65 pages 2 hours read

Alex Garland

The Beach

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1996

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Part 5, Chapter 1-Part 8, Chapter 11Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 5: “The Rice Run” - Part 8: “Incoming”

Part 5, Chapter 1 Summary: “Jed”

Richard has so far spent little time with Jed and knows little about him. The boat is in a cave underneath the cliffs, so the men swim out, and Richard enjoys the way the water clears his head of morning fog. When they get to the cave, Jed points out a rope that leads up a hole in the cliff face and leads back to the island. He criticizes Richard for not knowing it is there, given it is the only way to escape the lagoon. Jed arrived on the island without being invited. When Jed arrived, it caused a panic, as he was the first one to find the beach after Sal, Bugs, and Daffy. He was thus given a “mission” to watch over the island.

Richard and Jed start swimming through the cave to reach the boat, and Richard surfaces in the wrong opening, to a place that smells foul, and the air is unbreathable. Already low on oxygen from the swim, he panics and starts throwing up.

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