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.

Quest for the perfect wave, and introspection.

I liked this book, a lot. William Finnegan has earned his chops in journalism and it shows in this insightful memoir. The level of detail is impressive as Finnegan leads us through the phases of his life, each associated with a surfing location and a level of surfing skill. It's hard not to appreciate Finnegan's devotion to his sport (he rightfully questions whether surfing is, in fact, a sport) and the extent to which the myriad waves, locales, characters and experiences are cataloged in his mind.

The book is presented as a series of vignettes, each tied to a specific place or places. They unfold more or less chronologically, though there are numerous excursions into other places and times for the sake of comparison. There are highly "technical" descriptions of the many types of waves, and these are interwoven with keen observations of the personal, social, cultural and political contexts in which they are located. Many individuals and events are recalled in the book. Some are famous, but most are not (at least outside the insular world of surfing), and the book is very much about Finnegan's relationships with these people.

Other reviews have been critical of the length of the work, but I found it entrancing and eagerly awaited my next bit of free time so I could return to his world and was sad indeed to reach the end. Finnegan narrates his own work in a casual tone, relatively devoid of emotion. I'm sure another narrator would have brought more emotion to the book, but I was grateful for the honest delivery and the somewhat dispassionate delivery from his vantage, now somewhat removed from the actual settings.

Finnegan and I are about the same age. I found much familiar territory in his observations about home, family, work, sport, and the passage of time. I recommend it.

Top 5 Best Books I've Ever Read!!!

If you could sum up Barbarian Days in three words, what would they be?

Exciting, Descriptive, Breathtaking

What did you like best about this story?

I didn't want it to end. The way he describes each and every place he surfed and lived with such detail, really sucks you in. William Finnegan is such a great writer. It made me want to quite my job and travel the world surfing!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There were times when I was laughing out loud and also probably making some pretty intense faces while driving!

Any additional comments?

I've recommended this book to all of my friends that surf, including the ones that don't. Read this book!

Fantastic writer, a sublime journey...

Any additional comments?

Barbarian Days moved me in many ways. I found Finnegan's exquisite observations and delectable word craft to be so mesmerizing I immediately fell under his spell. To deepen my trance his vocal gait added a power as I willingly “rag dolled" into the white water of the surfing life. Myself not a surfer, was exposed to a subculture of slang, tradition and rite of passage.

This fascinating experience of one mans quest for mastery led him to the many exotic oceanic coastal waters of the world. He was willing to risk it all for some mystical desire; this unknown force pulling him deeper to find the perfect wave.

I listened while this boy went searching for his place in the world, being drawn to claim his ground by reading and riding waves, learning a code among peers, growing deep friendships, taking extreme risks and develop his craft of skillful wave riding over many years.

Some people think they will never find meaning in their lives only to discover their true purpose is the journey itself.

Barbarian Days was time well spent for me. I admired this journey - this committed path and what I saw was a man driven from within and a life well lived...

One of the best books I've ever read

And I've read every day of my life since I began reading at age 6. This is so involving and visceral and real and so BEAUTIFULLY written. It's a masterpiece. I'd like to live in this book. Especially in the wave so transparent you couldn't see it. The BEST.

From Bum to Best Seller

Would you listen to Barbarian Days again? Why?

Eventually I will return to listen again - I did not want the journey to end.The story of a beach bum, surfer, scholar, beatnik - culminates in his delivery a pulitzer prize winning account of his life. An Amazing journey globetrotting on a beggars budget - the traveller finds more than his fair share of the highest quality gems at each stop he makes along the way - and he describes with zeal each of those incredible objects to us in extreme detail.This is no hero tale - the author leaves a lot to be desired as a perfect human - but his writing is magnificent...Best suited to surfers who understand the nuances of waves - or for those who have been with anyone with an all consuming quest -Definitely worth a listen - this book is not one to skip - give it a try.

Whimsical and hopeless

This book makes me want to quit my job and travel the world; but it gives me a sense of hopelessness and emptiness right in middle of my chest since I know I will never experience life as beautifully and blissful as this.

For the record I’ve never surfed in my life and I couldn’t get enough of this.

More about surfing than I ever needed to know

Great book and story teller. Easy to see why he won the Pulitzer. But it was way too long in excruciating detail of each individual wave he ever surfed. 18 hours is a very very very long time to hear one talk about themselves. Also doesn’t help that the narrator is somewhat self absorbed.

The reading was great, until it wasn’t. There were frequent sentences spliced in that obviously came from a different recording session. It was very jarring to hear the pitch of his voice change in the middle of a chapter when this happened. The reading was fine, but the production value killed it.

A Perfect Swell

I saw this book recommended and decided to give it a go purely on a whim. It has become one of my favourite audiobooks of all time. I come back to it time and time again and find myself listening to particular portions repeatedly. It traverses a lifetime and half the planet, giving an insight into a world reserved for those mad enough to seek it out. Highly recommended.

a genuine voice

my grandson took up surfing passionately. I wanted to understand this endeavor.
This book worked.

Love the adventure and beautiful writing

The author has a way of taking you with him on the surfboard to appreciate, thrill, and even fear his capricious “mistress” the ocean. I’ve known a couple surfers and enjoyed the in-depth exploration of their world. I found the glimpses into his family, friends, and their parents quite interesting, as well as the frank portrayal of a time when as children we were much less supervised and hovered over than even our own children would be later on. I enjoyed the vicarious thrills of the beach with poisonous snakes and other dangerous spots where he and his friends seemed to take things in stride.