“Under the Wave at Waimea”, by Paul Theroux ⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆
Under the Wave at Waimea was my first Paul Theroux book. I have heard of him over the years, and I may even have seen the movie that was made from his book Mosquito Coast , but had never read any of his work before picking up this book—and honestly, I may think twice about picking up another. A quick synopsis: We meet protagonist Joe Sharkey as a 62-year-old former pro-surfing star, living the good life on Oahu’s North Shore: surfing, drinking, getting high, getting laid, etc. One rainy night, driving home after three beers and a little weed, he hits a homeless drunk who staggers into the road in front of his car. He lies about the circumstances to the police, gets off with no punishment—and then his life starts to spiral out of control. Whether due to karma, bad vibes—what have you—things just start to go wrong, culminating in an incident at Waimea in which Joe experiences a long hold-down after wiping out, and nearly drowns. At this point, the book started to lose me, because it...