a bestseller that would guarantee him an audience, and what if they were some hipser kids that buy their leather coats at hot topic and have just gotten their ears pierced. They obviously must like to read about goths, contemporary rock music (Trent Reznor is mentioned at least 5 times! My Chemical Romance! even Coldplay, if the previous two are too hardcore), snuff films and the male lead getting a hard-on while he beats his "girlfriend". I'm sure their parents would buy them this book. And black nail polish.
The story slowwwwly has to build to some sort of a climax, yes? A shattering finale that would be a huge pay off for all the things the reader had to endure. But, um, none of this happens here. The end is sudden and sugary, all is well and all will be well. After three hundred long and boring pages I'd expect something more, but it never happened.
Were some strings pulled to publish Heart Shaped Box? I don't know. But as a debut, it's stunningly unimpressive and offers absolutely no new additions to the genre, and even no classy variations on previously explored topics and themes. It's boring and forgettable, predictable and unoriginal. Joe Hill isn't able to overcome the influences and cliches that flood this work; that would be all right, but he also isn't able to make them his own. Heart Shaped Box is not memorable and will be forgotten in years to come, and I think that if Joe wasn't the son of Stephen it wouldn't even be published. ...more
Having never heard of Alex Garland I picked up his debut novel, "The Beach" because the cover and premise were intriguing. I'm happy to say that Mr. GHaving never heard of Alex Garland I picked up his debut novel, "The Beach" because the cover and premise were intriguing. I'm happy to say that Mr. Garland delivered exactly what he promised and I breezed through this little yellow book in two days. If Jack Kerouac wore shorts and hung out with William Golding, the two might have produced something like this.
The Beach is compulsively readable because of several factors. First, the chapters are structured and trimmed into an expert lenght, often forming four or five page vignettes which allow for the good old "just one more" syndrome which kept many a reader turning the pages deep into the night. The second factor is the story, which is a grand adventure and never really lets up. I was never bored while reading The Beach, and constantly wanted to know what will happen next, and the book kept my excitement up to the very last sentence. Time flies, both for the readers and the characters, and after the experience both won't be the same.
The plot is simple: Richard, a twentysomething backpacker finds his way to Bangkok, where he checks into a cheap hostel on Khao San Road. There he meets a seemingly crazy neighbour who introduces himself as Daffy. Daffy speaks crazy talk about a remote island , located in a off-limits part of Thailand, forbidden for tourists. On this island is a beach, and Daffy describes is as a perfect utopia; Richard decides to go there along with the French couple he met at the hostel, and using a map drawn by Daffy sets out to find the legendary beach.
Now, this sounds like fun, and is exactly that - fun. The suspense is unbearable, and the adventure aspect of the novel is something rarely encountered in contemporary fiction. Seduced with the promise of a perfect hideout, the reader sets on along with Richard on a riveting and spectacular adventure. Everything about this book is well done, and it transports the reader into a dream of most Western travelers - a perfect island, unspoiled by commercial culture and an ideal place for idealistic people to set up. To shape their lives upon. What will Richard's arrival change? Will he adapt? Or will he not?
This is an exciting debut novel, dark and sinister, but also funny and laced with exciting cultural references. A fast and furious novel that transports the reader into another place, much like Golding's Lord of the Flies. The Golding comparison is unavoidable, but The Beach stands alone; Garland's writing is razor sharp and colloquial without being cliched, and guarantees for an intelligent page-turner. This is a definite keeper. ...more
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