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Summary: Meandering and Cosy
Review: This is a cosy book, one to settle down and ponder. The book provides a view of two different American Worlds and how bitter and twisted families can make you even if it is unwarranted.Whilst at times the book is a little slow it is compelling enough to want to keep the pages turning until the end.
Rating: 
Summary: Pat Conroy: Synonymous With Brilliant
Review: Conroy has made book after book of astonishing heart piercing, funny bone tickleing, saga filled masterpieces. This book is no exception. Conroy, through the use of humor and sorrow will bring you to all depths of emotional feeling. His charecters will reach you in ways you wouldn't think possible and he will leave you reading the last page while gasping for your breath. I search and search for books and stories that will leave a life-long impression on my soul. Unfortunately, they are few and far between. This Is one of those books. The only bad thing about reading "The Prince Of Tides" is that I can never again read it for the first time. Because of this I am forever jealous of those who have yet to embark on his journeys. If you enjoy this book as much as most Pat Conroy cultists, you will also enjoy his other books.
They are: -Beach Music
-The Great Santini
-The Lords Of Discipline
-The Water Is Wide
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Summary: Emotional Blackmail
Review: This was my first introduction into the mind of Pat Conroy. I was well into the book before I realized/found out that this was fiction. I was really mad at the author for making me such intense emotions for someone that wasn't real. Now of course I realize that the fact that someone can write this well is because the characters aren't really just fiction, they are part real, part fiction, part day dream. The Prince of Tides should be read by anyone with a tragic suffering childhood, it really helps to see that someone understands. I'd imagine that someone that had a wonderful upbringing and was bestowed with love and affection just might not "get it" but even such a person couldn't help but be touched by this story unless they owned a dead heart. And remember, even though it is fiction, it is real too...
Rating: 
Summary: It is hard to understand the success of this book.
Review: All novels require a suspension of disbelief, but this one was too much for me. It uses the hoary device of Freudian analysis as a means of structuring the story. The great traumatic secret that this analysis eventually uncovers is so over the top as to be funny rather than horrifying; one would like to know what Flannery O'Connor would have thought of it. As much as others love this book, for me almost everything in it rang false.
Rating:
Summary: An Absolute Masterpiece!!!!
Review: I read this wonderful book over 10 years ago and, for some reason, recently decided to read it again. What a difference 10 years makes in one's perspective!! It was always on my top ten list, but after the second read, I now place it in my top 3. I loved this book, and especially loved the writing. It is written with deep emotion, wonderful characters, and a great sense of humor!! The story is about the Wingo family from the low-country of South Carolina and their troubled journey through childhood into an even more troubled journey into adulthood. I love Tom Wingo, the principal character; he has become real to me. Pat Conroy brought this character to life as no author has ever done for me before. Tom Wingo wonderfully depicts the attitude and character of the southern male. He is flawed, yet so lovable. Tom is trying to save his troubled sister, Savannah, who has been placed in a mental institution. In doing so, he must re-live many, many traumatic and repressed childhood memories, but in the end, it's all about love and forgiveness. Chapter 9 tells of Tom's mother (a great character in this book) and how as a child he loved the way she wore gardenias in her hair only to throw them in the trash when she overhears the "women of the upper crust society" making fun of her. It is the shortest, sweetest, most well-written chapter I think I've ever read. This book has you wrecked with emotion in one chapter and laughing hysterically in the next (Tolitha picks out her coffin springs to mind as an example). The writing is so beautiful, I was just sobbing at the end (it's been a long, long time since a book stirred my emotions as much as this one did). I would love to see the book re-surface for the present generation's enjoyment!! Pat Convoy deserves tremendous praise for the wonderful writing in this book, as well as BEACH MUSIC (another wonderful read). There were no Oprah's around when this wonderful book was written; it sure does deserve the attention and praise any of her selections have received!! I urge anyone who has not read this book to please pick it up; you will not be sorry!! This book is a classic and one that I hope will be on everyone's bookshelf. Please don't skip the book and opt to see the movie. The movie is good, but in no way does it do the book justice.
Rating:
Summary: Truly Life Altering
Review: Having grown up with a single parent who was half Henry Wingo and half Lila, The Prince of Tides has deep significance for me. Prior to reading this book, it was inconceivable to me that a brown immigrant boy growing up in tropical Hawaii could have so much in common with a self-proclaimed redneck on a Carolina sea island a generation earlier. Never has a story, fact or fiction, come as close to portraying my life as Tom Wingo's. Unwittingly, Mr. Conroy has helped me understand my own life, in turn precipitating and condensing years of self-discovery (and the oft-accompanying torment) into the time it took to read the book. I am now on my fifth reading and Tom's reflections and evolution continue to help me be a better husband and father. This is not a perfect work... I wish it were so easy to forgive and forget in real life. But it has truly been a life-altering experience for me. Thank you, Mr. Conroy.
Rating:
Summary: Best Conroy Book
Review: I first read this book on a rainy road trip 5 years ago-I actually hoped that the rain wouldn't stop. This book just completely sweeps you up-you become so involved with the family and the tragedy of their lives-it's beautifully written and full of suspense as well-I recomend this one to everyone.
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Summary: Conroy is in a class with Maugham and Styron
Review: I read The Prince of Tides in 1984 and have read it many more times since then. It is my number one favorite book, and I have been reading for 45 years. Conroy spins a tale of a family and southern town in a prose that is poetic. The Wingos are a tragic family, yet paradoxically have golden memories, interspersed with some of the most humorous imbroglios imaginable. Tom Wingo's recollections of growing up in the low country marshes are the heart of the story, and telling them to Dr. Lowenstein is the avenue to healing himself and a form for the author to promote this dialog. All along the way every chapter is a story unto itself. Many vivid characters are introduced, in such astounding fashion! Who could dream up a Mr. Fruit, or Tolitha's coffin shopping expedition? So many adventures, and yet with such underlying sorrow. Conroy's gift is his ability to intersperse his books with humor and immaculate prose. I have copied down some of his phrases as treasures to quote. Reading some of the the one, two and three star reviews made my heart sink, for these reviewers just don't seem to recognize one of the greatest books of the last quarter century. I do agree with anyone who thought the movie made by Streisand focused predominately on the love affair, and in effect may have quenched a savvy reader's desire to read the novel. Please read this book and recommend it to others!
Rating:
Summary: A Supernatural Work of Art
Review: Dr. Pat Conroy has again impressed upon the world his prodigious gift of mastery over the artistic nuances of the English language. In the Prince of Tides, from its brilliant opening imagery to its last sentence of love's echoing futility, the story of a dynamic and sad Southern clan is captured in such a wrenching and careful way as to evade any righteous judgement by the few pathetic words of a novice's review. Therefore, I shall simply give it my highest and most enthusiastic recommendation, and warn you that the luster of every subsequent novel you read will be profoundly tarnished. Additional note: I neither read nor listened to this novel, but -experienced- it through the humbling talent of the world's best narrarator, Henry Muller, on the audio cassette version of The Prince of Tides. While painting and creating the colors on my canvases, I have found no better way of increasing my performance than listening to Mr. Muller read one of Mr. Conroy's masterpieces.
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Summary: Pat Conroy's Prince of Tides
Review: I would say that The Prince of Tides is one of Conroy's best novels to date. From the very beginning, until almost the very end, it pulls you in and makes you wonder (maybe for a little TOO long, but that's ok) about what could have happened to Luke and how it could have been so horrible that it tears an entire family apart. As in most of Conroy's books, it tells the story of the product of a dysfunctional family, and how he begins to rebuild his peace of mind. Tom Wingo is one of Conroy's most colorful and confused characters, filled with all the love and mixed emotion in the world, but lost to how he can show it. Each family member has so many amazing qualities and quirks--Lila Wingo's determination and pride; Savannah's memory loss and strange visions; Henry Wingo's mood swings and schemes to make money; Tolitha's travels, Amos's boundless religion. The story of the Wingo family is one to amaze anyone, and I would recommend it to everyone.
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