Kem Nunn
British Pbk Original - No Exit Press (1998) |
 |
The Dogs of Winter
Out of the blue Jack Fletcher, a former hot-shot surf photographer now surviving on hack work, cheap beer and muscle relaxants, gets a call from the surfing magazine he worked for back in his glory days. Assigned to photograph Drew Harmon surfing the remote reef known as 'Heart Attacks', the photographer can't quite believe his luck: both the surfer and the wave are the stuff of legend, and mean a ticket back into the big time.
With two young surf punks in tow, Fletcher heads off for the grim wilderness of Northern California, and the Indian territory where Harmon now lives with his half-mad wife Kendra. who roams the woods at night wearing the clothes of a murdered girl. This is not what Jack had expected, and things get worse.
To reach the fabled Heart Attacks and ride the winter waves Harmon. Fletcher and the punks must cross the tract of blasted headland known to the local Hupa, Yurok and Tolowan Indians as 'The Devil's Hoof'. When a child dies in an accident, the white men are blamed; the Indians, swearing vengeance, kidnap and brutalise Kendra, then set off to kill the surfers.
In this desolate wasteland the search for the perfect wave becomes a quest for survival, as events lead inevitably, to their final, tragic climax.
Kem Nunn lives in Northern California and is the also author of Pomona Queen, Unassigned Territory and the classic surf noir, Tapping the Source, published by No Exit.
'The Dogs of Winter closes in on the territories of violence, retribution and sheer terror mapped out by Deliverance and Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs. Unease, anxiety and dread seep through these pages, the sombre weight and vivid descriptive power of Nunn's writing recalling the grave apocalyptic disturbances of something like Robert Stone's Flag for Sunrise or DeLillo's, The Names. This finally, is a stunning, extraordinary book, full of turbulent moods and atmospheres and set in a landscape of ruin and decay where a man may find out too much about himself and the fear inside him. A masterpiece' Allan Jones, Uncut
'A profound study of skill, courage and the human psyche' Robert Stone
"Nunn explores the consequences of failure, the demands of courage and the healing powers of penance. A serious, richly satisfying novel infused with sad wisdom" GQ
"As if Elmore Leonard and Cormac McCarthy had teamed up to write a surf novel." Village Voice
"This is the greatest novel ever written about surfing." Newsweek
"A sharply focused story about good and evil...of crankster gangsters and sneaker waves, shape-shifters and great whites. There is witchcraft, insanity, savagery and in the end, a peace that may indeed surpass understanding." L.A. Times
"There is probably not an American novelist working today who is better at choreographing and describing physical action. The most accomplished practitioner of Californian noir writing today and the principal heir to the tradition of Chandler and Nathaniel West." Washington Post
| British Pbk Original - No Exit Press (1998) |
 |
Tapping the Source
People came to Huntington Beach in search of the endless party, the ultimate high and the perfect wave. Ike Tucker came to look for his sister and for the three men who may have murdered her.
In that place of gilded surfers and sun-bleached blondes, Ike looked into the shadows and found parties that drifted towards pointless violence, joyless violations and highs you might never come down from ... and a sea of old hatreds and dreams gone bad.
'Kem Nunn is one of a rare breed, a novelist who knows how to plot and tell a story There is amazing energy here.' Elmore Leonard
'Forceful and gripping ...in the same league as the best of Chandler and James Crumley. The all-time great surfing novel' Robert Stone
'What Hemingway's Nick Adams did for fishing, Kem Nunn does for surfing. Through the sensibility of its hero and the sensitivity of its author, Tapping the Source puts you there and makes you understand' Saturday Review
Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.
The Dogs of Winter
(No Exit Press Pbk,
1998)
Pbk Nov 98
Tapping the Source
(No Exit Press Pbk,
1998)
Pomona Queen
Unassigned Territory
[../twebref.htm]
The Dogs of Winter