Beach Music

Rating:
Summary: A perfect story to appreciate your own family idiosyncrasies
Review: I found this book very hard to put down. It was my first Pat Conroy book, but definately not my last. He caught my heart with his frustrations of family during a very difficult part of his life. Although it is a story of fiction, it relates to how even in real life, families can be very hurtful without even knowing it. I found Jack's initial response of not allowing his daughter the right to know her history very discerning. But then letting her daughter get to know her grandparents a great joy. I found reading about Jack's mother sharing the history and life of sea turtles with her grandaughter to be a beautiful way one's elders share life and the importance of preserving mother nature and her impeccable ways. I would recommend this book to anyone to appreciate how important family is no matter what baggage it carries, but appreciate what you have because you won't have it forever.

Rating:
Summary: I'd give this a 0 if it were offered.
Review: I started with the book, gave it up after Jack's return home to see his dying mother.With all the whining about their broken childhood, there was nothing believable about this gathering of siblings. Beach Music was selected for our Book Group this year, so I thought I'd try to get through the audio tapes. Now I'm trying to remember what I liked about The Prince of Tides. Was I duped by some masterful storytelling? I'm so disappointed with Beach Music, that I can't bear the thought of trying The Lords of Discipline. Enough of overwrought plot, flowery prose, sacrastic and soul-less characterizations. Turn up the Muzak! It will be more stimulating than finishing Beach Music.

Rating:
Summary: A good book. Conroy is a wordsmith of the finest calibre.
Review: Readers say they tire of Conroy's "dysfunctional family" themes. Well, who hasn't got a dysfunctional family? It would be utterly boring to read about countless perfect, tidy unscathed families anyway! The book was good, the grandmother's character invinceable. I really enjoyed all the nature references to saving the turtles and this families love for the land. I'm reading all of Conroy's books now - he has me hooked.

Rating:
Summary: high marks for language and drama
Review: While I am completely taken with Conroys use of language, I am concerned that some readers think this is the best book American literature has to offer. Try some Hemingway and Fitzgerald for comparison. Conroy has a magical gift for metaphors and 'turning a phrase', but characters that seem critical drop out for years (and pages) only to reappear magically a few chapters later. The plot was very complex and dramatic. But the turning points and character motivations were not always clear. The dialog was excellent. The setting of the scene was descriptive and colorful. Overall I think the book is somewhat uneven. Mr. Conroy might consider working with a very strict, but sympathetic, editor

Rating:
Summary: Not one of Conroy's best
Review: I was so excited that a new book by Conroy came out that I bought the hardcover edition-- and after I was finished, took it to a second hand bookstore to salvage what I could from it. Especially after reading "The Lords of Discipline" and "The Prince of Tides" this novel very disappointing. He needed a good editor to rein him in, and try to contain some of the story lines. In a way I think that Conroy was too ambitious-- there were probably two or three good novels contained within this one rambling plot.

Rating:
Summary: An Unexpected Pleasure
Review: Recently I had an accident, broke a leg an have had nothing to do but read. My mom brought over this increadably long book in which I was reluctant to read. I started to read it an was originally unimpressed. Then suddenly, I couldn't put the book down. I found the writing witty and increadably beautiful. This is the type of book you never want to end. I can't wait to read the rest of his books.

Rating:
Summary: Beach Music may be the worst book that I have ever read.
Review: So much of this book was unbelievable, beginning with the characters' names - Ledare, Shyla, Tee, John Harlan, Dallas - what kind of names ARE those? The scene with the four friends lost at sea for two weeks was completely unbelievable, and became laughable when the boys were rescued by holding on to the antler of a swimming deer that led them home. The scene where Jack was in the hospital bathing his mother and shampooing her hair because she had become violently ill;shouldn't he have called a nurse? It's frightening that such a book could become a best seller.

Rating:
Summary: Engaging, I refused to put it down!
Review: While set in the south and in Italy, this is a story of human spirit, searching, and reconciliation. With both humor and sadness, Conroy's characters are believable and utterly human. I've read all his books, and this is by far the best....and it's hard to top Lords of Discipline.

Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING
Review: "Beach Music" was the first book I have read by the author, Pat Conroy. What he does with words cannot be described. I could not put the book down. I read it in 2 days! Through his words I felt every emotion that his characters experienced. I WANT MORE!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: He knows "how to make a story sizzle when it hits the fat"!
Review:

When you dive between the pages of this Pat Conroy book, you had better grab yourself an oxygen tank or gorw a set of gills, because this author is rarely going to let you up for air! The man's writing sucks you under like some might ocean riptide, where you are pulled along with speed and power on a ride as exhilarating as it is frightening! From suicide to mental illness, from family dysfunction to friendships gone awry, from the Jewish Holocaust to the Vietnam war, from love longed for and lost to love misunderstood and redefined, Conroy's story keeps you in deep waters and does not release you until the final page! There can only be surrender to the force of words such as these, only a yielding to the current you find yourself caught in.

Lest you fear burst lungs and drowning from too much time spent in emotional depths, let me assure you that with respite derived from great humor and sheer descriptive beauty, you WILL bob above the surface often enough to catch some air and breathe! You may even stay afloat long enough to hear for yourself the "beach music," and taste, in your imagination, the flavors from the steamed crab and oyster on the shore... For truly Conroy's narrative serves up language to linger over: sentences to savor, words to roll on the tongue like fine wine, imagery to lap up like thick cream, emotion to taste in all its range from bitter to sweet and back again. The very juice of these words will run down the sides of your mouth... For instance, when Jack McCall speaks of his dead wife, he says, "SHe wanted to set the flags of all her tomorrows at half mast... Her memory sharpened its knives against my heart..." And when Jack tires of his grief-stricken existence, he admits, "I longed for... a little more Mardi Gras than Lent in my life..." Conroy paints a world where incense is "prayer put to the torch"; where wind chimes tinkle "like ice shaken in silver cups"; where the city of Venice "is a peacock tail unfurled on the Adriatic."

If I were the evangelizing, proselytizing type, I would be standing on street corners and pressing this book into your hands. Or I would be in airports, where you would find me jumping up and down on bare feet and jingling tiny bells, inviting you to join me for a free feast, where I would feed you on this man's sentences.

But fortunately for one and all, those tactics are NOT my style. I can only attempt to lure you to Conroy's words with the toss of some written bait, the spray of some word-besotted scent, the offer of some minuscule verbal appetizer. May you taste with your own palate the FULL pleasure on Conroy's gourmet literary fare, and see for yourself that this "Southern boy" author, in the words of his main character, knows "how to make a story sizzle when it hits the fat."