P  a  u  l  ' s
       P  a  t     C  o  n  r  o  y   
   
                                                                                                   p      a      g      e  
      


 


 In my personalized hand-signed
first edition of Prince the
inscription reads:

"To Paul Jr, who appreciated
The Water Is Wide, Pat Conroy"



  

 

  
So I said I was a "huge Pat Conroy fan" and
listed him as one of my favorite authors on the
 short list, yet I must first confess that I have not
read all his books (yet). Here's the complete list:
 The Boo
 (1970)		 haven't
read
 The Water
 Is Wide
 (1972)		 have
read
 The Great
 Santini
 (1976)		 haven't
read
 The Lords of
 Discipline
 (1980)		 have
read






 The Prince
 of Tides
 (1986)		 have
read
 Beach
 Music
 (1995)		 have
read
 My Losing
 Season
 (2002)		 have
read

     links  

I also must confess to not
really identifying closely with
any of Conroy's main characters
very much... i.e. they always seem
more different from me than similar
to me.

       Pat Conroy's official website









So why then make such a claim, having only read five Conroy books? Well, it's certainly the quality and not the quantity! No other writing has ever affected my emotions to such a degree, which is of course not to say Conroy makes cheap/easy plays to sentiment... No, Conroy transcends mere sentiment and poignancy with astounding human tragedy, so real and so vivid as to exact a genuine psychic toll on the reader. Handle these books with care! They are not for the weak.
 


Then there's the additional fact that Conroy's stories happen mostly in places I know and love, namely the South Carolina coast... And whenever he happens to make mention of Myrtle Beach, or Columbia (like especially an actual bar in Five Points), or any small SC town with which I'm acquainted, it just adds an uncanny touch of realism for me.

And if that wasn't enough, there's one thing more... Of course Pat Conroy and I are quite different people, but I sometimes pick up on subtle things in his writing, things that may not even have been deliberate, subtle things that suggest to me some sort of bond between he and I (real or imagined). This is simply because we share similar roots, having grown up in South Carolina yet both of us having later come to live far, far away, in other lands as it were (I believe when I was reading The Prince of Tides, he lived in San Francisco... When I read Beach Music he lived in Rome; I in San Diego).

Even when you don't wear it on your sleeve, home is always home, and whatever good and not-so-good goes along with that... Well, lacking for better eloquence, I suppose I'm saying that Conroy and I must be uniquely alike in one important dimension, that of undoubtedly sharing some of the very same emotions and emotional ties to a certain southern state.

 

 




       back to
       the short lists

       books - main page

 

 www.paulfidler.com

                                e-mail   

  
 
.    .