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Friday, October 14, 2016

The Work of Author Pat Conroy in Focus

The book-reading community will be honoring the work and memory of author Pat Conroy during the week of October 24. Conroy died earlier this year at the age of 70. His writing, as described in the New York Times, "mined the people, the places and the trauma of his childhood and young manhood for his thinly fictionalized novels and a series of memoirs that captivated readers with their openly emotional tone, lurid family stories and lush prose that often reached its most affecting, lyrical pitch when evoking the wetlands around Beaufort, S.C." (William Grimes, The New York Times, March 5, 2016).

Among Mr. Conroy's most famous books are The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, and The Prince of Tides. I read these when initially published, but may revisit The Lords of Discipline, a look at life inside a Southern military academy, which is the latest selection for the Wall Street Journal's book club. (The WSJ Book Club is a public group on Facebook.) I wasn't a huge fan of these books, but other book- reading friends absolutely love his work. It might be interesting to see how the experience of reading Mr. Conroy's writing is different with the passage of 20 years.

If you are looking for something interesting to read, try some Pat Conroy novels this month. If you've already read his work, what do you think of it?

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