Tijuana Straits: A Novel
Tijuana Straits: A Novel
From National Book Award-nominated Kem Nunn comes an exquisitely written tale of loss and redemption along California’s untamed borderland, confirming his reputation as a master of suspense and a novelist of the first rank. When Fahey, once a great surfer, now a reclusive ex-con, meets Magdalena, she is running from a pack of wild dogs along the ragged wasteland where California and Mexico meet the Pacific Ocean — a spot once known to the men who rode its giant waves as the Tijuana Straits. Magdalena has barely survived an attack on her life and Fahey, against his every instinct, takes her in. An environmental activist, Magdalena is engaged in the struggle for the rights of the thousands of peasants streaming from Mexico’s impoverished h
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Cowabunga, rip and slash!,
Having surfed more than 40 years, nothing captures my interest better than a good story about riding waves. I just read this book on Cape Hatteras, NC while on vacation surfing waves generated by Hurricanes Alex and Charley. Still, it wasn’t just my personal environment that made this book perfect. It woulda had the same impact if I’d read it in February in Montana. And never been in the ocean.
The novel will instantly stand as one of the Top Five all-time surfing stories. There is a terrific underlying current in the book, which non-surfers might neither understand nor be aware of. Mr. Nunn, defines his characters in an amazing way, using surfing’s wide divide between old school (my style) and the new generation (my sons’ outlook). Approaches to the waves are almost polar, even while the sport’s inherent values and respect for tradition are from the same template.
On the surface, this novel also is a who-done-it thriller that shows Mr. Nunn is a genuinely exceptional writer who displays equal parts Elmore Leonard, Hunter S. Thompson, and John Grisham.
Intricate details, believeable characters, and conversational dialogue add up to a read that moves along as quickly and with as much unpredictability as a 20-foot storm wave.
Cowabunga, old-timers! Rip and slash, dudes! Either way, get up on it, and enjoy the ride.
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|One of the Best Books I’ve Read This Year — or Any Other,
I stumbled across Kem Nunn’s “Tapping the Source” almost 20 years ago and absolutely loved it. Then I wandered off for a while. This one made me track down everything he’s written since and read it.
Forget “kept me up all night.” This book not only kept me up all night (on a work night), but after I finished I immediately went back and re-read a bunch of my favorite parts. Nunn’s portrait of the Tijuana estuary, an odd corner of the universe saved from development by pollution and illegal immigration, is fascinating. So is his protagonist, a man with a shattered and blighted life who finds himself in a situation requiring great heroism and rises to the occasion bit by reluctant bit.
“Tapping the Source” was really about the innocence of youth. “Tijuana Flats” is in some ways a polar opposite. Every character has done things they regret and suffered terrible defeats. Some have become monsters as a result, some not.
I loved the surfing lore, but I’ve never surfed and probably never will (unfortunately) — you definitely don’t have to be a surfer to enjoy this one.
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|A Transcendent Read,
Kem Nunn has produced another masterpiece. America’s most underappreciated writer knows how to combine action with gravity, suspense with philosophy and he demonstrates it here with another great book. In “Tijuana Straits” Nunn not only creates Sam “the Gull,” his usual pill-popping ex-surfer with one last chance at redemption, but also, with equal dexterity, Magdalena, the idealistic Mexican Madonna with a passion for social justice, and, most astoundingly, a fully realized, almost sympathetic villian, Armando, the dark shadow of toxic hopelessness. Add to these memorable characters Nunn’s beautiful prose, seamless, swift plot and vivid setting and the result is a novel that satisfies on every level. If you want a transcendent read BUY THIS BOOK!
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