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Title details for Kook by Peter Heller - Available

Kook

What Surfing Taught Me About Love, Life, and Catching the Perfect Wave

by Peter Heller
Mike Chamberlain
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available

With grit, poetry, and humor, Peter Heller, acclaimed author of The Whale Warriors, recounts his remarkable journey of discovery—of surfing, an entirely new challenge; of the ocean's beauty and power; of the strange surf subculture; of love; and, most of all, of how to seek adventure while crafting a meaningful life.
Having resolved to master a big-hollow wave—that is, to go from kook (surfese for beginner) to shredder—in a single year, Heller travels from Southern California down the coast of Mexico in the company of his girlfriend and the eccentric surfers they meet. Exuberant and fearless, Heller explores the technique and science of surfing the secrets of its culture, and the environmental ravages to the stunning coastline he visits.
As Heller plumbs the working of his own heart and finds joy in both love and surfing, he affords listeners vivid insight into this fascinating world, with all of its perils and pleasures, its absurdity and wonder. Exhilarating, entertaining, and moving, Kook is a love story between a man and his surfboard, a man and his girlfriend, a not-so-old man and the sea.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 15, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781515924241
      • File size: 292805 KB
      • Duration: 10:10:00

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Mike Chamberlain gives a staid performance of this memoir about writer Peter Heller's introduction to surfing in his 40s, an undertaking that eventually led him to devote a full year to his quest to become an adept surfer. Heller meets a lot of colorful characters when he and his girlfriend, Kim, take off in a converted van to spend a year along the Pacific Coast in California and Mexico. Chamberlain gives each character an accent or slight change in tone. But the focus is always on the story itself, which explores Heller's journey while also delving into the history of surfing, environmental issues, the nature of obsession, and finding meaning in life. A.F. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from April 26, 2010
      Journalist Heller’s gripping memoir of finding the value of life while shooting the curl off Baja starts off as a disappointing middle-aged man’s lament about the lack of love and meaning in his life. Just back from an exhausting assignment in Tibet, he gets a phone call from an old friend in California who wants Heller to come out so they can take surfing lessons together. Reluctant at first to leave Denver and his girlfriend, Kim, he follows the call to this new adventure. At Huntington Beach, Heller violates every rule of surfing etiquette, and other surfers vilify him as a kook, a beginning surfer. Initially, Heller is embarrassed, but he soon becomes so consumed by surfing that he brings Kim to California with him so that she can take lessons; soon, the two are traveling to various surfing locales in California and Mexico as Heller follows the waves. People admire surfers so much, he argues, because they have bowed to a force greater than themselves—the wave—and have transformed themselves into beings who can respond to such power with grace, humility, and beauty. By the end of this powerful memoir, Heller has learned that surfing is not simply about staying up on your board; it’s about love: of a woman, of living, of the sea.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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