Under the Wave at Waimea by Paul Theroux is a highly recommended novel, especially for the right reader, of aging, mortality, but, most importantly, big-wave surfing.

Joe Sharkey is a legendary big-wave surfer who is now in his sixties and past his prime. Although there are some new, young surfers who realize who he is and recall his many incredible feats on the surfing circuit around the world, increasingly more of them don't recognize Sharkey. Sharkey still checks out the wave forecast and tries to surf everyday. He seemingly has an ideal life now. He is comfortable. He is living with a much younger woman, Olive, a nurse from England. But when Sharkey accidentally hits and kills a homeless man on a bicycle when driving home from a bar, he suddenly begins to question his mortality and begins repeating the many stories of his life to Olive. She begins the process and encourages him to uncover the identity of the victim which will hopefully give him closure.

The narrative also jumps back in time, to Sharkey's childhood, his family, and his start in surfing, as well as the bullying he experienced. Then it covers his surfing life. Basically, this is an in depth character study of a man who becomes a competitive surfer and follows his life, as he remembers it, in his search for the ultimate wave. This is about Joe Sharkey, and it is a ponderous novel. There is a whole lot of surfing in Under the Wave at Waimea, which is to be expected, and also a plethora of Hawaiian vocabulary, which can be frustrating without the context to always understand what is being said. There are also passages of brilliant character insight along with vivid descriptions.

The search for the identity and information about the man he killed, Max, does expand the focus of the novel and gives Sharkey a focus beyond his surfing stories. It is this search that sets his own mortality before him and provides a new dimension to his character. In the end, however, this is a well written character study of one man that suffers a bit from it's length and could use a bit of editing. In the parts that are successful, it is amazing, but there are whole sections that could use some editing. It also requires a higher degree of interest and appreciation of surfing than I expected. Finally, Olive could have used more character development as she was an intriguing woman.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HMH Books in exchange for my honest opinion.
The review will be submitted for publication on Amazon, Google Books, Edelweiss, and Barnes & Noble.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I struggled through the first half of the book and had to put it down. I found it a bit confusing and never connected with the characters. Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

The life of Hawaiian surfer Joe Sharkey is put under the microscope by Paul Theroux in (if my count is correct) his 60-somethingth book. Across three sections, Theroux starts with the 60-something Shark still a surfing legend on the North Shore of Oahu but losing his mojo (and possibly his memory), then goes into his backstory as a bullied army brat who finds peace and release in the water on a surfboard, and finally chronicles his transformation after a life-changing event.

If you're a Theroux reader, as I was at least through Hotel Honolulu, which is now 20 years ago, you may find this to be reminiscent of that novel along with his best known novel, The Mosquito Coast, and his best known travel books, The Great Railway Bazaar and The Old Patagonian Express. Set in Hawaii like Hotel Honolulu, taking you all over the world to big surf spots like his travel books, and pitting an idealistic, individualistic, somewhat misanthropic man against nature and native people like TMC.

There is a lot of surfing. I enjoyed it -- this is about a lifelong champion surfer, if there's not enough surfing you feel like you're missing out on a key element of your protagonist's character, but is there too much surfing in this book? Not for me (and I've never surfed). The best part of Joe being a surfer are his trips to Tahiti, Christmas Island, South Africa, Portugal, and other locales (hence the comparison to Theroux's travel books).

There is a lot of character study. This is all character study. There is barely a plot -- something happens to Joe, it affects his life in unexpected ways, he and his girlfriend try to figure out why, and when they do, things change. The plot is basically character study, and my only gripe there (being a big fan of literary fiction and its hyper-focus on character development) is that there is not enough on Joe's girlfriend and her backstory and motivation (some but not enough).

Overall, I unexpectedly loved this book. The last time I tried to read Theroux, I got about 10% into Millroy the Magician and without actually making a decision on whether to continue, I just stopped reading, moved on to something else and did not want to return to it. But this book sucked me in right away and kept me there. Doesn't hurt that I love Hawaii (have been contemplating moving there for quite some time, as Theroux did) -- and it doesn't hurt that this book has not a moment to spare for touristy Hawaii, taking us into a deep dive (pun intended) into real Hawaiian culture.

If I have one gripe, it's the section on Hunter Thompson. I know Theroux was close to him, and I assume that part of the book is autobiographical. But I feel that it is a waste of time in an already long book, and I feel that it runs contrary to Joe's character arc -- for a lifelong loner who never suffered fools, or even non-fools, I don't get Joe's devotion to Thompson, who in fact is a major league fool (sorry, Paul, that's what I thought of him before, and still do after reading your take).

Thanks to NetGalley for this unique opportunity to read in advance the latest work of one of my favorite authors (despite my lapse over the past couple of decades). And thanks to Paul Theroux for a new novel that harks back to my favorite writings from his bibliography. I've traveled to all seven continents, inspired not wholly or even majorly, but in some small part by Theroux's novels, set all over the world, his personal story, also set all over the world, and of course his travel writings.

I enjoyed this, but I wish the characters were more developed. I didn’t feel as connected to Joe as I would’ve liked to. It’s a wonderful premise with so much potential, but I also think it could’ve benefited from editing it down a bit, it felt long. I am fascinated by wave culture and have ready many books on the subject, but picked this one up because it’s fiction. It scratched the itch, but ultimately, I don’t think it’s a new favorite.

I struggled to finish this book. I found it very confusing and poorly written with a cast of unsympathetic characters.

I’m judging a 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

Straddling his board, rising and falling, riding the swell like a horseman in the sea, majestic on his steed, soothed Sharkey almost as much as catching a wave. He sat watching the other two surfers until, as he guessed would happen, the bigger of the two misjudged the distance and dismounted too late and wound up struggling in the foaming rock pools beneath the black cliffs.

This latest novel from Paul Theroux reads like a biography, the fictional biography of Joe Sharkey, a 62 year old man who has given his entire life to surfing at the cost of neglecting everything else around him. It is a very emotional piece of fiction from an American master. A powerful testament to human resilience and an ode to the beauty and the fragility of Hawaii. The reader will follow Sharkey as he struggles to overcome a bitter existential crisis and recapture a sense of normalcy in his life. I was actually very surprised because by the end of the novel I was shedding tears...

Many thanks to Netgalley & Houghton Mifflin for the opportunity to read this wonderful novel prior to its release date

This was a did-not-finish book for me. Despite about ten tries, I just couldn't get interested in this story. My overall impression was a woe-is-me former stud lamenting the passing of his glory days. What kept kept scrolling through my head was "Welcome to the real world, dude. Grow up". I'm sure there was more to this book than his whining but I couldn't stick around to find out.

Joe Sharkey, a Hawaiian big wave rider now experiencing the downside of his career, accidentally hits and kills a bicyclist while driving home from dinner buzzed. What follows is karma – and his devoted partner’s attempt to help Joe come to grips with what he did and then come out of the situation a better, more caring person. At times, the narrative was disturbing but discovering the underbelly of the playground paradise is a reality check that makes Joe and the reader wake up and realize we all have more in common than we want to acknowledge. A five-star read! #UndertheWaveatWaimea #NetGalley

Paul Theroux offers much in terms of exploring experience in this book. Theroux weaves in mystery, strong characterization, and a well-developed sense of place. Well worth reading as a well-written and enjoyable story.

This just kept plodding along. I think there might have been a decent story buried in there somewhere, but I feel like some major editing is needed (especially for the middle part that went back to Joe's younger years). This was probably 1.5 stars for me, rounded up as I liked the descriptions of Hawaii.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.