Rating: 
Summary: What was all the fuss about?
Review: After giving this book 300 pages of my time I finally had to give it up. I kept waiting for Jack, the main character, to grow on me. Even with his self-loathing, I found him to be extremely arrogant. I found his daughter to be too perfect and charming, and the rest of his family just plain obnoxious. Another thing I foung annoying was the way that all the characters went on and on about how beautiful and charming Jack's dead wife was, noone seemed to harbor any anger about the fact that she killed herself. Perhaps you have to be from the south to get into these characters, but I certainly hope that all southerners aren't this disfunctional and cliche.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing. A real yawner.
Review: I am a huge Pat Conroy fan, therefore I was most disappointed in his latest novel. His beautiful way with words is unflagging, but the plot and characters left much to be desired. I kept plugging along, expecting the book to pick up and pull me in, until finally I had to give up. I just lost all interest. None of the characters was remotely likeable, and much of the dialogue was far fetched. Ponderous and dull, this book is a real yawner.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful heart-felt novel that totally grips the reader!
Review: This is my first Pat Conroy novel -- but definately not my last. Beach Music touched my heart in ways that few books have. I absolutely fell in love with the main character, Jack McCall. Pat Conroy is a truly gifted story teller.
Rating: 
Summary: Pat Conroy is stuck in a rut.
Review: Pat Conroy is one of my all-time favorites but frankly, I'm getting tired of hearing him whine about his family. The mother figures in his books are always beautiful, outrageous, egotistical, mean to her children but nevertheless, heroic. The father figures are always drunken, abusive louts or otherwise absent and ineffectual. There is always mental illness somewhere in the family that was caused by some horrendous tragedy. The main character is always the misunderstood victim of the weird people in his family. The children are always bright, beautiful, flawless and smarter than the adults. I grew up in the Carolinas and I found all the business about the beach music to be downright maudlin. I spent many summers shagging to the same old songs but if Jack McCall had any self-respect, he'd grow up and get over it. The whole theme exalting beach music and shagging reminded me too much of the generation X'ers who define their lives by the lyrics of pop music, or a high-school football star who never got over his glory days. ICK! Pat Conroy needs to be careful that he doesn't go down the same slippery slope as Stuart Woods. I look forward to his next book with great hopes that he does something DIFFERENT!
Rating:
Summary: all encompassing triumph
Review: Conroy does it all with the style and vigor unmatched in today's literary world. From WWII to Vietnam and everything in between, Conroy weaves a true masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: A haunting story that will stay with you.
Review: I had a long plane ride ahead of me and jet lag to deal with so I wanted to take an audio book along to help kill time. I chose Beach Music. It was a wonderful choice. Anyone who has read Pat Conroy's books know the lilting, dream like flow of his words, this reading matches the feel and texture of those words. Listening to Peter MacNichol's reading is like floating down a lazy southern river on a hot summer day. Just perfect.
Rating:
Summary: An Absolute Classic!
Review: Mostly I can't sit still long enough to read these type of novels-mysteries are mostly for me, with John Steinbeck as an exception. However, I started reading Beach Music because many had said it was great, and my cousin had it, and I was bored at the time. I had the book done three days later. All I can say is that it is an incredible novel, one of the best I've ever read. Jack McCall is a great character, and the supporting characters (Ledare, Lucy, Leah, Jack's brothers) all manage to make the story complicated and enjoyable. Just to say it again, the novel is spectatcular. I don't care who you are, if you can read and are over 12, you will like this novel.
Rating:
Summary: the most beautiful book ever
Review: When I was on an overseas flight, I became so engrossed by the lyrical writing that I finished it. This is the most beautiful book ever. NOt one part of it dragged along and his beautiful descriptions of Rome makes me long to visit the city myself. Beach Music is probably the book that I've cried over the most. Though I'm only fourteen, I felt that it will probably always be the most beautiful book ever. I can't wait to begin reading his other books.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing!
Review: I found that I couldn't even finish this book. The author has a beautiful narrative style, but I found nothing to like in any of the characters in this book. Jack was a whiner, his mother was a melodramatic pain in the butt, and the daughter was just TOO TOO precocious. The alcoholic father was a caricature. The draft dodger turned priest was just TOO noble. Everyone in this book was some kind of extreme. Enough already... if I want this kind of story, I'll watch for a movie-of-the-week. There are far better writers out there.
Rating:
Summary: Enthralling from the beginning to the end.
Review: This may be one of the most captivating books since Catcher In The Rye. The character development truly personifies southern living with a cast of characters that is fascinating beyond belief. I have given this book to others to read and they are amazed. I am now a Conroy fan.
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