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The Resource Barbarian days : a surfing life, William Finnegan

Barbarian days : a surfing life, William Finnegan

Creator
Summary
A deeply-rendered self-portrait of a life-long surfer by the acclaimed New Yorker journalist Barbarian Days is William Finnegan's memoir of an obsession, of a complex enchantment. Surfing looks like a sport, but that's only to outsiders. To initiates, it is something else entirely: a beautiful addiction, 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, 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'and dramatizes 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 while his closest friend was a Hawaiian surfer, and of 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 acid while riding huge Honolua Bay on Maui'is served with rueful humor. Their knapsacks crammed with reef charts, he and a buddy 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 readers with him on rides of harrowing, unprecedented lucidity. Barbarian Days is an old-school adventure story, an intellectual autobiography, a social history, a literary road movie, and an extraordinary exploration of a novice's gradual mastering of a demanding, little-understood art. Today, Finnegan's surfing life is undiminished. Frantically juggling work and family, he chases his enchantment through Long Island ice storms and obscure corners of Madagascar
Language
eng
Work
Instance
Label
Barbarian days : a surfing life
Title
Barbarian days
Title remainder
a surfing life
Statement of responsibility
William Finnegan
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
A deeply-rendered self-portrait of a life-long surfer by the acclaimed New Yorker journalist Barbarian Days is William Finnegan's memoir of an obsession, of a complex enchantment. Surfing looks like a sport, but that's only to outsiders. To initiates, it is something else entirely: a beautiful addiction, 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, 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'and dramatizes 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 while his closest friend was a Hawaiian surfer, and of 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 acid while riding huge Honolua Bay on Maui'is served with rueful humor. Their knapsacks crammed with reef charts, he and a buddy 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 readers with him on rides of harrowing, unprecedented lucidity. Barbarian Days is an old-school adventure story, an intellectual autobiography, a social history, a literary road movie, and an extraordinary exploration of a novice's gradual mastering of a demanding, little-understood art. Today, Finnegan's surfing life is undiminished. Frantically juggling work and family, he chases his enchantment through Long Island ice storms and obscure corners of Madagascar
Biography type
autobiography
Cataloging source
RECBK
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Finnegan, William
Dewey number
797.32092
Index
no index present
LC call number
GV839.5
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
dictionaries
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Finnegan, William
  • Surfing
  • Surfers
  • BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY
  • BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY
  • SPORTS & RECREATION
  • Finnegan, William
  • Surfers
  • Surfing
Label
Barbarian days : a surfing life, William Finnegan
Link
Instantiates
Publication
Note
Title from resource description page (Recorded Books, viewed June 19, 2014)
Antecedent source
unknown
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Control code
ocn883320823
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource
File format
unknown
Form of item
online
Isbn
9780698163744
Level of compression
unknown
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Publisher number
EB00389927
Quality assurance targets
not applicable
Reformatting quality
unknown
Sound
unknown sound
Specific material designation
remote
Stock number
0334ECD1-DB1B-499E-B214-1A152439D2C4
System control number
(OCoLC)883320823
Label
Barbarian days : a surfing life, William Finnegan
Link
Publication
Note
Title from resource description page (Recorded Books, viewed June 19, 2014)
Antecedent source
unknown
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Control code
ocn883320823
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource
File format
unknown
Form of item
online
Isbn
9780698163744
Level of compression
unknown
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Publisher number
EB00389927
Quality assurance targets
not applicable
Reformatting quality
unknown
Sound
unknown sound
Specific material designation
remote
Stock number
0334ECD1-DB1B-499E-B214-1A152439D2C4
System control number
(OCoLC)883320823

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