Customer Reviews

Tijuana Straits: A Novel

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

This novel was gripping enough to get me painlessly through two days of waiting to serve jury duty. It occupies a place somewhere between literary and genre fiction. The writing is stronger than formulaic and the elegaic tone seems to match too well these pre-apocalyptic times. I grew up in San Diego in the 60s and early 70s. The main character, Fahey, seems like a stand-in for all our lost hopes as we careen toward enrivonmental jihad. Fahey may find some kind of redemption at the end. But I wonder if there's any left for the rest of us.

As a former resident of Imperial Beach, I really enjoyed descriptions of life and drama in the sloughs, recognizing the names of streets that traverse the Tijuana River valley between IB and the border, and local landmarks like the pier and Surfhenge. As I recall, the sparsely populated valley was mostly nature preserve and small ranches from the 40's that one would not be surprised to find traversed by immigrants at night. What was surprising was the large number of immigrants traveling and lingering in the space between the North and South bound freeway 5 lanes near the border, apparently waiting for rides. I guess most people are unconfortable traveling through swamp land in a foreign country at night. One aspect of the book that rings to me is the stereotype of workers in border factories being universally used and abused. As an engineer, I have visited several maquiladora factories and observed that competition to attract and retain workers is stiff. A small business owner who maintains a small shop in Tijuana told me that workers there are protected by unusual laws such that a night watchman caught stealing and fired, was able to sue for wrongful termination and restoration of back pay and won! The black and white depiction of maquiladoras and immigrants is not so clear in real life.

This is the first Kem Nunn story I've read, but certainly not the last. What a damn fine novel!
I connected wholly with Kem's characters, in spite of his main protagonist's nefarious past. I even felt sympathy for the book's central character of evil, such was Mr. Nunn's way with words that he composed whole, original and believable human beings.
What a way with words he has!
Redemption plays an important role, as well as one's coming to terms with realities, past and present. And, besides the human characters of this exquisite story, the geography and the environment of the California-Mexican border play an important role, particularly the Tijuana River Valley and the Pacific Ocean beyond.
Don't get dissuaded because of the surfing stuff you may have read about the story(--if that's a potential turn-off for you). Surfing plays a special, but ancillary role, in Tijuana Straits.
This book is a beautifully written, sad and honest tale of some less than advantaged people doing what they can (and what they need to be doing) to ride out their struggles (and, perhaps thrive a bit) in our unfair, but potentially redemptive world. It brought out empathy in me I didn't know existed. I hope you'll give it a chance.

Here's a compelling work of fiction by the dean of the "surf noir genre". Fiction though it be, this fine thriller of a novel is built on a foundation of solid research, shot through with truth and beauty aplenty.

Kem Nunn's previous "noirvels" include Pomona Queen, Tapping the Source, and The Dogs of Winter, the latter two involving core surf motifs.

In Tijuana Straits (named for his fictional reincarnation of the fabled Tijuana Sloughs borderland beach zone), Nunn ingeniously weaves a weft of real-world social and environmental threads into the warp of his plotted story.

And warped it is. The author has imagined and breathed into existence (oh, what lurid mouth-to-mouth that must have been!) the foulest, most violent and gratuitously repugnant creatures I have so far encountered in literature. And he actually had the gall to endow them with histories and nether-souls reminiscent of Dr. Frankenstein's lab experiments, so they're not simply crazed ghouls. I mean, they are crazed ghouls ... but not simply.

The novel is a synthesis of fact and fiction, as Nunn has assimilated and translated actual persons and events into his story of one-time surf great Sam Fahey and the activist Mexican woman who finds refuge on his Tijuana River valley worm-farm. Thus, Slough pioneer Dempsey Holder is resurrected as the legend ghost-surfer Hoddy Younger, while a fateful rescue incident is based on an actual day's work performed by larger-than-life Imperial Beach lifeguard Greg Abbott.

Nunn has done a magnificent job of research here, aided and abetted by such borderline denizens as Serge Dedina (of the Wildcoast International Conservation Team) and lifeguard/environmentalist Abbott. The author is a brilliant describer of situations, and the spell of this amazing book only begins to lessen in the last 50 pages, when plotlines seem to become a tad transparent as he moves towards wrapping it all up.

This book is a gas - a fun read and scary and hairy ride. I only wish it was about 50 pages longer, and that this extra length included one of Nunn's episodic voice-shifts, so we could share a final epiphany with Fahey upon the giant wave out past Third Notch at Mystic Peak. I wanted to be brought along on that ride!

If you're a surfer, you will find Tijuana Straits no doubt the richer; but, even if you're not, this is strong - methodically strong - stuff. Highly recommended, along with Nunn's other works.

- Drew Kampion for The Surfer's Path [surferspath.com]

Writer P.F. Kluge put me on to reading Kem Nunn, and I'm glad he did. I read "Tapping the Source" several weeks ago, and just now finished "Tijuana Straits." He is an excellent writer and if you love the ocean, surfing, and little murder mystery thrown in, this is the writer for you. He is very descriptive and his characters come alive on the pages, the good, bad and ugly. YOu will enjoy Fahey and Magdalena in the lead roles. A good read sitting along the beach, and sipping an ice cold Corona.

Surfers and their natural act are misunderstood. I know, I've been one most of my life. Kem Nunn understands this and effectively weaves the mystery and allure of riding waves into his fine novels.
At a time when most people have moved on to other things, surfers search for the next swell(sometimes at great personal sacrifice: e.g. character, Fahey). Redemption is found when someone (Magdalena, in this case) or something is encountered that is worth fighting for. Surfing becomes the perfect metaphor for life: years of struggling and searching infrequently rewarded by slipping moments of bliss.

What a fantastic book! I don't want to give away the surprises of the novel, so I'll keep my comments brief, but I loved every page. Fahey and Magdalena make an inspiring couple at the heart of the book. Kem Nunn is a master of mystery, violence, cultural confusion, ecology, and everything else he touches. The physical and cultural landscape is rendered so vividly that I drove to the straits myself just to verify what I knew must be true. (The photos at the beginning of this page are worth perusing.) Over and above the many delights of plot, culture, politics, and literature, though, is Nunn's enduring love of surfing. He's a hell of the writer on the ground, but he's unbeatable in the waves. The novel's climax is one of the most eloquent, thrilling rides I've ever taken. Thanks, Kem Nunn, for providing an unforgettable experience for hodads like me.