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Penguin Books

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life

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Description

Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for AutobiographyIncluded in President Obama’s 2016 Summer Reading List“Without a doubt, the finest surf book I’ve ever read . . . ” —The New York Times MagazineBarbarian Days is William Finnegan’s memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment. Surfing only looks like a sport. To initiates, it is something else: 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 forged in challenging waves. Finnegan shares stories of life in a whites-only gang in a tough school in Honolulu. 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. As Finnegan’s travels take him ever farther afield, he discovers the picturesque simplicity of a Samoan fishing village, dissects the sexual politics of Tongan interactions with Americans and Japanese, and navigates 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. Read more


Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Reprint edition (April 26, 2016)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Paperback ‏ : ‎ 464 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0143109391


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 96


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.5 ounces


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 1.3 x 5.4 x 8.3 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #9,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #2 in Surfing #31 in Traveler & Explorer Biographies #499 in Memoirs (Books)


#2 in Surfing:


#31 in Traveler & Explorer Biographies:


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • Entertaining
Easy read, fun adventures, well described. If you enjoy surf or exotic travel, you’ll enjoy this. Truly living his life’s passion
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2023 by DJ
    • I have never been on a board, only body surfed once, having my proverbial handed back to me, barely walking away with lumbo -sacral disc damage. What did I miss!! W. Finnegan’s
I have never been on a board, only bodysurfed once, having my proverbial handed back to me, barely walking away with lumbo -sacral disc damage. What did I miss!! W. Finnegan’s well-deserved Pulitzer winning masterpiece gives even the ignoramous such as myself an intimate view of how a lifelong hobby, a lifestyle of love for an activity, can transport that person to a level of appreciation for life far beyond that of we mere mortals. My humblest thanks for your sharing your dreams with those of us who have not dared to imagine themselves so totally captivated by life. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2023 by K. Anderson
    • Wonderful book
Was just fun. Well written and a great look at a life well lived.
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2023 by Evan Smith
    • The More Things Change, the More the Waves Stay the Same
A terrific book on waves written by a professional reporter, Barbarian Days smashes the stereotype of the inarticulate surfer. The watery descriptions are so vivid you can taste the salt, even when the going gets so tough, its hard to understand why the hell anything but a fish would be out in such major surf. While many tails about summiting mountains, distance swimming in open oceans or surfing waves "three refrigerators high" seem rather tall, Barbarian Days stays grounded in factual detail. The in-depth descriptions approach meditations on ocean currents, winds, reefs, surfing technique and surf board models, and yet fails to explain the question why. Certainly not the pursuit of glory, the author makes clear. Despite popular misconceptions, in the early days, the original surf culture downplayed heroics; boasts were bad form and showing off on a wave was as uncool as scoring points in a contest. In a sort of "right stuff" tone, Barbarian Days captures the authentic experience, without romance or glamour and portrays surfing as a cold, solitary test of courage. Though the author tells all, starting with his teenage addiction to waves, a mystery hangs over the book. Why freeze in stormy waters for eight hours, or summit peaks or struggle with a terminal disease against insurmountable odds? Is it human or superhuman to push the limits of tolerance when agony seems prevalent and ecstasy elusive? I once asked a three-time channel swimmer what kept him going in the cold dark ocean for 13 hours and he said "Beatle songs mostly, they just run though my head. I could almost hear the author humming in Barbarian Days, pretending the adventures are normal, though some accounts include an implicit "don't try this at home" caveat cause maybe it wasn't so smart to take such risks. In some instances, he confesses that he can't believe he came out alive. This is not a dull memoir. The childhood sections were so touching I wished my teenage son would read the book. On the other hand, I am relieved that my son doesn't read because he is growing up in a very different world. Though the quest to discover unknown waves in remote corners of the globe took knocking about to extremes, in the 1960's -1980's, traveling around was a coming of age ritual. Sadly, in this day and age, the world is not nearly as safe and faced with school and career pressures most kids won't have the luxury of an extended time out. One theme of the book concerns change. The author returned some early haunts later in life to find a remote island transformed into a luxury resort, or a coastal fishing village overrun by tourists. Lives and places change. The author aged, married, became a war correspondent, but chasing big surf remained a constant. The interplay took on a rhythmic symmetry, the more things changed the more the waves stayed the same. Like climbers with their mountains, and swimmers with their channels, for surfers the waves serve as a measure, a proving grounds, a retreat, a source of friends and a challenge that never stops calling. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2015 by adel
    • Great book. I’ve surfed my whole life and…
Review Image by Amy G Amy G
Review Image by Amy G Amy G
Review Image by Amy G Amy G
Great book describing the era he lived. These other surfers giving one star negative reviews, clearly don’t surf. I’ve traveled all over Indo, Mex, Europe and the Hawaiian islands and have very similar stories. I’ve read it three times now. Great writer and well deserved Pulitzer!! FIVE STARS FROM ME! ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2023 by Amy G Amy G
    • Great Book; Raises Questions
I took over a year to read this. Not because it was bad at all. I'm just not a great reader, and it feels like a book that you have the freedom to read at your own pace, largely because it covers many decades in the author's life. I read a few pages before bed every night. It is a calming book. It also raised some questions for me. The author mentions writing to friends, including male friends. That seemed really nice. It also reminded me of how I don't really keep in touch with friends like that. We have overly romanticized actual letters in this era, and so texting, despite being more immediate, feels less in your face and less like a declaration. That seems sad. It was nice to read about that. Maybe he wouldn't have written if he were just a few states away instead of a world away. But back then when there was no internet and long-distance calling wasn't a fun expense, maybe so. This just made me think a lot about how our technology has changed our communication and our levels of intimacy and what we like. I was not alive in the 70s and barely the 80s, but it is strange to think how unimaginable it is currently. The author also mentions how friends that he traveled with wanted to go see something else nearby, so he just stayed in that little town halfway across the world while he waited for them to return in a few days. It's clear that there's no internet at that time, obviously, and likely no New York Times. So he had to pass the time just by surfing by himself and talking with whatever locals or other travelers that he met in the moment. I can't imagine that. We need news and entertainment now all the time. There were just a few little things like that that made me think. This author's style seems very straightforward but not boring. I want to say like Hemingway, but I don't like Hemingway, so that's not at all helpful. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2020 by cmdodd11

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