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Nov 27, 7am ~~ Review asap.Nov 27, 130pm ~~ Anyone who reads Pat Conroy knows there is pain on every page, so I was expecting a painful read with this book that shared more family history and the passing away of first his mother and then his father, immortalized in an early book as The Great Santini. Painful I expected and painful I got. Intensely, gruesomely painful. And I was left wondering about courage. Is it more courageous to stay locked into childhood family roles to the end of time, know...
My mother was an avid reader, plowing through two or three books every week, always searching for that wonderful gem, which she would then direct me, in no uncertain terms, to read: “I just discovered your next book - “The Prince of Tides” - and you need to read it. Let me know what you think the next time you come over for dinner.” I suspected an implied threat; worse, this book’s review was not appealing, not my genre. But wait - Pat Conroy - he wrote “The Great Santini.” Every Marine officer
I'm always giddy when Conroy has a new publication!
If you've never read Conroy, there's no reason to read this book.If you've read some Conroy, it may look interesting but I don't know if it would hold you.If you've read nearly all Conroy (like me) it's basically essential, even though it's much like Conroy himself: a mix of brilliant and maddening.At times his prose just kills me with its emotion and loveliness. But he has his weaknesses, and his ability to tell real stories from his own life isn't always as strong as his ability to write ficti...
As some of you may know, I love Pat Conroy’s writing style. He can paint a scene better than pretty much any other author that I have ever read. This memoir had me laughing and crying. Although it’s often raw and painful (Pat was the oldest of seven children, five of whom tried to kill themselves before the age of forty); there is so much love and a wonderful sense of closure. Here’s an anecdote that I’ve seen him write about in another book, as well as a quote: “Tell Him the Wrong Number, Mom.
I love everything that Pat Conroy writes. This is such a moving story. I guess all families have issues - some more than others. Pat has certainly has had more than his share of heartache. You cannot read this novel without sympathy for Pat and his family (except Carol Ann). I thoroughly dislike his sister who constantly denigrates Pat and his writing. Her attitude is that Pat's writing is "crap" and people who read it are uneducated and brainless. Only people who enjoy her poetry are intelligen...
Pat Conroy’s classic southern novel The Great Santini is, in the words of the author, the story of his own family growing up as the children of a Marine Corps colonel and a sharecropper’s granddaughter. In his penultimate book, The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son, Conroy describes his actual life with his family and his father, Marine fighter pilot Col. Don Conroy, the original Great Santini. This nickname even appears on his military gravestone at the National Cemetery in Be...
I always feel hugely foolish in trying to write any sort of review for a book written by Pat Conroy. There is too much in my opinion to summarize. One must read his books. I love the way Pat Conroy writes, the way he constructs his sentences, for me it reads like poetry. I believe there are two poets in the Conroy family. I hope this book does complete the circle for Pat Conroy and that he can move on and beyond this place he has occupied all his life. Often it takes the death of parents to see
I have been a fan of Pat Conroy for a long time. Yes, he has a way with words, but I'm sorry to say that I am weary of his whining I, too, was born in the south about the same time he was. My parents weren't perfect either, Pat. It's time to get over it. I think you've exploited your poor upbringing one time too many. How many names can you drop in one chapter? This is bad form, my friend. Make us all proud by resting on your laurels. Thank you for bowing out gracefully.
I am not a fan of ice storms in the south, as I am a warm weather fiend and much prefer the humid, sunny days we're used to. But with everything shut up tight and nowhere to go, I spent the day finishing Conroy's latest book. My feelings have been all over the map regarding this one.....wanting to throw it across the room at some points because, really Pat, how many people and places can you blame for the man you turned out to be? Your Mom and Dad we're used to from reading your fiction, but Chi...
Pat Conroy was in Nashville for a publicity tour October 29 -- the day this book came out. Four of my friends and I were able to attend -- front row seats! -- when he was interviewed by Ann Patchett. He can tell a story in person as well as he can write so it was a real treat. Several of the stories he told appeared in the book and we all laughed until our sides hurt. He has a talent for sarcastic humor that might be best appreciated by those of us from large, dysfunctional families. To me he is...
This book left me cold on many levels. First of all the writing just isn't that great. It's so overblown and flowery at some points that it reminds me of a precocious high school student's writing. In addition, he is downright petty. Oh no, he would never write a negative review of the works of his brother and sister writers but that won't stop him from passive/aggressive sniping. I get that he's bitter about some of his reviews and treatment (being unfairly fired from his teaching job) but he c...
If Pat Conroy writes it, the star rating will always be five. Conroy says this is his last goodbye in books to his dad and mom. It will be interesting to see how he shapes the books yet to come. This last book met my expectations of a great book, but it stands somehow unique to me. First, he is more ready to stand back and let us into the darker side of his mother. As he describes it, the mother portrayed in his previous works were the mother seen through her child's eyes. It wasn't so much abou...
I can't decide which I dislike more Pat himself, his mother, his father, his sister or this horribly rambling and egotistical book. If you want to feel good about your own family this holiday season you might want to read this but I wouldn't recommend it.
As Pat Conroy acknowledges early in this memoir-of-sorts he has been writing about his family for decades, oh-so-thinly veiling their identities in novels such as THE GREAT SANTINI, THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE, THE PRINCE OF TIDES, and BEACH MUSIC. This time, though, he promises to avoid the misdirections of fiction and address his family's twisted history as straightforward as possible.He should've stayed with the novels.If you've read a Conroy novel (or read about the novelist himself), then you a...
When my requested copy of "The Death of Santini" came to my library I had to put everything aside to explore this autobiography by one of my very favorite authors. By page four of the prologue the tears were flowing. Pat Conroy put the words on paper that I have been wanting to write my whole life. Though not an exact replica, my life growing up as the daughter of a Senior Master Sargent, in the army, held similar emotions for me that Conroy so eloquently describes. I got through the prologue th...
The level of dysfunction gets tedious after a while. Conroy's tone starts to sound like whining and raises some doubt about how objective his perspective really is. The most interesting part f the book was the making of the movie, The Great Santini.
To reach a plateau of understanding about yourself, your family and your situation is a phenomenon in itself. This is the true story of The Great Santini, no holds barred. His father was a real brute; abusive at all times, very opinionated, treated his daughters as if they didn't exist and with abusive men I know (as they get older) they deny all the accusations. Let me not leave out their mother, Peggy Conroy. She waited 30 years to divorce their father instead of taking them out of that misera...
Pat Conroy is a marvelous fiction writer , one of my all time favorites . This autobiographical book clears up some of the identity mystery of Mr Conroy and his family , yet it does not really shed any new light on this deeply troubled family . In fact , it leaves me somewhat confused . Again his parents take the full brunt of responsibility for the trials and tragedies of the children . Pat Conroy mentions multiple times ( in passing ) his personal breakdowns and suicidal episodes , the mental
The relationship between father and son is examined in detail, after the fiction of the Great Santini. Parents shape their children for both good and bad. This story examines it in Pat Conroy's case.