Tapping the Source

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Summary: Drugs and surf - the dark side of it all
Review: A young man digs into the murky past of his sister, trying to find what happened to her. He becomes a man and his acquaintances fall apart. Rather reflective and Hamlet-esque, a coming of age novel as much as a detective story. I found it believable and a good read.

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Summary: "Noir" in Disguise
Review: 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.

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Summary: Extraordinary Work Worth An Annual Read
Review: Being an author with my first novel, set in a fictionalized Huntington Beach, in current release, I must praise Kem Nunn's TAPPPING THE SOURCE. I first read it too many years ago upon its initial publication, and I try to re-read it annually. It captures the environment of Southern California in a way few other works do. Telling the story of a young man who comes to Huntington Beach in search of his missing sister, the novel becomes a morality play featuring surfers, bikers, and cultists. The plot takes many unexpected twists and turns. The characters are memorable. The setting is dead-on. Great book. If you haven't read TAPPING THE SOURCE, do. Soon.

Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary Work Worth An Annual Read
Review: Being an author with my first novel, set in a fictionalized Huntington Beach, in current release, I must praise Kem Nunn's TAPPPING THE SOURCE. I first read it too many years ago upon its initial publication, and I try to re-read it annually. It captures the environment of Southern California in a way few other works do. Telling the story of a young man who comes to Huntington Beach in search of his missing sister, the novel becomes a morality play featuring surfers, bikers, and cultists. The plot takes many unexpected twists and turns. The characters are memorable. The setting is dead-on. Great book. If you haven't read TAPPING THE SOURCE, do. Soon.

Rating:
Summary: readable and re-readable
Review: 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.

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Summary: I love this book. It's worth trying to locate.
Review: I own a battered paperback copy of this book, and I've read it more than once. I love the authenticity of the Southern California surfing and biker scenes that is depicts, and the characters are memorable and believable. It is well worth the taking some extra effort to track down a copy.

Rating:
Summary: Tapping the Source
Review: I read this book in about 3 days simply because of the way it drew me in. You will have a hard time putting this one down and it is not too long and drawn out. The characters come alive with vivid reality and I found myself replaying parts of the novel as I walked the block and a half from my appartment to Main Street and the Peir. H.B. has obviously developed from the colorless sands and buildings described in this book into an artists palate down PCH and up Main, yet Kem Nunn captured a side of Huntington I can still see today. Great read! Movie next? I hope so!!

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Summary: Not what I had expected...great atmosphere - lousy ending
Review: I should start off by saying that I hoped to find the ultimate Southern California modern noir book, and "Tapping the Source" didn't achieve that lofty peak. It is a very well plotted book however, brimming with a malevolent atmosphere that one can sense in the air down here, particularly in the "laid back" surfers and bleache blonde (...). There are some fabulous passages about the spiritual underpinnings of surfing and how it effects the various people in the book. Unfortunately, the "whodunnit" element of the story never really works too well, but then positively falls apart in the last fifty pages. Just too contrived for me, and not the right tone. But kind of creepy. Good read for sure. And let's face it, quite unique.

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Summary: Huntington Beach
Review: I think this is the first and only book that I have even read that takes place in Huntington Beach. It is sort of sensational. Some of it rings true. I graduated from high school in 1982 and this was my peers. HB has changed since then. This evokes how it used to be: lawless, outlaw, and free. Now it's just another consumerist beach town with hotels and umbrellas.

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Summary: TRUE TO LIFE EPIC JOURNEY
Review: If anyone could mimic the harsh realities of culture and the trends of an Orange County mainsteam Local obbsession. It would be induced into the pages of this book. Being a Huntington Native I feel the sence that Nunn had traveled or stayed many a days on the beaches, the neo-nazi cult fantasy is out but the exteam revalations portrayed into the surf scenes and subculture of "Main ST" where virtually nailed on the head, Now this rundown surf shack infested oil field is a blissfull robust rich culture pushed from "the norm" by its surf culture, yet overly conglomerated by "TACO BELL" "HILTON" tourism and consumerism. Life depicted in this story much portrays the life of a typical Highschool student at Huntington High. Well Written and there is hope in this book maybe for a movie?