Tapping the Source (Tr, Reissue

"Tapping the Source" might be the quintessence of everything that's right about modern noir. I know that sounds really artsy and pretentious, but it's true. The reason why it's such a great modern noir lays in Nunn's writing, which unloads his story without any self-awareness, something that, by definition, is almost unheard of in traditional noir stories, yet it works so well here. What it lacks in pretension it makes up in angst, but not in the raw, unadulterated, "I've been listening to too much Kurt Cobain" kind of angst. No, the story's protagonist, Ike Tucker, shows a kind of restricted, almost refined angst as he sifts his way through a crash course in post-pubescent adulthood while searching the ruddy beaches of California for clues about his murdered sister. What makes this book even cooler is the supporting cast. While Ike is a cool character, developed so precisely that reading about his experience will bring back old hangovers and headaches from your own late teenage years, the real character development happens to the characters that interact and ultimately influence Ike. They're well explained and detailed throughout the story, each of them permanently decaled by the flaws and failures of their life, all of which are brazenly worn on their sleeves. I could go on forever, because quite frankly, "Tapping the Source" may be my favorite book ever. But I wont, because this is really one of those books that should mean different things to different people, and that sole fact makes it worth picking up.

You know you've been somewhat transformed by a story when it's done, and you can't think about anything else for a while. Or start another book. Ike Tucker is a self-described "hick", a small town kid with very little motivation to escape his circumstances. Then a mysterious stranger shows up one day with information on Ike's sister, Ellen, who left home two years ago and hasn't been heard from since. With little more than a piece of paper with three names on it and a handful of cash, Ike sets out for Huntington Beach, California, to find out what happened to his sister. Written in limited third person point-of-view, the story is viewed only through Ike's eyes. Yet Nunn does an amazing job of developing the other characters and their arcs. Ike Tucker's journey and transformation is completely engaging, from his introduction into the hard-core surf scene to the moment he becomes a true local. Along the way, Ike loses sight of his goal to the temptations of H.B.'s gritty underworld, and we are sucked in as helplessly as he is. It is only at the end we realize that Ike's derailment is his true path to self-discovery. Nunn is a master at creating atmosphere. He does an incredible job at rendering setting--the fading buildings, the lost souls, the drugs, and the continual creep of industry encroaching on a California beach town gone to seed.

Yes, you read that right. Kem Nunn has invented the genre, and this is a fine example, perhaps the finest. Crisp writing, compelling story line and plot, and thoroughly engaging. I couldn't put this book down. Nunn illuminates the true, seamy underbelly of the So Cal surf dream, and the town that bills itself rather hyperbolically as "Surf City". If you have had the misfortune of spending any time in Huntington Beach, you will know that this book comes closer to describing that world and the attendant mindset than a hundred novels about a particular place and time. Read it if you enjoy a gritty, well-crafted novel, whether you are a surfer or not.

Although this takes the form of a novel about surfing, it is actually a great example of latter day noir, with a touch of mysticism and horror, if you will: Isaac Bashevis Singer meets Raymond Chandler meets Jim Thompson. It's a coming-of-age tale where a young guy faces down a nightmarish criminal sub-culture in order to solve a murder, in prose so clear and hypnotic it's like you are actually hearing it from the very lips of the storyteller. Thriller fans (and just plain lovers of literature) shouldn't miss this.

I love this book. No matter how many things I read, when I have run out of fiction, I always pick this up -- I can open it anywhere and instantly be in the shadow of the pier or at the Trax Ranch watching the swell and waiting for my wave, in Morris' shop tearing down a Shovelhead, or at Hound's house as the camera whirrs . . . In this first novel Kem Nunn got his pacing just right, and his amazing use of light and sound to capture atmosphere takes surfing out of the sun and into the shadows of the "dark side of the dream." Ike Tucker could have been created by Fitzgerald to tell of Preston Marsh, like a boat against the current beating ceaselessly into the past, or by Salinger, like Holden Caulfield trying to prevent the inexorable. I loved it.