Author : Alex Garland
What is it about : The story of a bunch of curious backpackers receiving by chance, "The Map" to a legendary beach (turquoise lagoon, endless supply of dope and Sunday football came as standard) in Thailand which had been folklore in their realm. "The Map" turned out to be authentic and they found themselves living amongst a community of similarly young-ish no-where men/women whose sole purpose on the beach was to protect its secrecy, live a life on fish, rice and vegetables, smoke dope and basically enjoy life in paradise all day. Such idealistic lives took a complete turn, when fellow "beachers" were attacked by a shark and the local drug lords became nasty, leading to a climatic escape.
Some thoughts after having read the book : A superb backpacker's version of "paradise found and paradise lost". The tension just steadily built up as to when the secret of "paradise" would become instead a "paragraph" in Lonely Planet Thailand, completed with map and route instructions and so on. The looming sinister shadows of the drug lords and their guns and dope added to the tension as to when they would be fed up with this "farang" community in their vicinity; all this came to a boil when the three Swedes were attacked by a shark, resulting in death, fatal injuries and insanity. The reactions from the community gave a vivid demonstration of human fragility, cruelty, selfishness and in the end a wake-up call to what's right and wrong.
Would I recommend this book to you : Take this book with you when you next visit Southeast Asia and let your imagination go wild and live out the fantasy, even though you last saw your backpack all those years ago. Don't know about you, but I would probably last a maximum of three weeks, may be a month in such an environment and in such company, before I would be crying out for clean clothes, a different diet, a change of scene and head homeward-bound.
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