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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
You can read my review at http://tims-reviews.blogspot.com/2017/01/book-review-20-great-santini.html
Conroy said his mother told the judge at her divorce hearing that he wouldn't need to call any of the children to testify for her. She gave him a copy of this book and said, 'this is all you need to know.' Santini is bigger than life, fascinating, abusive, mercurial. Santini WAS Conroy's father. Conroy got the last word.
Prince of Tides is in my top five favorite books of all time, but I'm not generally a fan of his other stuff. South of Broad is an exception. I read this because his new book, The Death of Santini, is out now and I figured I should read the first one first. It was...okay. The language is lush and beautiful, as Conroy's always is, but I got the impression that I was supposed to love Santini like his family did, and I couldn't do that. He is a great character, made me laugh, but I was more interested in Ben and his viewpoint than I was in Bull. I'm glad I read it, but I'm also glad I track on Goodreads, because I'm sure I'll forget it.
This is my all-time favorite book. Period.
In reading it, I feel I have been given the rare opportunity to walk around inside my father’s head, the rare opportunity to experience his childhood alongside him, the rare opportunity to understand an inscrutable man.
It is a privilege to have read Conroy’s art.
In reading it, I feel I have been given the rare opportunity to walk around inside my father’s head, the rare opportunity to experience his childhood alongside him, the rare opportunity to understand an inscrutable man.
It is a privilege to have read Conroy’s art.
I've read that people found Bull Meecham funny and charming, but to me he was just an asshole that made a lot of people miserable. Perhaps my own experiences color the man and the family a bit differently. From page one I despised 'The Great Santini' and even considered not continuing the novel. I'm glad I persevered. The remainder of the family and the people around them earned my time.
Conroy is a great writer and to draw from his own life for this novel was brave. There is tragedy and hope, and every other emotion in the spectrum, and throughout, I just kept my hopes on Ben and Mary Ann escaping to have wonderful lives. I imagine that is what happens when the written story ends.
Conroy is a great writer and to draw from his own life for this novel was brave. There is tragedy and hope, and every other emotion in the spectrum, and throughout, I just kept my hopes on Ben and Mary Ann escaping to have wonderful lives. I imagine that is what happens when the written story ends.
Reading Pat Conroy is akin to picking a scab. You know it's bad but you are compelled to do it. This utterly painful, completely Southern and resolutely related story is like the slow progression of a missile to the soul. Domestic violence, physical and emotional abuse, racism and ignorance balance precariously with love, wisdom, faith and redemption.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
I spent some time in Beaufort, SC, around the time that this book came out, so of course I got to have lunch with Pat Conroy one day. This book has so much Low Country flavor to it, you might as well be at a shrimp boil on the beach. The struggle between the father and son, which is central to this book, is very well depicted. Conroy writes of a son who had to abbreviate his coming of age in able to be tough enough to handle his father. Many people, particularly those whose fathers were career military, see themselves in this story.