Local Tribes

Thomas Hansen Hickenbottom
AuthorHouse (2010)
ISBN 9781452043661
Reviewed by Richard R. Blake for Reader Views (09/10)

 

“Local Tribes” takes the reader back in time to the 1960s. Thomas Hansen Hickenbottom has caught the spirit of a unique era in American history. The War in Vietnam created a political unrest that aroused the emotions of a generation already questioning the status quo, authority figures, standards of society and business ethics in their personal search for acceptance and purpose.

Marco D’Giorgio was a native of Santa Cruz, California. His father was a commercial fisherman in the waters along the California coast. In a series of flashbacks the reader learns of Marco’s childhood, teen years, coming of age, and his love for the surf.  At age 19, shortly after the sudden death of his father in 1966, Marco left the home of his alcoholic mother. At the end of a summer of survival with his “local tribe” of surfing buddies, Marco faced new trauma. He was served with a draft notice, his girlfriend was raped, and some of his minor friends were taken into custody while partying. Marco struggles to resolve unanswered questions regarding his Italian heritage, hidden family secrets, his Catholic faith, patriotism, and sex.

Now homeless and alone Marco faces critical personal decisions; he listened as John Lennon sang of peace in changing times, at a time when “respect ruled in the surf” among a tight knit group of surfers.  “…it didn’t seem like it would ever change. It would always be just a few friends surfing together without any other major life decisions to be made, just waves and friends, no crowds and no worries.” Graphic dialog accompany Hickenbottom’s brilliant poetic prose resulting in a literary style with phrases which “jump out from the page.”  For example: “His breathing fell into cadence with the waves.”

Hickenbottom’s childhood in the Santa Cruz area, coming of age during the Vietnam draft era, as well as attaining a sponsored status as a team rider for O’Neill in the late 1960s add an authoritative credence to the tour de force of his writing. Thomas is a gifted story teller with a creative and vivid imagination. His character development is strong, his characters believable.

“Local Tribes” is an intense, gripping drama filled with fast moving action, taking the reader on a roller coaster ride of emotions toward an amazing unexpected surprise climatic ending. Surfers from the 60s, present, and future generations will all be drawn to the timeless and cutting-edge genius of Hickenbottom’s writing.

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