Reviews
Bob Shacochis, Outside Magazine : "Fearless and full of grace." O, The Oprah Magazine : "Irresistible." Bookforum : "As it progresses the whole book turns into a portal...It's tempting to say that Barbarian Days will bring readers as close as they'll get to the surf, short of actual surfing. But I had a stronger reaction: The book brought me closer than I'd ever been, or expected to get, to the real, unfathomable ocean." O, The Oprah Magazine : "Irresistible." BBC.com : "A dream of a book by a masterful writer long immersed in surfing culture. Finnegan recaptures the waves lost and found, the euphoria, the danger...the allure." Publishers Weekly (starred review) : "Panoramic and fascinating...The core of the book is a surfing chronicle, and Finnegan possesses impeccable short-board bona fides...A revealing and magisterial account of a beautiful addiction." Mark Rotella, Publishers Weekly's Best Summer Books of the Summer: "Like that powerful, glassy wave, great books on surfing come few and far between. This summer, New Yorker writer Finnegan recalls his teenage years in the California and Hawaii of the 1960s--when surfing was an escape for loners and outcasts. A delightful storyteller, Finnegan takes readers on a journey from Hawaii to Australia, Fiji, and South Africa, where finding those waves is as challenging as riding them." Kirkus: "A fascinating look inside the mind of a man terminally in love with a magnificent obsession. A lyrical and intense memoir." Library Journal : "An up-close and personal homage to the surfing lifestyle through the author's journey as a lifelong surfer. Finnegan's writing is polished and bold...[A] high-caliber memoir.", Publishers Weekly (starred review) : "Panoramic and fascinating...The core of the book is a surfing chronicle, and Finnegan possesses impeccable short-board bona fides...A revealing and magisterial account of a beautiful addiction." Mark Rotella, Publishers Weekly's Best Summer Books of the Summer: "Like that powerful, glassy wave, great books on surfing come few and far between. This summer, New Yorker writer Finnegan recalls his teenage years in the California and Hawaii of the 1960s--when surfing was an escape for loners and outcasts. A delightful storyteller, Finnegan takes readers on a journey from Hawaii to Australia, Fiji, and South Africa, where finding those waves is as challenging as riding them." Kirkus: "A fascinating look inside the mind of a man terminally in love with a magnificent obsession. A lyrical and intense memoir." Library Journal : "An up-close and personal homage to the surfing lifestyle through the author's journey as a lifelong surfer. Finnegan's writing is polished and bold...[A] high-caliber memoir.", Kirkus: "A fascinating look inside the mind of a man terminally in love with a magnificent obsession. A lyrical and intense memoir."
