Barbarian Days

A Surfing Life

By: William Finnegan

Narrated by: William Finnegan

Pulitzer Prize, Biography, 2016

A deeply rendered self-portrait of a lifelong surfer by the acclaimed New Yorker writer.

Barbarian Days is William Finnegan's memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment. Surfing only looks like a sport. To initiates it is something else entirely: a beautiful addiction, a demanding course of study, a morally dangerous pastime, a way of life.

Raised in California and Hawaii, Finnegan started surfing as a child. He has chased waves all over the world, wandering for years through the South Pacific, Australia, Asia, Africa. A bookish boy and then an excessively adventurous young man, he went on to become a distinguished writer and war reporter.

Barbarian Days takes us deep into unfamiliar worlds, some of them right under our noses - off the coasts of New York and San Francisco. It immerses the listener in the edgy camaraderie of close male friendships annealed in challenging waves. Finnegan shares stories of life in a whites-only gang in a tough school in Honolulu even while his closest friend was a Hawaiian surfer. He shows us a world turned upside down for kids and adults alike by the social upheavals of the 1960s. He details the intricacies of famous waves and his own apprenticeships to them. Youthful folly - he drops LSD while riding huge Honolua Bay on Maui - is served up with rueful humor. He and a buddy, their knapsacks crammed with reef charts, bushwhack through Polynesia. They discover, while camping on an uninhabited island in Fiji, one of the world's greatest waves.

As Finnegan's travels take him ever farther afield, he becomes an improbable anthropologist: unpicking the picturesque simplicity of a Samoan fishing village, dissecting the sexual politics of Tongan interactions with Americans and Japanese, navigating the Indonesian black market while nearly succumbing to malaria. Throughout, he surfs, carrying listeners with him on rides of harrowing, unprecedented lucidity.

©2015 William Finnegan (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Gave up on this one

I have to give up on this book. Not caring about every aspect of a wave makes this one a bore to me. It just seemed repetitive talking about waves and fear and courage and all the different boards and positions and places and curves and speed and blah blah blah. The rest of the story about the travels and the writing and the girls just wasn't enough to hold me. Also, I am never a fan of an author reading their own material. Halfway through, I just can't do anymore. I'll keep it, as my husband might like it someday.

THE surf book

I was looking for a light, fun read (listen) after a couple of heavier books - All The President's Men (ugh) and All The Light We Cannot See (excellent). Barbarian Days gave me what I was looking for plus some. Bill captures the beauty, allure, dread and triumph that is surfing. His vivid imagery let's you peer over his shoulder as he experiences a global array of lineups as the surfing world morphed. Not to be overlooked, however, is the story of maturing - the realization the thrills of life, while amazing and worthwhile, are not the ultimate source of happiness. Sending out an East Coaster hoot to this ride.

Fantastic!

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. One need not be a surfer (I'm far from it) to enjoy this. While the author focuses his life story around surfing, it's about much more than that. Life, adventure, dreams, fears...
Loved Finnegan's voice.

need an escape from the real world?

Then this book is for you! amazing details, steeped in adventure and an honestly unique narrative. A must read for anyone who has dreamed of dropping off the edge of the map for some higher calling.

Couldn't wait to write a review!!!

Ok, so I like to give context to reviews. I am a late 40's American with a wife and 2 kids. I have been an Audible member since 2005 and listen to mostly science fiction, fantasy and some fiction. Almost never nonfiction. I came across this book and recalled really liking one I'd listened to by the same author (Climbing with Mollie) which was part of the monthly give-away books that audible does. That one was about his learning about rock climbing with his young daughter. Something about that book really drew me in. Really everything about it did. The story, narration, characters, and mostly the detail and passion he used to describe rock climbing. For the record, I didn't previously and don't currently have any interest in rock climbing but there is something about the way he wrote about it and how it interweaved with his relationship with his daughter that captivated me. When I saw this book was a memoir of sorts centered around surfing, something I knew a lot more about having spent my college days living on the beach in Florida, I was pretty sure I'd like it. Sure enough, it was love at first listen. I am only a few hours in but I can honestly say I've liked this book more than 99% of the others I've listened to. So much insight to a generation only a little before mine and a whole lot of insight into how much "worse" things were then. If we only had social media, 24/7 news coverage and such to know what kids got up to we'd have likely been shocked. Or maybe not. Finegan's ability to transport you back to a different time and not shy away from his personal story nor handling some of the more touchy subjects of the day is amazing. I think it helps that I have surfed before but honestly I loved his rock climbing book as much and never climbed a rock in my life so I think most people who like a good story would like this book. So far 5 stars isn't enough. As for the criticism of the countless descriptions of waves, etc, I guess you could say the same about the rock climbing book but I thought that detail and his passionate description was critical to the tone of that story just like his descriptions of the waves are critical to this one. It's almost zen IMHO.