WL Rating

Christopher Hawkins‘ book The Water’s End was the latest bit of surf-related literature spewed out of Amazon’s collaborative filtering machine, i.e. “If you like Kem Nunn, you might like Christopher Hawkins too.”  Well, the machine got it mostly right. I did kind of like Christopher Hawkins’ book. The Water’s End is a story of a young New Jersey surfer named Rob who, after the death of a relative, heads south of the border to find uncrowded surf and respite from a dysfunctional family. In Mexico, Rob encounters a young, pretty American tourist named Greta. They spend time together, fall in love, and generally bask in the warm, languid pace of remote Mexican beach life. As you’d guess, it’s all too good to be true, and it turns out that Greta also has a dysfunctional family whose desire for Greta’s repatriation goes beyond obsessive. For a novel, a nice set-up. Unfortunately, what ultimately limits The Water’s End is the absence of credible, tense conflict that inevitably draws the reader deeper into the story. While the parts where Greta and Rob share happy times together are wonderful to read, the lack of mature conflict in the final third of the novel left me skimming pages in an attempt to finish quickly. The Water’s End isn’t my favorite piece of surf-lit, but it’s an entertaining, very easy read. (October 2009)

Review

The Water’s End - Christopher Hawkins

Details

Category: Fiction

Reading Style: Easy

Pages: 202

Pub Date: 2006

Tags: Mexico, Surfing