Life and Limb: Skateboarders Write From the Deep End
readings by Jeffrey Knutson, Justin Hocking, Jared Maher, Dave Carney; Reading Frenzy, 921 SW Oak, Monday August 2, 7 pm
With a title like Life and Limb: Skateboarders Write From the Deep End, you might think this book has a limited appeal, but not all the writers talk about skateboarding in terms of technique or hands-on experience. The ability of the contributors–in both writing and skating–ranges from amateur to pro. There are pieces by a few pro skaters, like Mark Gonzales and Scott Bourne, but then there are also pieces by graphic designers, like Andy Jenkins, and writers for skate magazines, like Michael Burnett of Thrasher.
The contributions are both fiction and non, and stay away from highly specific stories of the act of skating, instead using skating more as a common reference point. The most impressive writing comes from two of the editors, Justin Hocking and Jeff Knutson, as well as Jocko Weyland, who writes the introduction in addition to a story.
Hocking’s story is effectively written in an uncommon second person narrative. He writes, “When you aren’t skating you pretend your fingers are two little legs–you fingerskate on everything, you do finger Smith-grinds on the edge of the dinner table at the expensive Italian place your girlfriend likes.” The person Hocking’s talking to is like a lot of people in their late 20s, feeling like they should be acting older now, becoming an adult, but not really wanting to. This person’s obsession just happens to be skateboarding.
Knutson gives a well-paced and detailed travelogue of riding the Greyhound out West one month after September 11th, which goes beyond personal reflection to a wider picture of the national situation at the time. And both contributions by Weyland, the author of The Answer is Never–A Skateboarder’s History of the World, are eloquent and refined.
The best pieces in Life and Limb are simply good stories, regardless of their subject matter. They transcend the specifics of skateboarding and touch on the universalities of obsession, determination, and alienation. M. WILLIAM HELFRICH