Most people hit rock bottom and look for a way back up. DJ Kadagian hit rock bottom and kept going.
Punching Waves is a raw, self-deprecating, darkly comic journey — and perhaps a roadmap for the desperate souls who work out that when life hands you chaos, sometimes the only way out is through a jungle, a desert, and into the questions most people spend a lifetime avoiding.
His childhood unfolded in a storm of chaos, caught between an unhinged mother in the U.S. and a cold, calculating father in Germany. They could best be described as free spirits — free from empathy, free from concern, and free from any semblance of conventional parenting. Their child-rearing philosophy came down to a single phrase: every man for himself. Out of that emerged a human broken early, but irritatingly difficult to finish off.
It would make sense to set a goal of becoming a normal, well-adjusted person. After everything, that would be a battle on its own. But normal isn’t enough for him anymore. He’s shooting for enlightenment.
Readers have called it funny, heart-wrenching, and raw — a hero’s journey with just the right amount of wry self-deprecation, toggling between the absurdity and the mystery of it all.
“I couldn’t put it down! Laughed, cried, contemplated reality… and then laughed some more. This is a hero’s journey with just the right amount of wry self-deprecation.”
— Verified reader review, Amazon
“An honest, raw and many times hysterical account of his own life. DJ unapologetically reveals the depth of his soul and invites you to take a look for yourself, at what it takes to overcome adversity.”
— Verified reader review, Amazon
