If you’re wanting to read this to get an insight into Double John Florence (the surfer) and his upbringing, then you can probably skip it. At 69 pages – more a pamphlet than a book – it details the childhood and drunken exploits of John Senior, as well as a trip through Europe with Alex Florence. Nothing on John John. While entertaining at times, it seems fairly obvious John Snr habours a lot of resentment towards Alex. There is also quite a bit of denial of responsibility for his actions in general, shown in passages like “ (I’m) Doomed to make poor decisions, doomed to be misled by my love of ‘good times’ to a life of pain and misery, leaving destruction and broken lives in my wake.” and “I always have been and always will be doomed.”



There is also the nagging feeling that this is really more a cash grab than an honest chance to recount an important story and begin to make amends for past misdeeds. This seems even more obvious in the final lines, when explaining there may be a delay in the next chapter of the story: “Heading to jail for a year for driving offences, so likely to be delayed and perhaps a reason to rush out this portion for much needed cash – I sit here with an overwhelming sense of DOOM as I try to figure out how to pay for my DUI attorney.”



Overall the writing is reasonably solid and, as mentioned, there are some amusing anecdotes in there. It’s also worth noting to not judge the author too harshly, since he does acknowledge his issues with alcohol and that it’s a disease he’s working to overcome.



Worth a read for a quick insight into alcoholism, and perhaps a biased view of Alex Florence, if you’re interested. Not worth it if you’re wanting to know about more about surfer John John Florence's life.