Five depressing beach reads

Sloane Crosley is the author of How Did You Get this Number and I Was Told There'd be Cake.

For The Daily Beast, she named five depressing beach reads.

One title on the list:

The Beach
by Alex Garland

In the book version of the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character is British, not American, which makes the novel less of a statement about American travel hubris but much more saddled with pathos. Despite ending unhappily—you know what they say about not eating the yellow snow? Don’t lie in the red sand, ya hear?—it is quick and good and after about 30 pages, you can see why it was ripe for movie adaptation.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Beach also appears on the Guardian editors' list of the 50 best summer reads ever and John Mullan's list of ten of the best swimming scenes in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue