Surferboy

Steve will Surfer werden – einer jener Halbgötter, die scheinbar auf dem Wasser wandeln und die Wellen bezwingen. Für eine Talratte aus dem San Fernando Valley mit Angst vor dem weiten Meer ist das kein leichtes Unterfangen. Bei seinen Auseinandersetzungen mit rabiaten Locals, geschäftstüchtigen Surfbrett-Designern, liebeshungrigen Surfgroupies und bekifften Großwellenjägern lernt er die komischen ebenso wie die dunklen Seiten des kalifornischen Surftraums kennen. Mit Elan und Leichtigkeit erzählt Surferboy eine Geschichte von Freundschaft, vom Erwachsenwerden in den 70ern und von der Faszination des Surfens - und vermittelt ganz nebenbei einen Wissensschatz, der es mit jedem Surfratgeber aufnehmen kann (enthält einen ausführlichen Surf-Glossar). Als weltweit erster reiner Surfroman hat das Buch inzwischen Kultstatus.

Stimmen über Kevin McAleer und Surferboy

"Surferboy is a cleverly arranged bildungsroman and the story of a subculture's decline and fall. Told from the standpoint of a neophyte who wants to join the surfing ranks, the narrator-voice combines the crazed obsession of the insider with the ironic distance of the outsider."

– Berliner Tagesspiegel

"Perhaps the saying is true - that happiness makes you stupid. Maybe surfers are so happy that they should start writing about surfing only after they've stopped. Kevin McAleer, who grew up in California, has given us an autobiographical novel well worth reading."

– Mare

"McAleer introduces us to a brand new world and makes it accessible, for in his autobiographical novel Surferboy he writes of surfing with such passion and precision that even nonpracticioners will at once take to the sport."

– TIP

"Surferboy is one of those novels where after just two sentences you're so deep into it that you'd swear you've got sand in your undies."

– Radio Fritz

"As author, McAleer isn't just riding a wave, rather his book dives deep - and entertainingly so - beneath the surface of the practice."
–Surf

"Surferboy is a novel about growing up and initiation rites. Kevin McAleer, who in his youth was a surfer, conveys why surfing is so addictive but he doesn't gloss over the malaise, the emptiness that follows the ecstasy. American Grafitti for waveriders."

– Zitty

"Surferboy is both a superb novel about growing up and a cultural history of surfing rendered with atmospheric precision."
– Tide

"The evolution of surfing in Southern California in the 1970s is grippingly told. It is through a precise description of those social conventions which surfers put beginners through that the author shows his intimate knowledge of the subject. Whether you're a kook, pro or non-surfer, you'll like this book."

– Surfers

"As Surferboy takes us on a ride up and down the waves, we experience both the ups and downs of the surfing life, with the author making short work of that romanticized image of good vibrations and beach babes. Yet nevertheless, by book's end, we still have a wistful yearning for it all."

– literaturkritik.de

"A wonderful summer book, above all for ex-surfers, but also for those who have always wanted to be initiated into the secrets of this sport."

– Norddeutscher Rundfunk

"Kevin McAleer has written the first pure surf novel - the portrait of a subculture with roots in Hawaii, its boom during the 1960s, through to the 1970s with Surf Punks and New Wavers and the scene's utter commercialization. Though written in suitably laid-back prose, this bildungsroman also functions as a surfing primer."

– GEO

"Surferboy is an absolute must-read."

– www.wavebooks.de

Weitere Informationen

Autor Kevin McAleer

Leseprobe

VLB-TIX Ansicht

Youtube: Lesung

English Website