Sat, 28 Feb 2009
Surferboy
Kevin McCleer, Surferboy, Wrecking Ball Press
Yowzuh!! Cowabunga!! If you know those words, you'll love this book. It's about
growing up in LA and getting into surfing amongst its many wonderful, if overcrowded,
beaches.
It's called an autobiographical novel but to any surfer it will just be the word.
The description of the rites of passage, the waves, the beaches, the people, and the
socilogical surrounds is right on the spot for the time he talks about.
The author was also a 'Val' (from the San Fernando Valley and viewed by beach locals
a bit like AOLers were viewed on the Net) and so had some problems to overcome including
actually getting to the beach and then combating violent localism when he did - but,
actually, he seems to have had a comparitively easy ride mostly through the fact that
he has some common sense.
If you're a surfer and from LA and now living somewhere else then this book will put
a big wide smile on your face while also summoning up some feelings of homesickness.
Where else has such a great array of beaches and such great weather? Nah, sorry,
Australia doesn't compare in it's totality even if it does have some great spots.
If you're not a surfer, but kind of interested, then you'll know a whole lot more
once you've read this.
There is one used copy at Amazon as this goes up. Publishers?
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pre Dec 04 reviews are here