E-book and audiobook reviews: middle-aged surf wannabe gets on a Mexican wave
Forty-something writer Peter Heller learns to surf. Also this week: how famous authors faced death, and how to deal with depression
Kook
by Peter Heller
Tantor Audio (audiobook)
3.5/5 stars
Middle-aged surfer-wannabes will derive vicarious thrills from Kook, which sees 45-year-old Peter Heller learning how to ride waves in California, first on an egg (an oval beginners’ board), from which he graduates to surfboards that take off at angles and allow their users to ride along the wave face. Heller’s obsession comes as he’s recovering from the exhaustion of having just completed a book (on a dangerous Tibetan expedition), and persists despite his encountering the kind of aggression not expected from laid-back surfer dudes. But, as he soon finds out, “dudes” is a term a decade out of date and peace on the seas evaporates if you cut someone off on a wave (anti-surf-rage ordinances in California ban aggressors from local waves). Heller, not yet married when we first meet him, and going through a mid-life crisis, is soon back on an adventure, this time through Mexico, with his girlfriend (soon-to-be wife). Through Heller, whose experiences are narrated by Mike Chamberlain, we learn why surfing is one of the world’s fastest-growing sports. We also see how surfing changes Heller from being a “kook” (surf lingo for beginner) – although not always for the better.
by Katie Roiphe
