PositiveEntertainment WeeklyBarbarian Days is overflowing with vivid descriptions of waves caught and waves missed, of disappointments and ecstasies and gargantuan curling tubes that encircle riders like cathedrals of pure stained glass. These paragraphs, with their mix of personal remembrance and subcultural taxonomies, tend to be as elegant and pellucid as the breakers they immortalize. Of course, that doesn’t stop them from starting to blur together once you’ve reached the 50th or so description, and it can be hard for noninitiates to keep their enthusiasm keen. But despite a little bit of chop, this memoir is one you can ride all the way to shore.
Jay Parini
PositiveEntertainment WeeklyOne senses that Vidal’s overstuffed life might have been more fun to live than read about—the book can be as name-droppy as its subject notoriously was—but Parini finds the man beneath the accomplishments.
