It's Only Drowning
A True Story of Learning to Surf and the Search for Common Ground
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4.1 • 24 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * 2025 BOOKLIST EDITORS' CHOICE SELECTION
A former Obama speechwriter moves to the Jersey Shore and learns to surf with the help of his brother-in-law: a tattooed, truck-driving Joe Rogan superfan.
David, the Yale-educated writer with a fear of sharks, and Matt, the daredevil electrician with a shed full of surfboards, had never been close. But as America’s crises piled up and David spiraled into existential dread, he noticed that his brother-in-law was thriving. He began to suspect Matt’s favorite hobby had something to do with it.
David started taking surf lessons. For months, he wiped out on waves the height of daffodils. Yet, after realizing that surfing could change him both in and out of the water, he set an audacious goal: riding a big wave in Hawaii. He searched for an expert he could trust to guide and protect him—and when he couldn’t find one, he asked Matt. Together, they set out on a journey that spanned coasts, and even continents, before taking them to Oahu’s famously dangerous North Shore.
It’s Only Drowning is a laugh-out-loud love letter to surfing—and so much more. It’s an ode to embarking on adventures at any age. It’s a blueprint for becoming braver at a time when it takes courage just to read the news. Most of all, it’s the story of an unlikely friendship, one that crosses the fault lines of education, ideology, and culture tearing so many of us apart.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
People into surfing often consider it a way of life rather than just a hobby. David Litt was not one of those people, at least at first. The pandemic and the fraught 2020 election were doing a number on his already-anxious mind, and looking for some kind of relief, he started hanging out with his wife’s brother Matt, a longtime surfer. David, a speechwriter in the Obama White House, and Matt, a libertarian truck driver, didn’t have much in common politically or culturally. And as a 35-year-old who was scared to death of the water, David was hardly an ideal candidate to learn to surf. But as the unlikely duo travel from their homes near the Jersey Shore to California, Spain—and hilariously, the extremely landlocked Waco, Texas—in search of bigger and better waves, David learns that riding a wave is all about maintaining equilibrium, emotionally as well as physically. This smart, funny, and surprisingly moving memoir of personal growth and reinvention is a delightfully offbeat ride.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this affable memoir, former Obama speechwriter Litt (Democracy in One Book or Less) reflects on the value of stepping outside of one's ideological comfort zone. When Covid hit, Litt's political optimism was replaced by a conviction that "a world on fire was not a challenge to be overcome but a permanent condition to be endured for the rest of our lives." Meanwhile, his brother-in-law, Matt—Litt's political opposite—appeared to thrive. When Litt decided to take up surfing as a pandemic activity, he turned to the Joe Rogan–loving Matt for help and discovered unexpected commonalities between them. As Litt's affinity for surfing grew, so did his and Matt's tentative friendship: "For the most part, I treated his views on current events the way he treated mine about swell direction and fin placement—by saying, ‘Hmm, maybe,' and changing the subject." Wisely, Litt never preaches nor purports to offer secrets to finding common ground. Instead, he illustrates the virtues of "neutral ground," which allowed him and Matt to experience "so much more together than we ever would have apart." This buddy adventure packs a surprisingly substantial punch.
