Barbarian Days A Surfing Life

I just read William Finnegans Barbarian Days a fine memoir of his surfing life.

Barbarian days a surfing life. Penguin Random House 2015. Do you remember the surf memoir called Barbarian Days. Surfing only looks like a sport.

A Surfing Life by William Finnegan review one hell of a ride A surfers tale of his quest for self-transcendence is a masterpiece that recalls early James Salter. Barbarian Days is his immersive memoir of a life spent travelling the world chasing waves through the South Pacific Australia Asia Africa and beyond. Finnegan describes the edgy yet enduring brotherhood forged among the swell of the surf.

As a surfer William Finnegan could likely be counted among the very few who have surfed many of the best challenging waves that the worlds most exotic locales have to offer. I dont know the others but he certainly is one. Finnegan states that surfers are perfectionists.

Barbarian Days is William Finnegans memoir of an obsession a complex enchantment. To initiates it is something else entirely. Surfing only looks like a sport.

The following is from William Finnegans memoir Barbarian Days. Raised in California and Hawaii Finnegan started surfing as a child. 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.

Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. A Surfing Life by the New Yorkers Bill Finnegan. A Surfing LifeFinnegan has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1987.