Sweetness and Blood

Sweetness and Blood
Michael Scott Moore
2010
318 pages
Published by Rodale

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This was a total impulse buy. I really need to work on that bad habit.

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It’s no secret that my boyfriend (Hamburger) is a surfer. Surfing pretty much dictates his life. Every morning he drives down to the ocean to check the waves. He plans his vacations around surfing. Heck, he even bases his vehicle purchases on the number of surfboards the vehicle will hold. I, on the other hand, don’t surf. I don’t drive a car that will hold a surfboard. I don’t go to Costa Rica on surf vacations, and I certainly don’t drive down to the beach at dawn. I don’t even lie on the beach while Hamburger surfs (and really, you’d be surprised by how many people assume I do…like I have nothing better to do than watch someone surf, which is hecka boring unless it’s Pipeline).

However, if there’s a surfboard on the cover of a book you can bet your bikini I’ll pick it up to see what it’s about.

Which is how I ended up with this book. It actually sounded quite fascinating…kind of a travel memoir meets surf culture story. What it ended up being was a travel memoir meets surf history, with a lot of meandering along the way. You know the author has gotten sidetracked when he (frequently) prefaces his paragraphs with “anyway.” (And yes, I realize I use that word a lot, too, but for gawd’s sake, this is a blog, and people aren’t paying money to read it). Also, there are a few typos, which is just wrong.

Anyway (ha), this isn’t a bad book, it’s just a bit esoteric, and I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that most (all?) of you aren’t really interested in surf history or the fact that there are rideable waves in São Tomé and the Gaza Strip. Although the section on river waves might entertain you for a few moments. Or not. The book is marketed as a look at how surfing has become an American export (export, not invention…big difference) and has spread to some remote corners of the world. I think that’s a bit of a stretch. Just because a few kids in São Tomé surf (and they surfed canoe-like things prior to an American leaving behind a board) does not mean American surf culture is thriving in São Tomé. I think American surf fashion has a stronger influence, personally, although that’s not necessarily a good thing. So there was some interesting stuff in the book, but the main premise didn’t work for me…if it had been billed as more of a travel memoir of a surfer, I think it would’ve worked better.

However, one really great thing about this book was all of the books and authors that Moore mentioned, particularly in regards to the places he visited. For example:

• The Indonesian author Pramoedya Ananta Toer is well-known as a folk-hero and for his writings on mass thought and Western individualism
• Tom Wolfe’s short story “The Pump House Gang” is a classic piece of surf literature, despite all of its inaccuracies
• Paul Bowles wrote about Morocco in the 1950s and 1960s
• Cuba likes to emphasize Hemingway’s social consciousness and communist sympathies

I could’ve made quite the reading list based on Moore’s mentions. Thankfully for my wallet (and all the books already on my shelves), I didn’t.