Tijuana Straits
The 2004 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller went to Kem Nunn's Tijuana Straits, a borderlands novel set along the California-Mexico coast.
Work Information
A borderland thriller shaped by danger, surf, and the possibility of redemption.
The Los Angeles Times winner in Mystery/Thriller, the novel uses the California-Mexico border as a tense setting for danger and the chance of renewal.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Scribner
- Published
- 2004-08-10
- Pages
- 320 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 15.24 x 2.92 x 22.86 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780684843056
- ISBN-10
- 0684843056
- Price
- 10083 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Contemporary
From Kem Nunn, the National Book Award-nominated author of Tapping the Source and The Dogs of Winter, comes an exquisitely written tale of loss and redemption. Nunn renders the dangerous beaches and waters of California's borderland as only the critically acclaimed poet laureate of surf noir can, and Tijuana Straits confirms his reputation as a master of suspense and a novelist of the first rank. When Fahey, once a great surfer, now a reclusive ex-con, meets Magdalena, she is running from a pack of wild dogs along the ragged wasteland where California and Mexico meet the Pacific Ocean -- a spot once known to the men who rode its giant waves as the Tijuana Straits. Magdalena has barely survived an attack that forced her to flee Tijuana, and Fahey takes her in. That he is willing to do so runs contrary to his every instinct, for Fahey is done with the world, seeking little more than solitude from this all-but-forgotten corner of the Golden State. Nor is Fahey a stranger to the lawless ways of the border. He worries that in sheltering this woman he may not only be inviting further entanglements but may be placing them both at risk. In this, he is not wrong. An environmental activist, Magdalena has become engaged in the struggle for the health and rights of the thousands of peasants streaming from Mexico's enervated heartland to work in the maquilladoras -- the foreign-owned factories that line her country's border, polluting its air and fouling its rivers. It is a risky contest. Danger can come from many directions, from government officials paid to preserve the status quo to thugs hired to intimidate reformers. As Magdalena and Fahey become closer, Magdalena tries to discover who is out to get her, attempting to reconstruct the events that delivered her, battered and confused, into Fahey's strange yet oddly seductive world. She examines every lead, never guessing the truth. For into this no-man's-land between two countries comes a trio of killers led by Armando Santoya, a man beset by personal tragedy, an aberration born of the very conditions Magdalena has dedicated her life to fight against, yet who in the throes of his own drug-fueled confusions has marked her for death. And so will Fahey be put to the test, in a final duel on the beaches of his Tijuana Straits.
Kem Nunn is a third-generation Californian whose previous novels include The Dogs of Winter , Pomona Queen , Unassigned Territory , and Tapping the Source , which was made in to the film Point Break . Tijuana Straits won the Los Angeles Times Book Award. He lives in Southern California, where he also writes screenplays for television and film.
Reviews
-
Even Better than I Expected
This is the first Kem Nunn story I've read, but certainly not the last. What a damn fine novel! I connected wholly with Kem's characters, in spite of his main protagonist's nefarious past. I even felt sympathy for the book's central character of evil, such was Mr. Nunn's way with words that he composed whole, original and believable human beings. What a way with words he has! Redemption plays an important role, as well as one's coming to terms with realities, past and present. And, besides the human characters of this exquisite story, the geography and the environment of the California-Mexican border play an important role, particularly the Tijuana River Valley and the Pacific Ocean beyond. Don't get dissuaded because of the surfing stuff you may have read about the story(--if that's a potential turn-off for you). Surfing plays a special, but ancillary role, in Tijuana Straits. This book is a beautifully written, sad and honest tale of some less than advantaged people doing what they can (and what they need to be doing) to ride out their struggles (and, perhaps thrive a bit) in our unfair, but potentially redemptive world. It brought out empathy in me I didn't know existed. I hope you'll give it a chance.
-
Awesome surprise!
Kem Nunn is a great author, and this novel is right up there with all his other works. But, my review is more about the physical item itself which I received unexpectedly. Having ordered a paperback in 'very good' condition, I was more than pleasantly surprised to receive an as new hardback. Not only that, but it was a limited edition, signed by the author. Bonus.
-
Great author
Great story and characters. It covers the border problems in a way that makes them more personal.
-
Great book!
I really enjoyed it! Difficult English though. It made me want to look at some pictures of the waves at the Tijuana Straits!
-
Golfo de Mexico
Not quite as good as Nun's 'Tapping The Source', but a significant dark chase through the ripcurl of Tijuana corruption, oddly reminiscent of Vanishing Point.