In 'Barbarian Days,' William Finnegan takes readers on a thrilling journey through the world of surfing, exploring the ocean's depths and the exhilaration of riding waves. This memoir captures the essence of adventure, detailing Finnegan's experiences from the beaches of California to the remote shores of Africa and beyond. With poetic prose, he reflects on the raw beauty of nature and the complexities of human connection in the surf culture. As he navigates both the waves and his own identity, readers are invited to contemplate what it truly means to be free. Finnegan's tale is not just about surfing; it's about the pursuit of passion and the relentless search for meaning in life's currents.
By William Finnegan
Published: 2016
""The sea is a harsh mistress, but it is also a place of beauty and freedom, where every wave holds a story waiting to be told.""
Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Autobiography Included in President Obama’s 2016 Summer Reading List “Without a doubt, the finest surf book I’ve ever read . . . ” —The New York Times Magazine 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: 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.
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“"The sea is a harsh mistress, but it is also a place of beauty and freedom, where every wave holds a story waiting to be told."”
Barbarian Days
By William Finnegan
Discover a world of knowledge through our extensive collection of book summaries.
William Finnegan is an acclaimed American author and journalist, known for his profound exploration of personal and political themes through the lens of his own experiences. His notable works include 'Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life,' which won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 2016, and 'Cold New World,' a powerful narrative that critiques American society. Finnegan's writing style is characterized by its lyrical prose, deep introspection, and a keen sense of place, often blending genres of memoir and journalism. His ability to weave storytelling with social commentary has earned him a respected voice in contemporary literature.
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