Alex Garland was born in London,
England, in 1970. In 1
987 he went to India
on a six week trip to Kashmir and Ladahk. After leaving school,
he spent six months in Southeast Asia, and he has returned every
year since, most frequently to the Philippines. In 1992, Garland
received a B.A. in History of Art at Manchester University in
England. He occasionally works as an illustrator and freelance
journalist. He started writing fiction not out of compulsion,
but as an anxious response to the careers that his friends were
carving out for themselves.
Interview with Alex Garland in The Telegraph by SERENA ALLOTT
'Everything I know about writing, I learned through drawing comic strips,' says Alex Garland. Devoid of academic inclinations, he drew his way through University College School and a History of Art degree at Manchester University.
The
son of cartoonist Nick Garland, he drew in the expectation that
his passion would somehow develop into a career; but as his projects
became more ambitious - his last was 54 pages - he became frustrated
by the time they took. 'Two pages of dialogue in a book would
be ten in a cartoon strip. I realised it was a non-starter, and
also that, as my comfy existence at university was about to be
shattered, I had to do something. I decided to ditch the pictures
and start a novel.'
This is curious, given his own assessment of his comic strips: 'Well-drawn, badly written. But I'd learned to tell a story simply and directly. If I have a style in writing, I think it's that; I'm concerned with engaging the reader directly, I don't want to trip him up, I have a problem with anything that might draw him out of the narrative.'
Garland is right, The Beach is a rattling good yarn, a story, told in brief cinematic scenes, about the dreams and destructiveness of Western travellers in Thailand. It has an immediacy born of experience: on leaving school Garland, now 26, spent six months in the Philippines. He made friends there and has returned regularly since, stopping off in other Asian countries en route. 'But I'm not a traveller,' he says. 'I'd call myself a tourist if it didn't sound pretentiously self-deprecating. A lot of nonsense is talked about travelling, and I've often felt very uncomfortable in that scene. I find myself slipping on to my moral high horse about things such as drug-taking.'
As well as questioning the self-importantly aimless existence of travellers, The Beach examines the seductive effects of violent films, in particular those that have glamorised the Vietnam war. 'It's unhip to say that such violence might be influential, but I wanted to make some sort of statement about moderation and the damaging effects of absolute licence.'
With his designer stubble and tiny earring Garland looks far from unhip. A forthright man, he was brought up in a house where people concerned themselves with issues and held strong views: a media-oriented (although his mother is a psychoanalyst) north London home where he continued to live while he wrote The Beach. His next novel, written from his stand-point as a passionate atheist, will deal with superstition, myth and religion. It is set in the Philippines and, his newly acquired mortgage permitting, Garland is considering an extended stay there while he writes it. 'Although The Beach is set in Thailand, it could really be anywhere. But I do know the Philippines, and there is so much of it I'd like to include.'
More Information:
On "The Beach" with Alex Garland "By all measures, Alex Garland should be in a better mood. After all, not long ago, the young Londoner was backpacking around Asia, working odd jobs to finance an insatiable travel fixation. Nowadays, the 29-year-old author can endlessly indulge his passions for video games and cigarettes. He's in demand..." this is another article written by our prolific friend Ron Gluckman, this time for the Asian Wall Street Journal, Feb 19-20 [read full text]
Beach Guru by Alex Garland A online book by Alex Garland author of "The beach" This is what happened. It was a bright sunny day. No surprise. It was a beach, so if there hadn't been sun we wouldn't have been there. So, sunny day, on a beach in the Gulf of Thailand, and I was sitting in a circle of people. In the center sat the beach guru..... Read it on the internet.
An interview with Alex Garland, book extract and book review
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