The Prince of Tides

"If Henry Wingo had not been a violent man, I think he would have made a splendid father" (p 5). That sums up The Prince of Tides in a nutshell. Well, sort of. No. Not really. I want to say it is about loving someone so fiercely you love well beyond any pain they could bring you. The writing of Pat Conroy is so beautiful it is hard to believe the subject matter of Prince of Tides could be so dark. The damaged Wingo family will stay with you long after you have closed the massive 600-plus page book. Most affected is Savannah Wingo, the sister-twin of Tom, who speaks to the hidden ones, hallucinates angels hanging from lamposts and self-mutilates herself to stave off the voice of her father urging her to kill herself. In reality, the bad show more times roll in as constant as the South Carolina tide for all of the Wingos. The entire family experiences enough unimaginable terrors to last a lifetime. To name a few: a father badly wounded surviving the horrors of World War II with a little help from a priest; Grandpa's black widow spiders used as a defense from a stalker intent on raping Lila, the Wingo mother; four stillborn children one right after the other, each kept in the freezer like porkchops until it was time to bury them in the backyard; a tiger trained to rip someone's face off...Probably the worst offense is not Henry Wingo, a father who beats his wife and children. The inexplicable nightmare is Lila Wingo, a woman so hellbent on keeping a prestine and proud reputation she denies every horror. Is this southern living or a perpetual seventh circle of hell?
Savannah is only partially able to escape her violent past by moving to New York City. After her latest suicide attempt is very close to successful, Savannah's therapist calls Tom, her twin brother, for insight into the Wingo family. In order to help Savannah Dr. Lowenstein needs to dig deeper into the entire family's tumultuous history. What emerges is Tom's own tragic story of coming of age as a souther male in an abusive household. In the beginning of Prince of Tides, the character of Tom Wingo was only slightly annoying with his "American Male" posturing. But by page 300 you realize after all that he and his family have gone through he is allowed to tell jokes when it hurts. He has survived by humor his entire life.
Conroy's Prince of Tides is a strange love letter to the Southern way of life. It is a story of tenacity and tenderness. show less

I’m really sorry to have to pan a book that so many people love. It’s been on my to-read list for decades. I was in the mood for a big, soapy pleasure read, and this book was surely big and soapy, but hardly a pleasure.

Now, I should have been more careful to pick a book that doesn’t push my buttons: an anti-feminist narrator, a whites-only picture of the American south, tedious descriptions of sporting events. If you love all these factors, you may love the book. But aside from thematic elements that I tend to avoid, I experienced this book as 577 of humble-bragging. Meet the Wingo family! We are not just dysfunctional, we are the biggest, baddest dysfunctional family you’ll ever meet. Plus we are all geniuses, and our lives show more and our loves are deeper than yours. I was thoroughly annoyed.
Plus, the book had too many plot-points that were plain unbelievable. The tiger. The porpoise, The highly unethical psychiatrist. And all this is rendered in tinny dialog and in vividly purple prose that is sometimes unintentionally funny.

After all these years of people pressing me to read Conroy, I finally did. Next time I’ll keep my own counsel. show less

Tom Wingo is a desperate soul, passing a quiet and emotionally void existence, aching for love but afraid and unable to cultivate it. Born and bred a southern boy, Tom and his siblings, a twin sister and older brother, survived an abusive father and a manipulative, cold, and domineering mother. And there are hints that the three children also suffered through some greater, more traumatic event also. This past breaks in on Tom’s adult life when his twin sister, Savannah, tries to commit suicide, again. Tom, his marriage on the brink of dissolving from inattention, leaves the safe waters of his home bound for New York City. There, he consults with Savannah’s therapist, Dr. Lowenstein, telling her the stories of their childhood, hoping show more to help the doctor better understand Savannah’s demons. But Tom is unable to fend off the past, and in the retelling of his childhood, he confronts the events which robbed him of his innocence and broke his spirit.

Pat Conroy’s novel [The Prince of Tides] evokes Ray Bradbury or Walt Whitman, basking itself in the warmth of poetic and lyrical prose in every sentence, every page. The prologue to the book is among the best pages of written word that I have ever read, bar none. Conroy fills your senses with words, substituting just the right phrase or sentence for a sight or smell that you’d never know you weren’t experiencing it through your eyes or your nose. And while he is bathing you in the rich textures of the south and its people, he is building, ever building, towards a moment when he will prick your heart with excruciating and vivid emotions. Sometimes the emotion is the anger and desperation of a middle-aged man, living a marginal, unimportant life. Other times, Conroy assaults you with the visceral love and hate that only a parent or sibling can inspire. The combination of such eloquent prose and raw emotion makes for a riveting reading experience.

Early on, this one was bound for a five bone rating and a spot on my list of favorites for the year. What kept it from reaching that mark was a quickly turned ending. So much time is spent sifting through the lives of the Wingo family, setting the scene for the climatic event. None of this is wasted time. I never tired of getting to know the Wingo’s, not even at the height of their dysfunction. I always set down to read, eager to learn more about this unusual family; it was a little like going to a family reunion for someone else’s family. But after the big secret is uncovered, Conroy seems to rush to the end, desperately searching out a conclusion for the book and the characters. It all ended a little abruptly and a little rosy, given the starting point. This is a minor criticism really. Lesser books could get away with the ending because the ending wouldn’t suffer in comparison with the rest of the book. But Conroy’s ending doesn’t live up to the extremely high standards he sets for himself. show less

How to describe the novel that is The Prince of Tides? Told in true Southern fashion, taking its time as it weaves the story of the Wingo family from Colleton, South Carolina, Mr. Conroy's tale is a stunning epic about the sacrifices made and challenges faced in the name of love. Whether the love is carnal, familial, or platonic, love is the tie that binds each character together through the good times and bad and ultimately causes each character to reach his or her breaking point.

This is truly an epic. Spanning 40 years and several generations, the secrets of the Wingo family unfold slowly and painfully. Told through flashbacks as Tom talks with Dr. Susan Lowenstein in an effort to help his sister, the stories alternate between show more poignant, quirky, upsetting and happy. The bonds of the Wingo family are tested and tried repeatedly, yet the love they share remains. The stories draw the reader into the eccentricity that is the Wingo family, to the point that a reader does not notice that they are getting imperceptibly darker and more upsetting until Tom reveals the key to Savannah's problems. This key is so horrific, so shocking, it shakes a reader to one's core.

Make no mistake, The Prince of Tides is as much a love story about the lowcountry and barrier islands off the South Carolina coast as it is a story about family. Mr. Conroy's descriptions of the land are pure poetry and so evocative, the reader can all but smell the salt water and the sharp tang of a shrimp boat, feel the warm ocean breezes, and hear the hum of the mosquitoes. His descriptions of New York City are flat and insipid in comparison to the lush grandeur he affords for all things Carolinian. The end result is not only a crystal clear image of that very scene he is trying to create, it is a real desire to drive down to South Carolina and experience the sensual pleasures depicted for one's very self.

As an audiobook, the novel works extremely well. The narrator, Frank Muller, embodies the anger and sarcasm that permeates Tom's entire being, while allowing the reader glimpses of Tom's fragility and sensitivity he tries so desperately to hide. In fact, Mr. Muller captures all of the emotions and tensions in each character and brings that aspect of each character to life in his intonation, pitch, tonality and pacing of each. The cast of characters takes on new life under his performance, one that greatly enhances the witty dialogue and strengthens the relationships created by Mr. Conroy.

This is one of those novels that left me speechless in so many ways. The key scene moved me to tears while making me utterly nauseous. There are simply not enough adjectives to adequately describe this novel. While I'm sure others have seen the movie, I am truly grateful I avoided it and was able to experience the world of Colleton, South Carolina in Mr. Conroy's own words. He has a gift of the language which makes reading his words an all-encompassing pleasure. If you have not yet been able to experience the lowcountry told through Mr. Conroy's eyes, look no further than The Prince of Tides. show less

I have read voraciously my entire life, and always, when asked my favorite book of all time, say The Prince of Tides. This book moved me to the bone marrow. That Pat Conroy braved to tell such a deep, visceral story of a family without the soft, hazy glow of all being wonderful opened my eyes to the possibilities of cause and effect within the family, which isn't always pretty. There are significant scars in narrator, Tom Wingo's, life, which manifest later after he goes to NYC from South Carolina to tend to his poet twin sister, Savannah, who shares his coming-of-age story. In scenes with Savannah's therapist, Dr. Susan Lowenstein, who tries to piece together Savannah's past, the vividly drawn, the Wingo family's hardscrabble life show more unfurls, and the Wingo's father's abusive character is revealed, though it is buffered by their complicated and ultimately self-serving mother. Rich in mood, setting, and portraying a layered family life, The Prince of Tides is written in unparalleled prose and is a gorgeous, unflinchingly realistic story. show less

My 15 year old had to read this for freshman English. He dislikes reading so when he recommended it to me, I was somewhat in a state of shock, but figured I'd best read it.

So happy that I did.

It is a story of three children . . .Tom, Luke, and Savannah . . .growing up in the South on an island with a physically abusive father. Savannah has attempted suicide, and the story alternates between contemporary scenes in New York City where Tom attempts to aid Savannah's psychiatrist and scenes from Tom and Savannah's childhood.

The beauty of this book has a great deal to do with Conroy's incredible talent for pacing. He builds suspense slowly, inexorably, until you really feel like you cannot put the book aside even for a few moments. And show more then, he uses great storytelling to reveal his characters slowly - - truly a master of the adage to "show the reader, don't tell them". Finally, the icing on the cake is his beautiful descriptive prose . . .which, for me, was woven into his tale in such a way as not to be too distracting, but just to add to the pleasure of reading it.

I will say this is a dark novel . . .so be prepared. It's not for the faint of heart. Chapter 22 was disturbing to say the least. I'm a little surprised it was assigned to ninth graders. show less

Unbelievably beautiful prose with an insight into Southern culture only a native could write. Pat Conroy must have been born with a pen in his hand. His stories flow onto the page as if they have always existed.

Prince of Tides is a singularly painful book, full of horrendous darkness, unspeakable cruelty, yet side by side, the reader is lifted by exposure to the Southern Carolina seashore and Wildlands.

The resilience of the human spirit is woven into every aspect of this novel. Through heartbreaking childhoods and lonely adolescence, through the isolation of family togetherness, Conroy draws you in until every emotion you have has been spent.

Prince of Tides has become one of my favorite books, one that will stand the test of time. It show more speaks to the ability of humankind to rise above almost anything. It stands for hope in an often hopeless world. Definitely a must read! show less