William Finnegan wins most prestigious prize in journalism for his book Barbarian Days…
One year ago, the New Yorker staffer William Finnegan loosed his two-decades-in-the-making surf memoir Barbarian Days.
At the time, I expected a genteel read, a not particularly rigorous examination of a part-time surfer, a big-city fucker who dared to assume that he could reveal the mysteries of the game.
Instead, I was thrown under the bus of a two-day obsessive read. As I wrote at the time, I’d only penetrated three chapters into the book when we suddenly camping on Maui waiting for Honolua Bay to break and, shortly after, camping on the empty beach at Tavarua for a week and surfing a new discovery called Restaurants.
Soon, Grajagan in 1979, Africa and, later, among the big-wave surfers of Ocean Beach, San Francisco, and, then, spending long vacations on Madeira, waiting for Jardim Do Mar’s heavy deep-water right to break.
Photos scattered through the pages showed the author to have visible obliques, was long-haired and tanned. Finnegan was, is, a… stud?
I wasn’t the only one in thrall to Finnegan.
The Wall Street Journal called it “gorgeously written and intensely felt… dare I say that we all need Mr Finnegan… as a role model for a life, thrillingly, lived.”
The LA Times said, “It’s also about a writer’s life and, even more generally, a quester’s life, more carefully observed and precisely rendered than any I’ve read in a long time.”
And, announced only thirty minutes ago at Columbia University, Barbarian Days has won the Pulitzer Prize for biography. The prize committee praised it as, “A finely crafted memoir of a youthful obsession that has propelled the author through a distinguished writing career.”
The Pulitzer Prize, of course, is America’s most prestigious award in journalism. It also includes ten thousand dollars in prize money to each category winner.
Last year, when I asked Finnegan if he thought surfing was elevating or just another pointless pursuit he wrote, “It’s supremely useless, I think, and not at all ennobling. Which is not to say that a great many people, starting with you and me, don’t get a great deal out of it – even a reason to live. It just does nothing, obviously, for anybody else. It’s the ultimate selfish pursuit. You could argue that it teaches its devotees a few things about self-reliance and the grandeur of Nature – maybe even a little humility – and I guess I wouldn’t argue with that. But in the end surfing, in my opinion, does little or nothing to build or improve character. As we all know, a lot of assholes surf, and some of them surf well.”
On the plus side, “a lot of my best friends surf, and it can be a great deep thing to share with people you really like,” he wrote. “Non-surfers are certainly never going to understand it.”
Read about Barbarian Days, here.
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I read the whole, boring-ass book. By far the best parts were the Doc/OB sections. I had read those many moons ago when they were published in the New Yorker. This book was not good.
I knew that the posthumous George Gershwin commented on BeachGrit…
Glad I’m not the only one who just went over to look at the list 😉
Made me google “jared diamond surf”…
Ha ha yeah, mighta tried a couple of those, too. Then I told myself to stop being a fucking creepy stalker.
I kinda figured that a guy calling people cunts and complaining about Brazilians over on Stab was unlikely to have a Pulitzer on his mantle.
My trivia skills are negligible sans internet access.
prove it timmy
did you read only one book last year?
And humble, too! A good number in the peanut gallery here are published in media ranging from the pedestrian to the professional, so gimme a break. What year was your Pulitzer?
pedestrian, checking in!
You don’t want to get beyond that. Every well-crafted sentence is time wasted not surfing. Which is why Nick Carroll has so few well-crafted sentences.
The New Yorker is a great magazine, I think I might start subscribing. Does anyone know of any other good mags?
P.S: Congrats to the Pulitzer, most surfers have Caveira’s brain…
Animalsmag.com
You and @michaelciaramella:disqus are reinforcing why every uni-level writing instructor adamantly relies on the addage “go back to the text” before making claims in writing. Teaching moment!
well there you go. proof i know sweet fuck all about writing. while i found some passages really evocative i was bored but that may have to do with me having the 1-2 sec attention
look a squirrel!
About to buy, but to be clear, are there too many commas?
Yesss, the New Yorker has a lot of fucking commas. So totally agree. Finnegan’s been a staff writer there for some time, like 20 years I think? House style has a way of sinking in after a while, so it’s hard to imagine he’d do the book any differently than his day job.
Timmy, you’re my new favourite person on the Internet.
Yes it does because much of it was already previously published in the New Yorker…thus the writing style.
“This project has been Finnegan’s literary obsession for a very long time. It began as a series in our pages more than two decades ago…” The New Yorker, today.
I’m halfway through the book, having bought it eight months ago. Savoring and enjoying each chapter. He nails the SF section as I was living there when that went down (and I read the New Yorker pieces when they came out the next year). Enjoyable, easy to read, and, yes, full of commas. But so what…
Finnegan writes for the New Yorker and, yes, it’s a style thing.
The amount of fucks I give about this book equals the amount of Pulitzer winning books read by everyone commenting here.
No. Not any of the billion surf media articles sucking this hack’s cock has convinced me otherwise.
So much self love leaves little time for reading.
Exactly. I’m awaiting Wardo’s autobiography anyway.
The first half seemed to me the best, which is a common theme with biographies I’ve read lately. If the subject is still alive, that is.
I’m 98% sure you made that last part up
I’m almost done the book. It’s pretty good, but some of the sections drag on a bit long (most notably the SF part) for me. Also, I can’t help but be annoyed by all the, what I believe to be, overuse of commas, really. Every sentence seems to have 5 different side notes, which is difficult to look past once you become aware of it. I guess my main issues are stylistic preferences though, the story is great.
Also, I can’t figure out if he was talking about Restaurants or Cloudbreak in the Tavi section. He doesn’t mention a massive paddle out, which would be kinda hard to leave out if you’re talking about CB, but the way he described the wave made me think more of CB than Restaurants. Does anyone have any insight on this?
Great in places, tedious in others, not a great book, but a good one, yeah it was restaurants he was surfing!
how do you know? and did they just not see cloudbreak?
He did an interview on two of the podcasts I listen to – both surf splendor and surf simply, – not sure which interview it was but he said it was restaurants he surfed, both interviews are worth a listen, I think cloud break wasn’t discovered for a few years afterwards, but he has been back and surfed cloud break since!
Also Longform podcast: http://longform.org/posts/l…
Yes. Quote from interview with SURFER. “Later, with mixed feelings, I became a customer—a regular guest. That’s when I first surfed Cloudbreak—we never suspected it was out there.”
whole interview: http://www.surfermag.com/fe…
You don’t happen to be a book salesman in La Jolla do you Michael? Do you hate Escalades, brand new boards and “monkey suits”? I’ve never been to Fiji but kind of assumed Restaurants was named Restaurants because of a restaurant? Presumably the restaurant wasn’t there back when Finnegan had black pubes? I’m really making an idiot of myself today.
it could have been named later. he never named the spot in the book, just called it tavarua or da kine
Restaurants named because out front of the restaurant now on Tavi!! Maybe called something else before??? Pretty fucking fickle as wraps right around when swell is on – but needs swell – not even breaking when Cloudbreak is say 5ft.
Cloudbreak would be a 3km paddle away!!
Get yourself there mate is great wave
My cousin tells me that Cloudbreak doesn’t break on the “real” Cloudbreak bit of reef until it gets above that 5-6ft mark. He says it’s a pretty gentle wave up until that size….? I only ask this because I’ve seen old men who surf like absolute shit sitting out at 2ft Jan Juc raving about surfing 6ft Cloudbreak. Does their surfing ability just turn on in bigger waves or are they dumb cunts?
They are dumb cunts because under 5- 6ft is actually really rippable and generally softish. The occasional one bends on that west bowl to barrel tho. Could make them look good easily.
Last year I could not believe how many hipster kooks were surfing it.
I just paddled deeper and deeper and took every wave I wanted.
Having said that when bit bigger few take off spots as well and spreads crowd. Those 2 ft kooks could easily just get few long rides and think they are ripping.
Thanks for an intelligent response Tom. Bloody rare round here. I’d love to try it out. I’ve spent nearly every overseas trip staying away from well known spots as they usually only fill me with absolute hate for other surfers. I’m going to Maldives with my old man in a couple of months so he can get some little peelers before he carks it. I’m dreading surfing with so many other surfers. Hopefully they’re mostly shit carters so I can do what you did at CB. Did you read about me strangling a Brazzo at Witch’s Rock a couple of months ago? Happy days.
Oh Fuck just posted to Chas about that apparently Maldives gone beserk under new government really radical Islam now!!! haven’t been there id like to now someone warned me off it
I actually stayed away from Tavi or namotu with family and boated in – is epic and worth it once, luckily been there 3 times now. But you will be filled with hate for other surfers there!!!. Luckily the crowd can spread and go “off season” . I have been there November all 3 times so meant to be wet. Actually because west side Fiji is actually dry – shouldn’t mentioned that. Hopefully no one can read!!!
Haha I don’t know how the Prince of Ubatuba is going to go abiding by Sharia Law. Probably not well. I’m a big advocate of “off-season” for all but some locations. I’m more than happy to sacrifice the ultimate conditions for good conditions if it means there are less people. I don’t give a fuck if its 1ft or 10ft. If you’re not working and you’re putting away cans and surfing you can’t be having a bad time. Good tip re Fiji!
Mate people I know just canned Maldives totally – may be place to go crowd wise.
Guess just don’t get on piss too hard and get any chicks cans out or likely get stoned!!!
I’m already considered an international criminal for those exact reasons but at least I didn’t get done exposing myself to kids like Mitch Coleborn. It looks like Chozza isn’t the only one who may get beheaded this year!
Ha Ha reminds me of very early trip to northern Sumatra. We were surfing basically a reef break that was I guess mushroom shaped. No bigger than 4 ft but because was mushroom/domed shaped once you straightened out on one you were fucked. Standing in knee deep water with set bearing down couldn’t duck dive etc. heaviest surfs there EVER.
Anyway mate got caught inside and proceeded to break ankle – FUCKING funny but the rough road 3 hr drive to doctor wasn’t. Then the 6 hr drive to airport was even unfunnier – being a mate I stayed and continued surfing.
The whole village basically tried to come into x ray room and being semi naked in a heavy Islamic region was not funny – guys were fucking aggressive!!
I’m guessing that’s mostly on Male’?
Yeah re Maldives not sure mate – just know they canned it as thought be too hectic. May make crowds better?? Still like to go Maldives but maybe other spots first
The Maldives has been a pretty full on dictatorial theocracy for a while now and have made Amnesty International’s shit list for decades for torture, unlawful imprisonment etc… Transparency International also have a chapter there which is a pretty good indication of the level of corruption. Last year the VP tried to blow up the President (missed his wife, got his yacht). Mostly though, none of the visiting surfers seem to have noticed at all as very few ever go to Male or inhabited islands.
And Happy surfing with your Old man because that is what is all about mate
Hope you both get a few
Is your old man “trying” out a board from a surf shop for the trip?
He has mellowed a lot in his old age and is in pretty poor health so he’s not really up for punching out young wiry cunts from the surf shop anymore. If it makes you feel any better about the Prince of Ubatuba I reckon I’ve given a good 15 or 20 decent or good boards to the local surf shops over the last fifteen years or so and told them to give them to young kids who are trying to learn or improve. One of the surf shops put a price tag of $550.00 on an Al Merrick I gave them and I’ve black listed them ever since. It’s probably poor taste to name them on here being a pretty small community but for fuck sake guys at least I admit to being a shit human being.
strapper
Haha lets just say it was Go Ride A Wave surf hire because no one will give a fuck if we call them cunts (they probably don’t even sell boards). Right next door is Bells Bakery where you get yelled at for making an order if you’re on your phone so I make a concerted effort to be on my phone everytime to rile them up. You should’ve seen how angry everyone got about a bit of graffiti on the sign at Bells. People want to stab eachother!
FFS
Is everyone around here from Torquay/Juc?
@Negatron
@capnbirdseye
I only drove though for a few years…
I only know Uncle Chop Chop is. Negatron is a Kiwi broo.
Uncle Chop Chop?
Well at least he’s got something going for him…
Another mutant is Teahupoo, which I have never been to, and according to an ex pro acquaintance, is a barrel fest for any cook at up to 6 foot hawaian, and over 6 foot turns to fickle death defying experience.
High tide also makes it more soft. There is some classic footage in that bootleg movie “Stealing Tom” of Andy spinning a bunch of 360s at big mushy Cloudbreak, to a Billy Idol song if I remember correctly.
The comma thing is New Yorker house style. You can read more than you want to know about it here, http://www.newyorker.com/cu…
There are some lovely sections in the book, but I’d agree it does occasionally lag.
The answer to your Fiji question is towards the end of the book.
Restaurants, it’s in the book.
He’s talking about Restaurants. He does make clear at some point that they didn’t realize CB was out there.
Fantastic book. I appreciate the occasional reminder, as was the case with this book, that there are people who surf with a brain. So easy to forget.
It’s an optical illusion.