My LibraryThing friend pdebolt lists Conroy as one of her favorite authors. On the strength of that recommendation I mooched this book for my first taste of this well known author (I'm not well read). I have now ordered another one, which says something pretty positive about his writing. I think he's a very good writer in terms of the way he puts a story together. The language is appropriate, the characters are believable, three-dimensional and true to their type throughout, the plot is interesting but it's not a totally plot driven book. There's emotionality but it's not soppy. Conroy seems (as far as I can tell) to understand both men and women - certainly both genders have interesting roles, both have good and evil (in fact all characters have good sides and evil sides), and neither gender has a monopoly on the truth.

I related well to the main character of the book, one of the sons of a severely dysfunctional family. Towards the end of the book he says, in relation to his twin sister, Savannah (who goes to live in New York to attempt to escape from her crazy family):

Each Christmas since I had left college, Savannah had sent me one of the same beautiful leather journals 
she used herself and encouraged me to record the details of my life every day. The trim brown volumes lined a shelf 
above my desk at home, remarkable only because I had never made a single entry or written down a random 
thought. In my own book of life, for reasons unclear to me, I never broke the vow of silence. I owned an accusatory
 shelf of journals that revealed nothing at all about my interior existence. I had a gift for self-criticism, yet I thought 
there was the most unforgivable vainglory in the history of my own deficiencies. ....I told myself I would write in my 
journals only when I had something interesting and original to say. I did not wish merely to be the biographer 
of my own failure. I wanted to say something. Those empty volumes were an eloquent metaphor of my life as a man. I
 lived with the terrible knowledge that one day I would be an old man still waiting for my real life to start. Already, I 
pitied that old man."

My only criticism of this book is that the plot seems rather far-fetched. How could all those events really happen?...to one family? even if the family does live in the heartland of the south?

Anyway, I'm far enough away from the South Carolina region that I could suggest to myself that a lot of these events might even be possible, or at least I could suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy the ride. It's not all enjoyment though. Even apart from the overt violence, both within the family and from outside, there's some pretty serious material for self-reflection and examination of how families work and don't work. ( )

Honestly, I do not like any other Pat Conroy books. I found most to be overblown and pretentious. Others drab and boring. But this book, quite simply is one of my best loved and most revisited.Something in the language- the descriptions, the syntax... Yes, I am using poetry terms. I can't simply convey the rhythm and quality and sheer joy of reading this book.The Language... oh dear lord, help me. *fans self* Perhaps its the damaged child in me, but I love this book. LOVE IT. ( )

Good novel (the movie was bad - Streisand over-acted horribly). ( )

1999

Dysfunctional family-twins Tom and Savannah, older brother Luke. Savannah tries to commit suicide several times because of past events.

Conroy's writing, like in South of Broad, is flowing and descriptive. His characters are real and vibrant. His descriptions of the south are loving.

A great book. ( )