Alex
Garland’s debut novel, The Beach,
highlights and depicts the excitement and the horror of backpacking in
Thailand. He incorporates the highs, lows and real truths of backpacking.
Richard, the protagonist, who is an English youth, sets out for Bangkok with
nothing more but his backpack and his travellers cheques. He does so with the
intent of ‘getting away from it all’ after a broken relationship at home in
London. But something particularly unexpected happens to him that takes him
further away from ‘it all’ than he ever imagined, only to end with a shockingly
dark apocalyptic twist.
The story is
narrated retrospectively from Richard’s perspective, after he has returned to
England; therefore the novel is written from his memory. Even though Richard is
recounting his story from memory, as it happened two years ago, overall, he is
a reliable narrator. He prides himself in not carrying a camera, or writing a
travel journal ‘anymore’, as it only allows him to remember those specific
moments. Richard’s narrative is very detailed and intricate with a smooth
flowing plot that is aesthetically pleasing to read, building up to a climatic
episode with a gruesomely shocking revelation.
Richard
continuously talks about the difference between ‘tourists’ and ‘travellers’;
seeing himself as the latter in this binary opposition. He briefly mentions,
almost gloatingly, his previous travels to India. Richard does come across in
the ‘traveller’ like way, as opposed to the almost detested package holiday
tourist he describes, and later the other backpackers of Koh Pha Ngan, who he
ultimately sees as the ‘enemy’ and far worse than their previous tourist and
even traveller or backpacker status. It is obvious that Richard does not
associate himself with the ‘tourists’ from the unimpressed way he depicts his
arrival on the Koh San Road; he calls it a ‘halfway house between East and
West’.
Yet irony
does cross the reader’s mind at this point, as Richard is obviously on the Koh
San Road; the most beaten of all beaten tracks. Perhaps if he was the true
traveller he thinks he is, he would be in an unknown guesthouse off the beaten
track; not on the most well known tourist designated road in Bangkok that is
loosely situated somewhere between the Western world and Thailand. Although
Richard sets out on the usual tourist trail and is on the Koh San Road, it is
clear from his attitude towards it, and from his decision to follow the
mysterious map that he is not the ordinary traveller that he may at first
appear.
His first night gives him the poignant and
pivotal hours of darkness that gives direction to his disorganised travels. The
events after this night changes him from the typical tourist to the divine
traveller that he already thinks he is.
Richard
meets a ‘beautiful French couple’, Etienne and François, from the room next
door in the Bangkok guesthouse after he has been given the unexplained map by a
mysterious stranger. After hearing them talk about ‘the beach’, and their bored experiences of tourists trekking in
Chang Mai, he feels they can be trusted and reveals the map. The three of them
courageously make plans to find the mythical paradise that the map promises. If
anyone was in doubt about Richard’s identity as a traveller, this plunge into
the unknown sweeps away all uncertainty.
The
traveller V the tourist debate consist of the traveller being the more
authentic of the two. They are associated with visiting far off ‘exotic’
distances away from the Western world. There is something about making the
actual journey hard and long that constitutes this idea of ‘travelling’ that
has been concocted and surrounds the debate. Also, a fellow traveller smokes
marijuana, as Richard can tell Daffy is doing in the room next to him. There is
then a fine line between this and the hippy heroin addicts that also inhabit
the Koh San Road.
Etienne emphasises the fast paced, ever
changing ‘traveller scene’ when he remarks that his guidebook is over three
years old. The revelation of the
guidebooks, namely Lonely Planet makes travel easier, yet they become the
victim of their own success; in ruining the beautiful secret hideaways they
depict. The ‘travellers’ are therefore not the victims, but the pioneers of
globalisation of tourism. Their ‘anti-tourist attitude’ is heightened when
Richard and his new travelling companions ignore their guidebook by
metaphorically going back in time and relying on their lovingly hand drawn
map…by a dead man.
The story
parodies the likes of Joseph Conrad’s The
Heart of Darkness, and William Golding’s The Lord of The Flies, but modernises its plot by employing
backpackers and the exotic flavour of the month destination; Thailand. All the protagonists are in search for
that untouched land, where rules and regulations are void and where one can
remain in a paradise-like realm; away from the ‘world’. They all want something
extra that life at home cannot offer them. Yet the initially once utopian land
inevitably turns into a dystopia.
Garland was
born in England in 1970, and attended the University of Manchester where he
studied Art History. Even though Garland
in unschooled in the art of writing, he has still managed to create a new genre
of travel fiction; imaginative travel writing, which he has been praised for.
Garland travelled to Asia himself whilst still at school, and based a lot of
Richard’s character on his 18 or 19 year old self.
The novel is
based on time that Garland spent living in the Philippines, but sets the novel
in Thailand as Garland sees it as more of the idealised ‘Mecca like journey’
that young backpackers flock to.
However,
after considering the novel at depth, The
Beach is not about Asia or Thailand; it is a satirical backpacker’s tale,
which is strikingly ironic, as Garland bases it on his own experience. Garland
sets out to criticise and mock backpackers, not celebrate them. He presents the
Thai guards on the island as 2D, almost animalistic like as they do not speak
English, and are only recognised by their ‘sing-song chatter’. But this
presentation represents the way backpackers see the Thais; through the ‘tourist
gaze’. The backpackers would not appreciate the Thai language or culture, and
only see them as a threat.
Garland is
intelligent in his tactics of overlapping travel writing and travel fiction. He
cleverly keeps away from the travelogue writing style by neither giving very
little description of Thailand nor delving into the culture. The novel only
presents backpacker hang-outs like Koh San Road. Therefore, Garland merely uses the setting of
Thailand and the French couple as companions as an exotic backdrop for his
satirical story; a tragedy set in a far off land, reminiscent of Shakespeare.
One of the
underlying sub-plots of the novel is its parody of the Vietnam War. With
Keaty’s Game Boy obsession which mirrors Garland’s passion for video games, and
Richard’s delusion, turning him in to what he thinks is a soldier, the text is
full of War, ironically set in ‘Paradise’. The Thai guard’s personal marijuana
plantation on the plateau becomes Richard’s very own Vietnam. He also uses
numerous soldier acronyms such as FNG, (fucking new guy) and DMZ,
(demilitarized zone). Even though Garland claims he is very much against the
Vietnam War infatuation, there is no denying Richard’s feeling of ‘missing out’
on the Vietnam War by being born twenty years too late. He considers being moved
from his fishing detail to his role as look out, along with the trials and
tribulations that come with it, as his compensation.
Richard is a
child of the 90s, raised on computer games and television, and is quite likely,
another facet of Garland embedded within the protagonist’s personality. He is a
pure product of post modern culture which reflects the new genre of novel that
Garland has created. It is a shared passion between Richard and Daffy that gets
them initially talking; smoking cannabis. This is ultimately the catalyst for
Richard obtaining the map which sets off a chain reaction which ends with the
destruction of paradise.
It is
without doubt that after Keaty supplies the poisoned squid by accident, that
tensions in the camp change. This catalytic event becomes the gateway for some
of the beach inhabitants to show their true colours. This is the stimulus that
sparks off the nightmare that the beach is to become; bringing death, craziness
and finally escape. Little did Richard know, this was all Daffy’s intent once
he had given Richard that ‘Treasure Island’ map.
The book
urges the reader to read on, which is assisted by the constant cliff hangers.
The structure maintains the fast pace of the novel with shorter chapters within
the main chapters, almost subconsciously encouraging the reader to read on.
Garland’s
obsession with travel shines through this text, and it is clear to anybody else
with a passion for travel that Garland knows what he’s talking about. He
depicts the Koh San Road down perfectly and paints an idyllic picture of the
beauty in store in Thailand at the beach. His authenticity will not go
unappreciated, even to someone who has not been; it will only make them want to
go.
Let’s hope
this imagined world does not spur tourist/travellers to turn Thailand upside
down in search of this secret beach, but it is obvious to say, Garland has put
Thailand on the map in more than one way.
