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Barbarian Days
- A Surfing Life
- Narrated by: William Finnegan
- Length: 18 hrs and 8 mins
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Barbarian Days
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Summary
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.
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- Stephen
- 05-01-21
Brilliant
As a surfer, this book give me everything and more than I could hope for and I'd highly recommend it
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- Dylan Matthews
- 22-11-19
Mesmerising
This book, which not many have took me away from my job in central London, and took me all over the world. Indulged in the world of surfing, one of my favourite books I’ve ever read.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 30-11-17
Superb
Wasn't sure what to expect but really enjoyed this book. The style of writing and narration made it such an easy listen. My favourite part was probably the description of the the invisible waves at Tavarua.
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- Spencer
- 06-03-20
The Silver Surfer.
A fascinating look a one mans journey, the people he meets and the life he lives.
Loved it, a lot of surf talk for someone who knows nothing about it, but that was still a education without being boring.
Beautifully descriptive with an absorbing eye for detail, this book does paint some wonderful pictures, and you just can not fail to admire a man who has followed his life’s passion from the age of 6 to 60.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Graeme
- 20-04-21
A great life
Fascinating insight into the 'religion' of surfing I'm slightly envious that Finnegan was so young when he found what he loved most of all
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- S. R. Ashken
- 24-11-16
Lifetime of surfing
Has a bit of The Savage Detectives, a little of Andy Martin's Walking on Water, and when theyre in the south seas, even a little Coleridge.
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- P. Woltmann
- 20-05-20
Kooks allowed
Exceptionally engrossing and moving. Even if you don't surf, this book is filled with history, life lessons, philosophy... it is a compelling read (or listen) from start to finish.
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- tim
- 15-03-19
Outstanding !
Narrated beautifully by the author.
Compelling tales, running the gambit from heart wrenching to joyous. An inspiring read.
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- Jenny
- 27-12-20
Well written and read by author
Even if you don't know anything about surfing, this memoir is a good listen. It grows on you for sure.
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- Anonymous User
- 26-06-23
Great
Brilliant escapism - plug in and tune out. Really well written and narrated, well worth it.
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