Kook

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

By: Peter Heller

Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain

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.

©2010 Peter Heller (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

"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."( Publishers Weekly)

Call it Average

As a book, there’s not that much info on surfing, it is not a book of surf tips. It also is not a “road trip” book centered around surfing, like Captain Zero. It also is not at all insightful about relationships (the author travels with his girlfriend/wife). While I really liked the author’s book Dog Stars, which was powerful and not entirely predictable, this book could have been condensed down into a long magazine article. Call it average because it was still interesting, especially for anyone who surfs.

Useful but long winded and hard to believe

found it useful for beginner surfing tips, got a little tired of the dramaticizing...... too much waxing poetic, not enough waxing boards. lots of repetive themes and statements on environmentalism. personally would have preferred a more straightforward account.

Great book, makes you want to paddle out

really liked it some passages were a bit too drawn out. sections on the enviroment, wales, japan for example.

but the story on a whole is great.
really wjat you meed whem you camt get out and surf, or are just startimg out.

also good lessons on patience and love, life.

good book.

Hollower than the waves he is looking to surf

As an aspiring middle-aged surfer, I decided to listen to this book with some trepidation. I have not read anything by Peter Heller and was not familiar with the narrator, Mike Chamberlain. My trepidation was justified, and I would only recommend this Audible book with the caveat, "proceed with caution."

With respect to the narrator, I will say only that his nasal, sometimes unpleasant voice doesn't enhance the experience of listening to this book. Alas, de gustibus non est disputandum. On a less querulous note, his rendering of Spanish words and phrases is amateurish, and that beautiful language deserves better.

I chose to listen to this book on account of my interest in the author's experience of learning to surf in the middle of his fifth decade. There are many parts of that story that are enjoyable and enriching. What I did not expect or want from Kook is something that the author provides in unwelcome abundance: a soft-headed, ego-centric telling of his evolving romance with his girlfriend and (later) wife, and a muddled hectoring melange of environmental mumbo jumbo that emerges in the most awkward moments against the backdrop of a story supposedly about surfing.

In this last regard, it is not that the author mistakes the gravity of the situation we face with respect to the health of the world's oceans. Rather, it is that he contributes nothing new on this topic, has an off-putting pietistic style, and mistakes one objective good (e.g., global economic growth of 2%) as being fundamentally in conflict with another (e.g., clean and healthy oceans). His thinking on these topics is lazy; his writing sophomoric; his tone hectoring - all hollower than the waves he is looking to surf.

Proceed with caution,

Narrator....

Narrator has kook voice. Midwest accent made story sound ignorant, not a growth learning story

No, save you money

Disappointing

If you'd like to listen to a good book on surfing check out William Finnegan's "barbarian days: a surfing life" because this book is simply not worth your time. Its uninspiring tone and stereotypical oversimplification of the sport of kings was disappointing.