Tijuana Straits

When you get to know Fahey and Magdalena and the little pocket of an area of the extreme south-west coastal border between the USA and Mexico, you get to see some wisdom. The other characters play with such appropriate care, I could not put this book down for long, I love the story, and it's end is classic KEM NUNN. Bravo!

I stumbled across Kem Nunn's "Tapping the Source" almost 20 years ago and absolutely loved it. Then I wandered off for a while. This one made me track down everything he's written since and read it. Forget "kept me up all night." This book not only kept me up all night (on a work night), but after I finished I immediately went back and re-read a bunch of my favorite parts. Nunn's portrait of the Tijuana estuary, an odd corner of the universe saved from development by pollution and illegal immigration, is fascinating. So is his protagonist, a man with a shattered and blighted life who finds himself in a situation requiring great heroism and rises to the occasion bit by reluctant bit. "Tapping the Source" was really about the innocence of youth. "Tijuana Flats" is in some ways a polar opposite. Every character has done things they regret and suffered terrible defeats. Some have become monsters as a result, some not. I loved the surfing lore, but I've never surfed and probably never will (unfortunately) -- you definitely don't have to be a surfer to enjoy this one.

I read TAPPING THE SOURCE when it first appeared because of Robert Stone's strong recommendation; and while that remains a great first novel, TIJUANA STRAITS is the full-fleshed work of an accomplished writer, and Nunn's best novel yet. A close cousin to Stone's DOG SOLDIERS, yet with surreal touches more reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy, this book just moves and moves. I was a 100 pages into I AM CHARLOTTE SIMMONS when I made the happy mistake of reading the first couple pages of TIJUANA STRAITS. I guess I'll go back to the Wolfe now, but somewhat regretfully. I agree with Drew Kampion that the plot becomes somewhat transparent near the end, and the denouement feels rushed, but the writing is strong and beautiful throughout. Nunn's images of Mexico are searing and villainous, and the handful of villains birthed by its toxic apocalyptic landscape are unforgettable. Plus he does that surf noir thing better than anyone.

Having surfed more than 40 years, nothing captures my interest better than a good story about riding waves. I just read this book on Cape Hatteras, NC while on vacation surfing waves generated by Hurricanes Alex and Charley. Still, it wasn't just my personal environment that made this book perfect. It woulda had the same impact if I'd read it in February in Montana. And never been in the ocean. The novel will instantly stand as one of the Top Five all-time surfing stories. There is a terrific underlying current in the book, which non-surfers might neither understand nor be aware of. Mr. Nunn, defines his characters in an amazing way, using surfing's wide divide between old school (my style) and the new generation (my sons' outlook). Approaches to the waves are almost polar, even while the sport's inherent values and respect for tradition are from the same template. On the surface, this novel also is a who-done-it thriller that shows Mr. Nunn is a genuinely exceptional writer who displays equal parts Elmore Leonard, Hunter S. Thompson, and John Grisham. Intricate details, believeable characters, and conversational dialogue add up to a read that moves along as quickly and with as much unpredictability as a 20-foot storm wave. Cowabunga, old-timers! Rip and slash, dudes! Either way, get up on it, and enjoy the ride.

Kem Nunn has produced another masterpiece. America's most underappreciated writer knows how to combine action with gravity, suspense with philosophy and he demonstrates it here with another great book. In "Tijuana Straits" Nunn not only creates Sam "the Gull," his usual pill-popping ex-surfer with one last chance at redemption, but also, with equal dexterity, Magdalena, the idealistic Mexican Madonna with a passion for social justice, and, most astoundingly, a fully realized, almost sympathetic villian, Armando, the dark shadow of toxic hopelessness. Add to these memorable characters Nunn's beautiful prose, seamless, swift plot and vivid setting and the result is a novel that satisfies on every level. If you want a transcendent read BUY THIS BOOK!

In his magnificent Tijuana Straits, Kem Nunn picks up where Chandler and Ellroy left off--in the middle of the line that divides good and evil and life and death. Nunn gets the characters dead right and this third installment of his California trilogy brings together the crazies, ecologies and politics that makes Tijuana Straits a book that is Chinatown meets Amores Perros. There is a special intensity to the dust and metal fence that divide ways of life and the Mexico-U.S. border. Fahey and Dakota are real figments of the border imagination that Numm creates in this ode to California noir. Just as Dogtown and Z-Boys is the film companion to Tapping the Source, the Tijuana Straights is the updated companion to Chinatown--setting the tone for understanding how a place becomes a toxic stew of crime, immorality, and decadence. Serge Dedina, Author of Saving the Gray Whale, Executive Director, WiLDCOAST and lifelong resident of the border.