Rating: 
Summary: Must Read...
Review: Pat Conroy is a master of words and paints an accurate dipiction of Charleston and her politics. It's a wonderful read and will hold you captive till the very end.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I'm attending the Citadel this fall and was told to read this book before I went. I immediately went out and bought it. After two days I had finished it. Having been to Charleston numerous times, I found the description beautifully written in the book. This book is a must read and can't be put down. Pat Conroy is a great author.
Rating:
Summary: A Story That Stays With You
Review: I usually go through at least a book a week, and many of these pass through memory very quickly. This one stuck around for a long time. Pat Conroy's semi-autobiographical novel about his years spent at a military academy works on a lot of levels. First, we get to see what it takes to get through four years of this kind of life. It's a very tough four years, with no guarantees, and no hope of any decent financial reward. Odds are you may be killed on your job if there is a big enough war. Yet the distinction of serving one's country is big enough incentive to make the program tough to get into. Also, we get to see the transformation of boys to men with the characters. When we are first introduced to them, they are young high school graduates who are introduced very quickly into the high disciplined world. How they have to adapt to this to survive is the heart of the novel. We also get a feel for Southern society at this time, which is yet another world. Finally, as this happened during the Vietnam War, we get to see how all the reward some of them get for their troubles was to be ridiculed by "civilians". While the military got their undies in a bundle for some of their methodologies being exposed, they should instead be proud of the book. It makes one appreciate our men in uniform much more.
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Summary: Poetic Prose of Conroy's Pen!
Review: Pat Conroy is one of the most literary of today's popular writers. His poetic and lyrical use of language makes his novels soar. As with all his novels, the hero of the Lords of Discipline is a somewhat cocky, witty and self-aware narrator, modelled to some extent on Conroy himself. Will McClean is a catholic student of the "Institute" (a knock-off of the Citidel which Conroy himself attended) in the largely protestant Southern City of Charleston South Carolina at a time during the sixties when Southern Institutions were rigidly segregated. Will is asked to take under his wing the Istitute's first black cadet to shield him from the inevitable rascism he will encounter. Will agrees reluctantly but his integrity forces him to learn a good deal more about the dark underside of the Institute than he would like as he and his charge are subject to violence, hostility and worse threats from a mysterious campus group known as the "Ten". Ultimately a genuine mystery ensues with unpredictible plot twists. The book resolves this mystery while concurrently revealing much about Will and his three beloved roomates and their relationship to Charleston society. This is Conroy's least stylized and most conventionally plot-driven book. Nevertheless, it still contains much impressionistic writing as Conroy examines the romance and beauty of the old South and contrasts it with the seamy racist and classist underside. Any lover of American fiction will adore this book and anything written by Pat Conroy. What a shame that he lacks the prolificness of other popular novelists.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: As a girl with no military background in her family, I picked up this book with much dread. Amazingly, I found myself swept in with Will's fantastic stories about his days as a plebe. Conroy's writing was fabulous. His details about Will and Charleston ALMOST make the Institute sound enjoyable. I strongly recommend this book.
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Summary: This book banned in Texas!
Review: Much to my amazement, a friend of mine who sends books to inmates got a "Publication Review and Denial Notification" from the Texas Dept of Corrections declaring that this book "contains 6 pages of racial nature." and further: "Publication contains material that a reasonable person would construe as writeen solely for the purpose of communicating information designed to achieve a breakdown of prisons through inmate disruption such as strikes or riots."
I guess I missed that. Perhaps I'm not reasonable.
So those of you who love Pat Conroy's writing, make sure you don't get arrested in Texas. You won't be able to enjoy his tremendous screenplays for your mind. Something about his wide open view of life doesn't fit the image of "southern boy."
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: The Lords of Discipline is a very action-packed book. It is perfect reading material for high school students and up. The book involves sports, military life, friendship and betrayal. Pat Conroy does a wonderful job making you feel you were with Will, the main character, when he went through his hard times.
The plot of the book is a little twisted. You don't know why Conroy is giving some of the information of the book until the last two chapters. But be patient. Your waiting will pay off.
If you enjoy books that make you think and feel the emotions of the characters, then the Lords of Discipline is the book for you. I give it a rating of a 10!
Rating:
Summary: Lords of Discipline
Review: The Lords of Discipline, is quite possibly one of the best books I've ever read. It's not every day that you can find a book in which you go through all of the same emotions as the main character, where you fall in love with that main character, and you're almost sad when the book ends. I could read this book over and over again and never get tired of it. Thank you Ms. Jackson for encouraging me to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Moving and Involving
Review: I was asked to read this book for my Honours Lit and Comp class. I looked at it and though great, just another fat book with nothing to captivate me. I was so wrong! The book is so involving. I was sucked in completely by the middle of the first section. I was reading ahead for the class and could not participate in the discussions because I could not put the book down! I love to read, although military stories are not my favourites. This isn't all that military-like. It was simply a story about a boy who went to a tough college and became a man. I laughed, I cried, I rolled over and went to sleep (after I was able to put the book down). If anyone wants a book that they can totally fall in love with, then this is it!
Rating: 
Summary: Powerful novel
Review: Pat Conroy's Lords of Discipline is a powerful, gripping and suspense-filled novel. It is a rewarding read that gives you great insight into the life of a young cadet struggling in his journey from boyhood to manhood. You are exposed to Will McLean's battles against corruption in a Southern military college and his own self-righteousness.
Will McLean arrives in Charleston as an innocent boy who is about to encounter the fight of his life in a quest to be an Institute graduate or a "whole man." Will's own self-righteousness allows him to get involved with the first black freshman during his senior year, putting himself face-to-face with years of unjust tradition and a powerful secret society known as the Ten. Will is physically assaulted, heartbroken, and betrayed in his struggle against corruption at the highest level of the Carolina Military Institute. Will makes a vow to defeat the system and never turn into the people who tortured him, therefore gaining something positive from his stay at CMI.
Once Conroy's gripping plot takes off, the fast pace continues throughout the whole book. You become totally engulfed by Will's story, reading faster and faster to see what will happen next.
The powerful novel is sure to have a strong effect on whoever reads it. I can hardly wait to read another Conroy novel.
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