The Prince of Tides

Rating:
Summary: A beautifully written tough book about a colorful family
Review: Pat Conroy gives a whole new meaning to "dysfunctional family" in "The Prince of Tides", but his lyrical writing moves the reader along in a sea of awe and sympathy for his characters. Set on coastal South Carolina, and spanning forty years, this shrimper's family fights and claws itself toward destruction and redemption. The tangled relationships between them could seem unbelievable, but through Mr Conroy's magic the reader bonds with even the meanest characters. What a read, (and re-read)! Do not start this book if you need to get up early the next morning

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended; much better than the movie.
Review: Excellent, lyrical writing; the author has grown from being a good writer to an outstanding one since his books about military school (The Boo, The Lords of Discipline), and his love of the English language is evident in the accounts of his character's growing up in and near a small coastal town in South Carolina. Highly recommended. If you saw the movie before reading this book, treat yourself to a MUCH better version of a fascinating novel. Conroy's writing is vivid and needs no big screen to set your mind to imagining the characters and scenes; the inferior movie version inverts the the story and places the character played by producer/actress Barbra Streisand at the center, rather than as the secondary character she portrays from the book.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: When someone asks for a Good Book recomendation, I always reccomend either this or Lords of Discipline because they are some of the best writings I have ever read. Full of wonderful characters and amazing lyrical writing it can't be beat and never has in my opinion.
I just wish Pat Conroy would write more and I wish they would redo the movie as a miniseries so they whole book is included instead of excluding the character of Tom, a character that touches everyone yet only is referred to in the movie. The movie is only a portion of the book.
Pick it up and read it. You won't be sorry.

Rating:
Summary: Great Read!!!!
Review: After reading Conroy's memoir, I was in search to search of his fiction. I picked up The Prince of Tides and was once again completely impressed. Conroy's language is just so amazing, funny, yet serious, and just so easy to read.

The story is very grabbing as you go through the entire history of Tom Wingo's tragic, and unsual family. Conroy easily shifts from past to present, never the least bit confusing.

One of the greatest things is this story has something for everybody. Sports, a love story, family, crime, and what story is complete without guerrila warfare. Read this book. Sit back, and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: A Prince of a Writer
Review: Someone suggested I read PRINCE because, "Conroy writes prose like poetry."

That person was correct.


Rating:
Summary: How to cure Savannah?
Review: As non-native english speaker, I'm amused with so many new phrases and words brought by Pat Conroy into this novel.
The Wingos family life style is hillarious and tragic at the same time. The way Pat Conroy described the chronicle of the Wingos life is uncomparable.
But at the end, as a reader, I don't know how Dr. Lowenstein to cure Savannah psychological problem. Probably, because this is not a psychological book anyway.


Rating:
Summary: GREAT READ! MUST READ!
Review: This book is just fantastic is just about every way. Conroy used to teach at my school and his children went there which is the reason that I picked up the book in the first place. Many of the places he writes about in South Carolina will be familiar to those who live in the South and are so impressively described. Pat Conroy does not get enough credit for his superb writing. Please take a few hours out of your life for a magnificent read that will have you thinking for many weeks. I could not put the book down and I read it in under a week. The book is so jammed packed with incredible imagery and fascinating stories that it should be required reading at every school around the country.

Rating:
Summary: Highs and Lows
Review: These 664 pages span about 40 years in the life of Tom Wingo, as he tries to understand why his sister Savannah has attempted suicide again. Absorbing at times, while boring at other times. (B+)

Rating:
Summary: Conroy's best...
Review: In Pat Conroy's masterpiece, The Prince of Tides, not much is going right in Tom Wingo's life. He drinks too much, has lost his teaching/coaching job, and his marriage is on the rocks. He grew up with an abusive father whose violent behavior left physical and emotional scars on all the Wingo children. His mother was more supportive, but was powerless to protect her children from her husband's wrath. She also put her social ambitions before anything else in her life. The only that has gone right in Tom's life is that he lived his entire life in the low country of Charleston, SC--one of the most beautiful and nurturing places on this earth.

Things come to a head when Tom learns that his beautiful and talented twin, Savannah, has tried to commit suicide again. As she lays comatose in a New York City mental hospital, Savannah's psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein, urges Tom to travel to New York. Doctor Lowenstein realizes that the only thing that can help save Savannah is to unlock the secrets of her terrible childhood (something that all the Wingo children have long suppressed and refuse to talk about). Tom flies to New York reluctantly, and at first, presents Dr. Lowenstein with a façade made up of humor, sarcasm and even rudeness. But Dr. Lowenstein eventually is able to break down Tom's protective shell to discover the horrors that took place during the Wingo's childhood. She also realizes that in trying to save Savannah, that this might also be Tom's last chance to save himself. But it turns out that Lowenstein has erected her own protective mask to hide her own unhappiness. With a remote husband and a spoiled son, Tom is able to turn the tables and help the good doctor in promoting a little self-healing as well.

The Prince of Tides is my favorite of all fiction books, and one of the most moving and emotional novels I have read. I think Conroy is one of our best living authors, and his words seem more like music than the written word. For those that know Conroy's background (including his own abusive father), it is disturbing to realize that much of this story is autobiographical in nature. I watched the movie after reading the book, and while the movie was quite good (especially the actors including Barbra Streisand, Nick Nolte and Blythe Danner), the movie can't hold a candle to the novel. Major storylines had to be left out and the plot greatly simplified.

If you can only read one Conroy, make The Prince of Tides your choice.



Rating:
Summary: A Hazy Kind of Beauty
Review: This is the first Conroy book that I have read. His writing style is unparalleled. While the plot of the book maybe a bit depressing for some, the skill with which Conroy crafts his phrases is amazing. As I read, I turned down the pages of passages that touched me...and by the end there were more pages turned down than not...
I highly recommend this book, for southerners and Yankees alike.