![]() ![]() His fate was sealed when his family moved to Hawaii, the mother ship of surf culture. Surfing fit into the broader milieu of experimentation and counterculture and appealed to his anti-authoritarian leanings. Now 62, Finnegan came of age during the 1960s, a time that coincided with the rise in popularity of shortboards-a faster, more maneuverable board that replaced mellower longboards. A staff writer at The New Yorker since the 1980s, he is one of a handful of people with the credentials to bridge the gap between surfing and literary cultures.īarbarian Days: A Surfing Life is a 447-page paean to Finnegan’s obsession with surfing-both in and out of the water-from tribal affiliations and rivalries to sacrificed relationships and bruised egos (mainly his own) that come from loving something deeply.ĭivided into 10 chapters, the book traces Finnegan’s life on the water, starting from his early days as a grom (neophyte surfer) in Southern California. ![]() ![]() William Finnegan has spent much of his life chasing challenging waves. J| 400 words, about 2 minutes Share this article Cover image courtesy of Penguin Random House, background image courtesy of William Finnegan Book Review: Barbarian Days The memoir of a life lived on the water, from a veteran writer and surfer. ![]()
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