Rating: 
Summary: Discipline is a Double Edged Sword
Review: I recently read the Lords of Discipline and wanted to read more of Pat Conroy. I was not disappointed with the Great Santini. It is a coming of age story as seen through the eyes of the son of a disciplined Marine pilot and Lt. Colonel. The father gives himself the nickname, "The Great Santini" though Conroy never explains the origin of that nickname. But the main point is that the father tries to run his family the way a Marine drill instructor would run a platoon of recruits. The message of the book is that blind senseless discipline can be as damaging as no discipline at all. The novel has many facets. It covers the insecurities of "military brats" who are new kids in school each year, fathers who drive their sons too much, the relationship between the military and the civilian townspeople that surround tha base, and family reationships and alliances against a father who is both friend and foe. His relationship with his family is at times abusive. It also touches on race relations in the Deep South in the early 1960s, adolescence, and peer groups in school. Conroy writes from personal experience. I heard him say on a radio program that his father shut him out to some extent after The Great Santini was published. I guess it hit too close to home.
Rating: 
Summary: The Great Santini
Review: I thought the Great Santini was a very good book which appealed to most people in very different ways. It appealed to men because of the references to military and sports. It was also though a feminist novel which women would enjoy just as much.
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Summary: one more heart-tuging novel in the tradition of pat conroy
Review: i've just finished reading this highly impressive book and i find myself still spelbound by the great Santini. in COLONEL BULL MEECHAM, pat conroy has undoubtely created one of his most authentic, convincing, impossible-to-love but impossible-to-hate heroes. it is obvious that the guy is a bully but he inspires a lot of admiration and in my opinion embodies all traits of a typical fighter pilot. the end of the book clearly show us that after all, this fearsome tyrant is human beyond our imaginations. lilian meecham comes as a true southern heroine and she is as strong and powerful character as southern women come. no other kind of woman could have been a better match for the great santini. a book of intense emotions filled with powerful, larger-than-life and awe-inspiring characters (especially santini and lilian). i highly recommend it as a wonderful and immensely enjoyable read ! get ready for another conroy gem !!!!!
Rating:
Summary: A great book to read
Review: It made my trip to NY worth remembering.
Rating:
Summary: "Major Dad" in a serious bent
Review: It's arguable that Pat Conroy is the Faulkner of the 'Boomer generation, and this story is a good argument for the opinion that some warriors should not raise families. The syndrome of "bringing the job home" can really get out of hand. Bull Meecham (a.k.a. "the Great Santini") has only his Southern Belle--Philosophical Version wife to counteract his attempts to turn his household into a boot camp and his children into grunts (until I read this book, I thought my own WWII generation Dad was the poster child for vets who never really became civilians again--at least my old man wasn't still serving). "Santini" is without a doubt an asset to his jet fighter wing, but he's managed to father a son who's got an identity crisis from trying to emulate the old man without being enough of a hardcase to bring it off. There's also a daughter whose above-average intelligence, combined with the household invironment, has made her into an aggressive cynic. Then there's a baby sister who's still young enough for naiivite, but you can't help but speculate about what kind of person she'll turn out to be later in life. "Santini" is a curious mixture of a superlative fighthing man and a lousy parent.
Rating: 
Summary: Powerful but flawed
Review: Just like the title character of this book, the novel itself is powerful but flawed. While I was caught up in the maelstrom of family relations and spellbound by the character of Bull Meecham, there were too many times where events where whipped up and then cut off, leaving the reader with no resolution. It was ridiculous the way Conroy skipped describing the after effects of traumatic events on the family dynamics, which is the reason we're all reading the book in the first place.
Also, while the descriptions of Bull's experience while flying and his thoughts of what a fighter pilot is were poetic, they really didn't add to the story and became repetitive by the end of the book.
I would recommend this book if you haven't read a real powerful novel before (and Sheldon and Steel don't count) but if you've read about real family dysfunction in other good novels, this one doesn't really go all the way.
Rating:
Summary: Life inside the fortress...
Review: Nobody has wrung more novels from a dysfunctional family than Pat Conroy. In The Great Santinti he opens a window which may give a new and unexpected view to many Americans, into the family life of a career military man. For those who have never lived within the military, this book may seem bizarre and contrived. For those of us who did, it hits a nerve - even for those of us whose father was not an abusive borderline alcoholic fighter pilot. The sense of rootlessness, of being disconnected from the rest of society is here. Military families live in a strange semisubmerged culture invisible to the mainstream, and with the ending of the draft we have a generation of Americans who have never served and thus the gap has widened. The only friendships we form are with other military people, for civilians, even in the towns outside the main gate, are partially alien and can never be part of the community. Conroy captures this, and superimposes upon it the additional strains imposed by the father's domineering, macho, iron willed personality. Face it, he's not Gerald McRaney from Major Dad. No trying to understand the fears and dreams of his family, we do it by the book, my way or no way, sir, yes sir!!! There is stress between Colonel Santini and his neurotic southern belle wife, who wants to ensure her children grow up with a gentle appreciation for life, with his son who wants desperately to please his father but to do it by following his own path, and with his intelligent but socially awkward daughter who being a mere girl is not qualified for the warrior life and thus doesn't count. The military life is hard enough, throwing in these problems on top of it makes you wonder at the limits we accept in everyday life. Hard edged, disorienting, sometimes ugly, this book is for all veterans of the Cold War, active duty or dependents, who lived with the possibility that the head of the family might be called upon to go off and die in someplace most of us couldn't locate on a globe (as an aside I find that former military brats are much better at geography than most others - for one thing we got letters from all those exotic locales)... Admiral Hyman Rickover once said military officers should be like a caste of warrior priests... this novel is about that caste and the acolytes who also served. Pat Conroy once wrote elsewhere to the effect that his father's job was to be a fighter pilot, and his family's job was to provide that fighter pilot whenever the govenrment called for him.
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Summary: Impossible situations
Review: Pat Conroy brings his characters from some world in which nobody can possibly be in the right situation. A military father, married to a gentle lady with weak children; a southern lady who has a vulgar family; a cynical girl with optimistic siblings; and a boy who just can't cut it being tough. Ben has the typical abusive military father. Ben draws some sense of false motivation from his father's insults and threats, so he never can truly grow by himself. Ben fears his father, yet at the same time, has some sense of loyalty that holds them together. Ben as a person is too weak to challenge his father's cruel treatments. He needs to conform to the expectations of his parents, as well as society, even though he is an outcast. Near the end of the book, when Ben assumes the role as family leader, although he has shown some growth, he hasn't avoided conforming to his father's expectations. Mary Anne still flicks tears at the back of his neck in the car, as she did to her father in the beginning. Conroy has the ability to place characters in seemingly impossible situations, and yet somehow their struggle makes a good story.
Rating:
Summary: How did he know?
Review: Pat Conroy has given us one of the most memorable characters in all of literature. My question for him is "How did he know what my father was like?" I don't think he realized when he wrote SANTINI that he was describing quite a few Southern fathers out there. While for some it would be scary enough to think there's one (in the book), the realization that Santini might be the 'norm' is truly frightening. This is a brilliant book: well-written with fully-developed characters and enough food for thought to last you a lifetime. If you have to pick one Conroy book to read, this is it. Also recommended: McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD
Rating:
Summary: How did he know?
Review: Pat Conroy has given us one of the most memorable characters in all of literature. My question for him is "How did he know what my father was like?" I don't think he realized when he wrote SANTINI that he was describing quite a few Southern fathers out there. While for some it would be scary enough to think there's one (in the book), the realization that Santini might be the 'norm' is truly frightening. This is a brilliant book: well-written with fully-developed characters and enough food for thought to last you a lifetime. If you have to pick one Conroy book to read, this is it. Also recommended: McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD
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