Review by E.Borgers

Ike Tucker left the small spot where he was living in the desert in search of his sister who had turned away from the same place some time ago, and of whom no one had any news since.
For Ike, at seventeen years of age, life was still a draft with a lot of uncertainties and he knew nothing about the outside world that was so far from the desert.

Ike's quest would make his stay in Huntingdon Beach much longer than he could have thought , and it would change his life in a drastic way.

This was the place where his sister was last seen, and it turned out to be one of those Californian surf cities that Ike would try to decipher as the best as he could.
This was also the place where he would meet Preston, one of the keys to the troubled past of Huntingdon Beach.
This was the time when Ike would learn surfing and its real meaning, the time when he would discover the way of "tapping the source...".
But it was not only the past that would haunt Ike. Slowly, everything would culminate in a nightmarish end: Preston would be crippled, the intriguing Ranch would reveal its horrendous mystery, and Ike Turner would lose his natural innocence. Forever!


The novel by Kem Nunn describes the initiation journey of Ike that would lead him to revelation through surfing. It describes how the young adult finally finds himself and is changed forever in the process.
Surfers and their closed world lead Ike to a better understanding of nature and harmony, life and destiny, but cannot protect him from the evils found in the outside world as bad events quickly happen to him.
Ike will have to face the devil and death as part of his initiatic odyssey that will take him to the dark corners of our society. He will finally have to fight a terrible battle to recover the truth and a part of his lost innocence...

In a powerful and gripping style, Kem Nunn lifts this Noir novel to levels rarely seen with recent authors, but his writing is never obtrusive nor self-proclaming in a literary way.
Even as the reading flows easily, there is a very subtle construction of the story and its progression works unmistakably on the reader's conscience in an impressionistic way, as an echo of the central character's inner experience.
Confining the novel to a "blue waves and beach story" does really not render justice to the author!
'Tapping the Source' is far more than a "surf novel" as often referred to; it is the work of a true emerging talent.

While this novel was first published in 1984, the author is still classified as a "new" author.
As can be seen from 'Tapping the Source', Kem Nunn appears to be one of the bests of his generation.

E.Borgers

E.Borgers
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Most recent revision: 4 February 2000}