Barbarian Days Summary
William Finnegan

Barbarian Days Overview

In this memoir, Finnegan describes his lifelong obsession to find the perfect wave and to reflect on surfing. Starting with his family's move to Hawaii in 1966, Finnegan, who had been introduced to surfing in southern California, became a true adherent of the sport. He later rode the wave of the counterculture and traveled the world looking for surf spots in Hawaii, the South Pacific, Australia, South Africa, and San Francisco before settling in New York and becoming a New Yorker writer. In this book, he describes facing countless waves in beautiful terms that redefine to landlubbers what this sport means and the toll it takes on those who are obsessed with it.