Under the Wave at Waimea
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3.8 • 39 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
“Theroux’s work is like no one else’s.” –Francine Prose, New York Times Book Review
From legendary writer Paul Theroux comes an atmospheric novel following a big-wave surfer as he confronts aging, privilege, mortality, and whose lives we choose to remember.
Now in his sixties, big-wave surfer Joe Sharkey has passed his prime and is losing his “stoke.” The younger surfers around the breaks on the north shore of Oahu still idolize the Shark, but his sponsors are looking elsewhere. One night, while driving home from a bar after one too many, Joe accidentally kills a stranger near Waimea, a tragedy that sends his life out of control. As the repercussions of the accident spiral ever wider, Joe's devoted girlfriend, Olive, throws herself into uncovering the dead man’s identity and helping Joe find vitality and refuge in the waves again.
Set in the lush, gritty underside of an island paradise readers rarely see, UNDER THE WAVE AT WAIMEA offers a dramatic, affecting commentary on privilege, mortality, and the lives we choose to remember. It is a masterstroke by one of the greatest writers of our time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Theroux's immersive surfing bildungsroman (after Mother Land), a 60-something Triple Crown legend accidentally kills a homeless man with his car, and looks back on his life. Ten-year-old Joe Sharkey arrives in Hawaii with his father, a Special Forces colonel stationed there during the Vietnam War. Bullied at school for being a "haole," Sharkey finds release in surfing, his mentor a native Hawaiian surf guru called Uncle Sunshine. Showing an early aptitude for the sport, he becomes a competitive surfer. Sponsorship, prize money and endorsements follow as Sharkey travels the world—Tahiti, South Africa, California, Portugal—in search of the ultimate wave. Along the way, women are drawn to his legendary status and he befriends gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Meanwhile, in the present, Sharkey and his girlfriend embark on a journey to learn more about the man Sharkey accidentally killed, traveling to Arkansas and California before a final reckoning in Hawaii's Waimea Bay. The past and present halves of the story don't really coalesce, but Sharkey makes for an enjoyably larger than life character in the mold of Theroux's Jack Flowers (Saint Jack) or Allie Fox (The Mosquito Coast). The author's fans will appreciate the perfectly rendered exotic setting, which takes the reader deep inside the Hawaiian surf culture.
Customer Reviews
Arresting, Absorbing,
A character study of pro surfer Joe Sharkey that ultimately washes his life clean of past sins like a wave rolling to shore. Dangerous, compelling and finally, beatific.