{"product_id":"barbarian-days-a-surfing-life-the-2016-pulitzer-prize-winner-in-biography","title":"Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life | The 2016 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Biography","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBarbarian Days: A Surfing Life\u003c\/strong\u003e by \u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWilliam Finnegan\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eBarbarian Days\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is William Finnegan’s memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment. Surfing only looks like a sport. To initiates, it is something else: a beautiful addiction, a demanding course of study, a morally dangerous pastime, a way of life. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eRaised 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, and then an excessively adventurous young man, he went on to become a distinguished writer and war reporter. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eBarbarian Days\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e takes us deep into unfamiliar worlds, some of them right under our noses—off the coasts of New York and San Francisco. It immerses the reader in the edgy camaraderie of close male friendships forged in challenging waves.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eFinnegan shares stories of life in a whites-only gang in a tough school in Honolulu. He shows us 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 LSD while riding huge Honolua Bay, on Maui—is served up with rueful humor. As Finnegan’s travels take him ever farther afield, he discovers the picturesque simplicity of a Samoan fishing village, dissects the sexual politics of Tongan interactions with Americans and Japanese, and navigates the Indonesian black market while nearly succumbing to malaria. Throughout, he surfs, carrying readers with him on rides of harrowing, unprecedented lucidity.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eBarbarian Days \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eis an old-school adventure story, an intellectual autobiography, a social history, a literary road movie, and an extraordinary exploration of the gradual mastering of an exacting, little-understood art.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAbout the Author: \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWilliam Finnegan\u003c\/strong\u003e is the author of \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCold New World, A Complicated War, Dateline Soweto\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCrossing the Line\u003c\/em\u003e. He has twice been a National Magazine Award finalist and has won numerous journalism awards, including two Overseas Press Club awards since 2009. A staff writer at \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e since 1987, he lives in Manhattan.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFormat: Hardcover | Physical Info: \u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e1.5\" H x 9.4\" L x 6.2\" W (1.45 lbs) 464 pages\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47944639938858,"sku":"BarbarianLife-Hardback","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1190\/4902\/files\/BarbarianDays-Book-Surf-Independent.jpg?v=1712257659","url":"https:\/\/independentgoods.life\/products\/barbarian-days-a-surfing-life-the-2016-pulitzer-prize-winner-in-biography","provider":"Independent Goods","version":"1.0","type":"link"}