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On a Wave | 
 enlarge | Author: Thad Ziolkowski
Publisher: Grove Press
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
Buy Used: $1.97
You Save: $11.03 (85%)
New (19) Used (25) from $1.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 702388
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0802140017
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.54
EAN: 9780802140012
ASIN: 0802140017
Publication Date: May 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In this prizewinning poet's wry and exhilarating coming-of-age story, Thad Ziolkowski's On a Wave poignantly looks back at adolescence in a memoir of his surfing years. As a disenchanted, unemployed English professor, Thad decides one day to sneak away from his temp job in Manhattan and catch a wave off a dingy Queens shoreline. In the meager cold waves, he contemplates how he could have possibly become a semidepressed, chain-smoking, aimless man when for a few shining years of his boyhood, he was invincible. His lapsed love affair with the ocean begins amid the late-sixties counterculture in coastal Florida. After his parents' divorce, nine-year-old Thad escapes from his difficult family -- notably a new brooding and explosive stepfather -- by heading for the thrilling, uncharted waters of the local beach. In the embrace of the surf, he is able to stay offshore for years, until his life is upended once again, this time by a double tragedy that deposits him at a crossroads between a life in the waves and a life on land. Lyrical and disarmingly funny, On a Wave is a glorious portrait of youth that reminds readers of Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life and Frank Conroy's Stop-Time.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
Read this. Now. October 13, 2007
This should give you a general idea of how good this book is: After reading the last page, I turned to page 1 and started reading it all over again.
When was the last time you read a book twice?
Ziolkowski's style is like a perfect wave--clean, gorgeous, and unique. It's not just about a surfer searching for perfection, but a boy searching for himself in post-Vietnam era of sunny Florida, where everyone is tan and bleachy-haired, Led Zeppelin is on every radio, and pot is as prevalent as palm trees.
The story begins with the author at ten, still reeling from his parents' divorce and craving diversion like any normal kid. But it is surfing that becomes his ultimate grace, giving him confidence and the room to dream outside the troubles at home. When his family begins to unravel, his heartbreak at dreams realized and lost will strike a sympathetic chord in anyone who is connected to the sea, to family, and to one's true self. The author's search for his identity comes full circle--beginning, ending, and beginning again--on a wave.
great read August 14, 2007
I loved this story of a young boy's passion for the ocean easing his growing pains. Very well-written.
Great servive March 13, 2007
thanks for the prompt delivery! I will definitely look for you again when ordering
Excellent!! September 7, 2006
Thad hits the nail on the head! Having grown up in Melbourne Beach during the time period described I feel qualified to speak on the authenticity of the scene depicted: perfect, took me back in time! Anyone who grew up in the space coast area during the 70's will be able to identify some of the characters described. This is an execellent book for the non-surfer as well as the surfer. This book will remain on my annual reading list along with Caught Inside, Lighting out and West of Jesus. Thanks Thad for an execellent read!
Beach Daze March 27, 2005
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Excellent.This book will stay with you long after you read it. As a 50ish surfer from the Texas gulf coast this book reminds me of why I consider myself lucky.
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