In this powerful and intimate memoir, the beloved best-selling author of ThePrince of Tides and his father, the inspiration for The Great Santini, find somecommon ground at long last.Pat Conroy's father, Donald Patrick Conroy, was a towering figure in his son's life.The Marine Corps fighter pilot was often brutal, cruel, and violent; as Pat says, "Ihated my father long before I knew there was an English word for hate." As the oldestof seven children dragged from military base to military base across the South, Patbore ...
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In this powerful and intimate memoir, the beloved best-selling author of ThePrince of Tides and his father, the inspiration for The Great Santini, find somecommon ground at long last.Pat Conroy's father, Donald Patrick Conroy, was a towering figure in his son's life.The Marine Corps fighter pilot was often brutal, cruel, and violent; as Pat says, "Ihated my father long before I knew there was an English word for hate." As the oldestof seven children dragged from military base to military base across the South, Patbore witness to the toll his father took on his siblings, and especially on his mother,Peg. She was his lifeline to a better world, the world of books and culture, and despitethe serial confrontations with his father Pat managed to claw his way towards a life hehardly could have imagined as a child.Pat's great success as a writer has always been intimately linked with his familylife. While the publication of The Great Santini brought Pat much attention, the publicrift it caused with his father generated more attention still. Their long-simmeringconflict burst into the open, fracturing an already battered family even further. But asPat tenderly chronicles here, even the oldest of wounds can heal. In the final years ofhis life, Don Conroy and his son reached a rapprochement of sorts. Quiteunexpectedly, the Santini who had freely doled out backhanded slaps targeted his ireon those who had turned on Pat over the years. He defended his son's honor.Santini is a heart-wrenching account of personal and family struggle, and apoingant lesson in how ties of blood can both strangle and offer succor. It is an act ofreckoning, an exorcism of demons, but one whose ultimate conclusion is that love canconquer even the meanest of men.
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Pat Conroy's talent as a writer always amazes me. Coming from a dysfunctional Irish family myself, I can easily identify with the trials and tribulations that Pat has gone through.
Judee
Feb 13, 2015
Good Book
Death of Santini is a very good book. It gives insight into a very complex family.
