Breath – Tim Winton

I've been ambivalent about Winton in the past, and I have a strong mistrust of the self-aggrandizing Australian surf scene, so this was always going to be something of a conflict of sensibilities.

Much to my surprise, I really admired Breath. Surfing turns out to be just the central motif in a design built around breathing and notions of self-endangerment in exchange for excitement, intelligently and interestingly put together. The stuff about erotic asphyxiation made me feel very icky, which I suppose it was meant to do.