Barbarian Days tracks the life of the author and his obsession with catching waves across the world. But it’s more than a 500-page travel diary, it’s an portrait of how a niche sporting culture can completely envelop someone’s universe.
After spending a childhood surfing in California and Hawaii, Finnegan opts to undergo an Odyssey of swell; travelling from the US to Australia, the South Sea Islands, South Africa, Europe and plenty more locations besides. But the land masses most people know from these places is almost irrelevant to Finnegan.
His creed are obsessed with the underwater topography: how shifting rocks, coral and sandbars will mix with the tide and wind and swell to produce towering waves that allow the few brave souls who try to ride them a few seconds glory in a life spent paddling against the tide.
The journey that occupies the centre chapters of the book encompasses friends, family, love, relationships, jobs, religion and how all of the above relate to pursuing that one perfect wave that dissolves everything else in life for a minute or less.
Barbarian days is outright fascinating. Finnegan has seen things and been to places that only a hardy few can claim to match. In doing so he’s almost been killed on a handful of occasions, observed the volatile struggle of apartheid South Africa and become an esteemed writer at the New Yorker covering conflict around the globe.
This might not be the sort of book that makes you want to pick up a board and sprint to the nearest ocean – frankly, Finnegan’s addictive relationship with surfing makes the sport seem terrifying and inaccessible at times – but it does offer a glimpse into a life not many people know about, and even fewer get to experience.
Daily Express :: Entertainment Feed
