Finnegans treatment of surfing never feels like performance. Barbarian days is as much a recollection and observation of a life among the swells as it is a reckoning with this fugitive patch. Barbarian days is an oldschool adventure story, an intellectual autobiography, a social history, a literary road movie, and an extraordinary exploration of the gradual mastering of an exacting, littleunderstood art get the book. The 2016 pulitzer prize winners were announced yesterday, and among the winners is surfer senior writer, and longtime new yorker staffer, william finnegan, whose memoir barbarian days. Pulitzer prize winner william finnegan on his balinese book tour last november.
Back in my own pigtail days, when i was pounding pavements to craft stories for journalism school, we had the pleasure of a master class with bill finnegan, the kind. Ive been watching for this book for nearly a decade. He has twice been a national magazine award finalist and has won numerous journalism awards, including two overseas press club awards. To break it down further, it is more life 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. A surfing life, william finnegan barbarian days is one of my personal favourite travel books. Praise for barbarian days without a doubt, the finest surf book ive ever read.
Barbarian days is an oldschool adventure story, an intellectual autobiography, a social history, a literary road movie, and an extraordinary exploration of the gradual mastering of an exacting, littleunderstood art. Dreams of laura ingalls wilder, by caroline fraser metropolitan books. Raised in california and hawaii, finnegan started surfing as a child. He first spotted it when he was 10, watching a break. In fact, there is no wave in his memoir barbarian days that finnegan cant. New yorker writer willian finnegan has described surfing in his pulitzer prizewinning memoir barbarian days. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read barbarian days. Early in the book, finnegan examines how the pull of waves is intimately connected to their lethal nature. Throughout barbarian days, finnegan contrasts the intensity of a life spent surfing, with that of a life spent chasing stories across wartorn countries. A deeply rendered selfportrait of a lifelong surfer by the acclaimed new yorker writer barbarian days is william finnegans memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment. Through the sheer intensity of his descriptive powers and the undeniable ways in which surfing has shaped his life, barbarian days is an utterly convincing study in the joy of treating seriously an unserious thing. Surfline sits down with author and journalist william finnegan.
Its not so much about epic journeys as some of the other books on this list, but its still an inspiring story about a sport that for many is a way of life. Barbarian days, a surfing life by william finnegan. A deeply rendered selfportrait of a lifelong surfer by the acclaimed new yorker writer free delivery on. A surfing life william finnegan, 2015 penguin 464 pp. Through the sheer intensity of his descriptive powers and the undeniable ways in which surfing has shaped his life, barbarian days is an utterly convincing study in the joy of treating seriously an unserious thingas finnegan demonstrates, surfing, like good writing, is an act of vigilant noticing. Finnegan observes that though surfing appears to be a simple sport to many, being a talented surfer requires a lifelong obsession. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Im the same age as the author and i lived a similar lifestyle in the 1970s 1980s in different space, but comparable events surfing finding perfect waves love before marriage and creative documentary writing and outdoor adventures galore but william finnegan is capable of describing his lifes events in a unique. It is in many ways, and for the first time, a surfer in full. Fans of memoirs that dive deep below the surface to cover topics ranging from politics to love to travel, all under the umbrella of one mans passion for surfing. Without a doubt, the finest surf book ive ever read. William finnegan first started surfing as a young boy in california and hawaii. Each wave tells a story in barbarian days july 21, 2015 a surfing memoir might not be what youd expect from a seasoned new yorker reporter, but. Tossing aside a mundane and meaningless job, daniel duane went to santa cruz, california, to surf for year.
Barbarian days, a surfing life by william finnegan surfline sits down with author and journalist william finnegan. Finnegan has certainly written a surfing book for surfers, but on a more fundamental level, barbarian days offers a cleareyed vision of american boyhood. He sees himself as a man who needs to chase danger, and can only relax after having exhausted that part of himself. Barbarian days compelling truths of the 1960s 1980s. William finnegan surfs the meaning of his barbarian days. Barbarian days is an oldschool 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. A deeply rendered selfportrait of a lifelong surfer by the accla. A surfing life is more the subtitle than the title that is, a surfing life. Praise for barbarian days without a doubt, the finest surf book ive ever.
Barbarian days is his immersive memoir of a life spent travelling the world chasing waves through the south pacific, australia, asia, africa, peru and beyond. A surfing life, william finnegan, a writer for the new yorker, writes about his experience surfing and how it has changed his life. Barbarian days is his immersive memoir of a life spent travelling. Like jon krakauers into the wild, it is a sympathetic examination of what happens when literary ideas of freedom and purity take hold of a young mind and fling his body out into the far reaches of the world.
Finnegan describes the edgy yet enduring brotherhood forged among the swell of the surf. He is the author of cold new world, a complicated war, dateline soweto, and crossing the line. A surfing life as a secret garden, not easily entered, implying those who dont. The star is the surfing, and the waves, which the author studies all over the world, from a hundred different anglesone takes away from barbarian days a sense of a big, windchapped, welllived life. A surfing life took home top honors for biography finnegans memoir has drawn high praise from all. Barbarian days is william finnegans memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment. Barbarian days is his immersive memoir of a life spent travelling the world chasing waves. The following is from william finnegans memoir barbarian days. A surfing life by william finnegan the art of hee nalu surfing was kept alive in hawaii after its ritual aspects were all but expunged by 19thcentury christian missionaries, as much offended by the barbaric nearnakedness of its practitioners as by their apparent sinful pleasure in riding the sea on narrow planks. Finnegan has been a staff writer at the new yorker since 1987. Barbarian days is less an ode to independence than a celebration of deliberate constriction, of making choices that. Download book pdf pdf free pdf file ebook biography barbarian days.
Just sturdy verbs, a casual flowing power, tantric masculine reticence, a melancholy sense of a sidewisedrifting life. A surfing life at a library or book store nearby, or buy a copy online. Winner of the pulitzer prize for biography 2016 surfing only looks like a sport. Finnegans surfing life from his childhood in california and then hawaii, where his family moved. Raised in california and hawaii, finnegan started surfing as.
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