Stories ride ocean theme
Mango Lady & Other Stories From Hawaii: By Ted Gugelyk, $12.95, Anoai PressApparently, even if the surfer is out of the ocean, the ocean is still in the surfer. This a theme that runs like an insistent undertow throughout the tales in Ted Gugelyk's "Mango Lady & Other Stories From Hawaii," published by Anoai Press.
Gugelyk's literary style is essay-like, drawing on his own experiences and filtered through a rueful perspective. The stories link together unusual personalities, unsettling memories and vivid fantasies, and always, sooner or later, return to the dangerous nurturing provided by surfing the unpredictable ocean.
Stories include "Mango Lady," about an elderly Waikikian in the 1950s watching modern times breeze through her neighborhood; "A November Surfer," about an old surfer experiencing a magical winter break at Rabbit Island; and "Captain Aloha," a novella that follows two childhood surfing buddies from Hawaii whose lives diverged, then cross again in the moral quagmire of modern Vietnam.
Gugelyk arrived in Hawaii as a crewman on a Trans-Pacific racing yacht in 1957, and never left. Within a few years he became a well-known local surfer and eventually a University administrator. In his biography in the back of "Mango Lady," he gives nearly equal weight to his various jobs that include busboy, toy department stock clerk, Asian history teacher and even Dean of Students at Maui Community College. He still surfs almost every day.
