A review by lindsayb
Kook: What Surfing Taught Me about Love, Life, and Catching the Perfect Wave by Peter Heller

4.0

Quite possibly the best book I could have picked for sitting around for two days on jury duty. It is so easy to get lost in Heller's adventures--I laughed and cried (AWKWARD WHEN IT HAPPENS IN THE JURY WAITING ROOM) throughout the whole thing. There were times I found him quite a bit of a jerkface towards his girlfriend/wife, even more so than the moments he actually acknowledged it, but she was also clearly fine putting up with it. Despite that, I loved all the heroes and asswipes they met along their journey down Mexico's Pacific coast and how he slowly began to pick up on surfing tips. I loved his environmental vignettes, no matter how horrifying they were, and it has certainly piqued my curiosity to learn even more about sea life and what I can do to help (I may have to put my craving for fish on hiatus for a while). It's hard not to find poetry in the ocean, and Heller takes it with gusto. Excuse me while I lose myself in youtube videos of the Mexican Pipeline....