Barbarian Days

Posted on by

A deeply rendered self portrait of a lifelong surfer by the acclaimedNew 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 reader 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 readers with him on rides of harrowing, unprecedented lucidity Barbarian Days is an old school adventure story, an intellectual autobiography, a social history, a literary road movie, and an extraordinary exploration of the gradual mastering of an exacting, little understood art Today, Finnegan s surfing life is undiminished Frantically juggling work and family, he chases his enchantment through Long Island ice storms and obscure corners of Madagascar. Read Barbarian Days author William Finnegan – kino-fada.fr I spent a lot of car locked hours listening to William Finnegan s Barbarian Days A Surfing Life while I drove through three provinces to get to a two week placement and back again In fact, the 18 and a bit hours of Finnegan s Pulitzer Prize winning memoir lasted through two driving companions, one who joined me for the book s opening hours, the other who took in the final three hours The later companion remarked, with nary but an hour left in the audiobook Man, he s just all about the surfin I spent a lot of car locked hours listening to William Finnegan s Barbarian Days A Surfing Life while I drove through three provinces to get to a two week placement and back again In fact, the 18 and a bit hours of Finnegan s Pulitzer Prize winning memoir lasted through two driving companions, one who joined me for the book s opening hours, the other who took in the final three hours The later companion remarked, with nary but an hour left in the audiobook Man, he s just all about the surfing, isn t he Indeed, Finnegan s memoir regales his years spent in the thrall of surfing s hypnotic draw with furious obsession For the most part, it is an extremely well written, and superbly narrated account Summer rays and the warm weather they bring are just beginning to make an appearance in my neck of the woods, and Finnegan s memoir ...William Finnegan, has a sultry pleasant voice His voice alone was alluring.I enjoyed listening to the never ending surfing stories as I might a guided meditation..BUT..like meditation..I often drifted into ozo land taking detours away from the spiritual path I didn t have the endurance to keep up with the Zen of Surfing God William Finnegan is a phenomenal writer blows my mind a surfer could be so lyrical and descriptive BUT THERE IS NO LET UP Very impressive ongoi William Finnegan, has a sultry pleasant voice His voice alone was alluring.I enjoyed listening to the never ending surfing stories as I might a guided meditation..BUT..like meditation..I often drifted into ozo land taking detours away from the spiritual path I didn t have the endurance to keep up with the Zen of Surfing God William Finnegan is a phenomenal writer blows my mind a surfer could be so lyrical and descriptive BUT THERE IS NO LET UP Very impressive ongoing ongoing and ongoing specific detail descriptions of Everything Surfing The ocean.a surfboard..waves.paddling.compe...Let s get this out of the way I don t know how to surf, I ve never been to Hawaii, and what little I do know of surfing was gleaned from watching cheesy movies like 1991 s Point Break and 1987 s North Shore To wit I am not the ideal audience for this memoir about a surfing life And yet, I really enjoyed this book For starters, it has some seriously gorgeous prose William Finnegan writes for The New Yorker and he won a Pulitzer Prize for Barbarian Days, which is how it came to my attenti Let s get this out of the way I don t know how to surf, I ve never been to Hawaii, and what little I do know of surfing was gleaned...What a wonderful book I listened to the audiobook and was glad I did William Finnegan has a delightful voice So soothing that you feel calmed This Pulitzer Prize winner is so worth the read.Highly recommend.5 out of 5 stars. Barbarian Days A Surfing Life isthe subtitle than the title that is, a surfing life To break it down further, it islife than surfing, as it follows William Finnegan from youngest years to the present day, from continent to continent, from schools to jobs, from here to eternity Is there a lot of surfing in that life Yes Is there a lot of life maybe too much life in this book Yes again.Meaning, I felt that 464 pages was a bit much Surprising, considering Finnegan is a N Barbarian Days A Surfing Life isthe subtitle than the title that is, a surfing life To break it down further, it islife than surfing, as it follows William Finnegan from youngest years to the present day, from continent to continent, from schools to jobs, from her...Barbarian Days reviewThis is a memoir built around surfing Despite knowing nothing about surfing I enjoyed most if it That s an accomplishment It s also got a great cover The book is split into three parts The first part, set in California and Hawaii, is the strongest It talks about Finnegan s childhood and his discovery of surfing If this were a superhero movie this would be the part where the protagonist discovers their powers Some of this was excerpted in The New Yorker and it s what Barbarian Days reviewThis is a memoir built around surfing Despite knowing nothing about surfing I enjoyed most if it That s an accomplishment It s also got a great cover The book is split into three parts The first part, set in California and Hawaii, is the strongest It talks about Finnegan s childhood and his discovery of surfing If this were a superhero movie this would be the part where the protagonist discovers their powers Some of this was excerpted in The New Yorker and it s what...Finn AgainThis book is not about moonlight on the bayou It s about structured water Water, and other media, muscled with vortices Feminine Wave, by HokusaiThink whirlpools knots of energy patterns structuring aquatic, psychic, social, and cultural flows Finnegan s narrative navigates the fluidities of all these structures at times as lazily adrift in blue latitudes as a Chet Baker solo, at times determined, at times tubed and godlike, at others submerged and gasping for life as if searchi Finn AgainThis book is not about moonlight on the bayou It s about structured water Water, and other media, muscled with vortices Feminine Wave, by HokusaiThink whirlpools knots of energy patterns ...Barbarian Days is Finnegan s autobiography memoir of his life as a surfer His interest in surfing starts at a very young age in California and becomes a real passion when his family moves to Hawaii when he is in middle school.Finnegan states that surfers are perfectionists I don t know the others, but he certainly is one He spends most of his life almost till the end of his 40s searching for the perfect wave and perfect place to surf This journey takes him literally around the world many Barbar...Visceral details and descriptions and insider jargon draws us into the author s globe trotting adventures as he chronicles his enduring love for the art of surfing The search for a clean set of waves influences, shapes, and affects the choices he makes in life, an...This was the longest 450 page book I have ever read This memoir covers the surfing life of New Yorker and New York Times Reporter William Finnegan from his humble upbringing in Souther California and Hawaii, through a southeast Asian Pacific wanderlust surfing tour with his friend Bryan in his twenties, and ends with a middle aged father slumming nor easter chop on the island and the Jersey Shore If I read onedescription of a wave, whether it be how ...

Barbarian Days
  • English
  • 13 January 2017
  • Hardcover
  • 447 pages
  • 1594203474
  • William Finnegan
  • Barbarian Days