Rating: 
Summary: An Amazing Book
Review: After I got over the shock of the profane language used by Pat Connroy in the novel, The Lords of Disciplne, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I learned about the lives of all of the characters and I got a glimpse of life at the Carolina Military Institute. The narrator, Will, shows his audience everything that surrounded him during his first and last years at the Institute. The book kept my attention because I always wanted to know what would happen next. I was constantly reading to find out more about the characters, what all went on at the school, and about the secret organizations.
In my opinion, Conroy perfected each one of his characters. I felt as if I knew all of them personally. The hardships they endured during the course of the story hit very close to home. At every change my heart leaped, it broke for the saddness that I read about.
Another point that kept my full attention was the hazing that affected all of the students enrolled at the Institute. I thought that the sort of things mentioned by Will only went on in big universities, not military colleges. The things that the students had to do almost made me sick.
One more thing that kept me from putting the book down was when the hazing turned into something more. The behind the scenes workings of an organization led by the one person no one would ever expect.
The Lords of Discipline tells an amazing story of a boy's journey to becoming a man at a place where he feels like a child. Will overcomes all of his fears and eventually turns into the person he always aspired to become.
Rating: 
Summary: A great book!
Review: I really think this book is great. The Lords of Discipline takes you through all of the ups and downs, twists and turns that Will, a lower-class Carolinian, faced at the Institute in his pursuit of becoming a man.
The friendship of Will and his three roommates Tradd, Mark, and Pig, is developed so well that you can feel the love and respect between each of them. I felt like a fifth roommate while I was reading it. Conroy really puts you into the story with his many descriptions and the development of characters and their friendships.
Each character in this book can be looked upon as a real person. They all possess good qualities and bad qualities, as real people do. These true to life characters give the book even more meaning. Real people all possess good sides and bad sides. When a book develops characters that are more true to the two-sided nature of humans, they are more meaningful. The characters in The Lords of Discipline all display this accuracy of human nature.
The feelings of heartbreak, betrayal and loss that Will experiences are all feelings that everyone can relate to. I was able to mourn with Will and celebrate with him because these emotions are familiar to me. The things that happen to him are not far fetched, but believable. Each word is written with such skill that it seems like you are at the Institute with Will, and you are experiencing all the same things he is going through.
As Will grows up he develops interesting outlooks on life. The corruption and hatefulness of the Carolina Military Institute change his life in many ways. Upon finishing this school, he feels he has become a 'whole' man.
The Lords of Discipline is a wonderful book. I recommend it to anyone. In reading this book, you should be prepared for a shocking account of Will's life at the Institute, which is filled with love, heartbreak, and betrayal.
Rating:
Summary: Trixie's Review
Review: In the 1980 novel The Lord's of Discipline, renowned author Pat Conroy held no qualms what-so-ever about his controversial writing, which he explores full-out in this tale of hazing, racism, questionable military systems, and societal levels. The novel is set in a southern military institute in a city where "childhood is a pleasure and memory a flow of honey"-Charleston, South Carolina. Conroy describes the compelling characters of his fantastic novel distinctively with an art of portrayal that makes for a real, two-sided characters that any reader can relate to.
Our witty, often to the point of cocky, narrator, is Will McLean, who attends the Institute under his over-bearing father's dying wishes. from the moment he enters the plebe (freshmen) system, Will, unlike the other 700 members of his class, identifies that the whole military system is corupt but works, just not for him. However, with the help of his blood brothers, Tradd, Mark, and Pig, endures the horrendous four years of abuse, but with much compromise of his own dogma.
Conroy uses his first-hand experience to attack the Institute and the racism, cruelty, and corruption that go along with it. With the addition of outside problems faced by Will, such as a deceitful love affair, the suicide of a beloved friend, and the betrayal of another, Conroys's Lords of Discipline is a must-read for any person, for there is a little aomething for every reader.
Rating:
Summary: Anything but ordinary!
Review: March amongst a herd of straight arrow, ambitious, head strong cadets for four years, sweat and bleed at the feet of the cadre your plebe year, find yourself the target of a highly-developed, secret military society out to sabotage you'and see if you can renounce the Institute as anything but cruel, rigid, and ambitious. Turning out hundreds of patriarchal, hard bodied, military machines a year, it is only the 'Whole Man' indeed who will emerge from this university. This is where we meet Will McLean, the key character in Pat Conroy's introspective novel Lords of Discipline.
Will McLean is a loner, an outsider, a liberalist and a prelude to the underdog. He enters the Institute to pay homage to his dying father's last wish. Representing everything that Will does not believe in, (war, cruelty, conformity of multitudes), the Institute inspires terror, abomination, and even determination in Will as he aspires to make it through a system he loathes and cannot understand. His only inclination is to graduate from the Institute without faltering or conforming to that heartless allegiance so that he may tell his bitter story to the world as a graduate'but not a believer'of the Institute.
The plot of the story revolves around the duality of man and the essence of evil lurking within. Conroy creates a vehement portrayal of the South's rigid structure, conventional elegance, and traditional military cruelty. The Institute promised to make boys into men through a transition of blood and sweat. Instead, boys are made into beasts, terrors, machines, and infernos through a system that teaches its students to die in battles they don't understand, to kill soldiers they have never seen, and to uphold the military aloofness and coldness of the Institute. To be weak in any sense'mental, physical, or emotional'is to be forsaken and driven out. Conroy delivers to his readers a deeper look into the structure and cruelty of such esteemed universities and their products. It is everything in human nature that is insightful, terrifying, deviant, inspiring, and strong'and it is anything but ordinary.
Rating: 
Summary: A tale of friendship, loyalty, courage and cliches
Review: I hate to be the Grinch among the plethora of 5 star reviews of this book. Yes, I was drawn into Will McLean's story of life as a cadet in the Carolina Military Institute. I did applaud Will's courage and tenacity in standing up to those who ran the ingrained and brutal plebe system, and especially in his efforts to ferret out the founders and current members of the legendary but evil Ten. I also admired Will's loyalty to his roommates at the institute, one or more of whom no longer merited this loyalty. However, I have difficulty recommending a book that is not only nauseatingly graphic in its accounts of plebe hell night and sweat parties, but also revels in its cliched descriptions of southerners as know-nothing crackers and bigots and in Italian-Americans as low life, brainless and muscle bound Goombas. I also found myself becoming increasingly bored and extremely annoyed with Will's pursuit of sainthood in his caring for the uniquely unloveable, but pregnant and abandoned, Annie Kate. Also, I had already figured out long before the end of the book the supposedly shocking identity of a certain member of The Ten who had betrayed some of the more unfortunate characters in the novel.
Rating:
Summary: A tremedous book
Review: This book had me stunned for hours after I finished reading it. Lords of Discipline started as just another book about a military academy and ended as so much more. Its messages of honor, dedication, love, courage, friendship, and trust will stay with me for a very long time. The only way to truly understand what kind of a wonderful story this book presents is simply to read it yourself.
Rating:
Summary: I've never cried so hard in my life...
Review: Last year, I chose "Beach Music" for my vacation reading. I had never read one of Mr. Conroy's books in the past, nor had I had heard of him. So, it was by pure coincidence that I chose a book by an author with so much pride and admiration for his Southern upbringing for my trip to South Carolina. I enjoyed the book, so then and there I decided to make it a tradition to read a Conroy novel during my summer vacation. Which is how I stumbled upon "The Lords of Discipline."I started this book not expecting much. Afterall, I'm a girl with no interest in military life whatsoever. Never have I cried so hard in response to something I could barely relate to. Mr. Conroy was able to reach me and affect me and make "The Lords of Discipline" my favorite book. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Pat Conroy at his best
Review: Pat Conroy is unmatched in his wit and his ability to change real life experiences into emotional gut wrenching fiction. If you love the city of Charleston like I do, read the first page and the words will have you hooked till the end.
Rating:
Summary: The Lords of Discipline is a GREAT book!
Review: This book was on my English book list, so almost immediately I assumed it would be a typical dull and educational book list book. At first, it appeared that my doubts were confirmed, but after the beginning, I was drawn into the book. I simply couldn't put it down! I had started reading at night and it ended up that I stayed up until 4 am to finish. This was one of the best books I have ever read with a spectaclar plot and ending. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.
Rating:
Summary: The lords of Discipline
Review: I was asked to review this book as a teacher. I was asked to judge it as to its appropriateness for a sophomore English class. As an adult I thought the book was awesome. As a teacher, I was torn about the thought of a 15/16 year old girl or boy reading the language and innuendoes. One side of me says to be real and look at what our society deems as acceptable on our televisions and our radios. That these "innocent children" have already been subjected to this type of material...that those children that have been taught good morals and values know this language is not acceptable talk. But what about those that do not have strong morals and values? But the other side of me asks if that makes it right. Are there other , more significant works of literature that are more appropriate for this age level? What is it that the teacher is trying to teach, by using this book. Is it to spark an interest in reading? Is it to show a depiction of the 60's? I mean, if the elementary story Little Black Sambo has been removed from the shelves of Libraries and Schools across the Nation, because it is too offensive for the Afican American race, what message are we sending to our students by allowing this southern derogatory slang into our classrooms? I really have not made my final decision as to my recommendation to our committee, If any of you have an opinion, please review back.
|
