Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Barbarian days could have been about surfing, friendship, journalism, politics or overtourism among other themes. Instead, Bill (it feels weird to go by Finnegan after reading 500 pages of such personal narrative) blends these together beautifully, particularly in the final chapter. Admittedly, there were some passages where I needed to be patient with the surf jargon, but I suppose that’s part of the story and it’s not detailed to the point that I would have overlooked this memoir; the author’s story is really just too good to miss out on.



View all my reviews