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Summary: Pat Conroy is one of the best writers of our time.
Review: Pat Conroy writes a drama, a fantastic novel better than most writers of this day. While the story - on one level - is somewhat unbelievable, on another level, a simple and more profound story exists. That story is about a son, his parents and his siblings. So much of what Mr. Conroy writes is true, about families and their interrelationships. He weaves a plot around some exquisite descriptions and heartfelt insights about how members of families affect each other and how that affect can be so extremely negative it may become necessary to separate from the "clan". However, this is not a psychological novel, this is an incredibly exciting read that you will be unable to end until you turn to the last page and close the book. And even then, you'll still be thinking about it...
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Summary: Loved it before, love it even more now....
Review: I read this book for the first time my freshman year in high school. I loved it then. I picked it up again to read for my American Literature and Composition class this year (I am a junior now). I'm using it for a novel project, and I discovered how much I really do enjoy the novel. It was so hard to put down. I absolutely adore this book. It has become one of my all~time favorites. I watched the movie, figuring that it wouldn't be close to the novel at all. I'm also a Barbra Streisand fan, and was surprised to see how close she stayed to the book. She was robbed of an Oscar nomination in every way possible. Both the novel and the film were so easy to follow. The book is worth the read. I've read it so many times now that I have lost count!
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Summary: Oh Pat, do it again!
Review: The Best -- better than Beach Music. This book must be read more than once, and slowly. Mr. Conroy uses words to create beauty, to make the feelings of life overwhelming, to provide shelter from the reality of normalcy. Thank you, Pat, if you ever read this. Please, do it again !
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Summary: I don't get it
Review: I am clearly in the minority with my opinion, but I found it difficult to get through this book. I found Tom, the central character, to be a whiny, self-centered, self-pitying, sarcastic person. I found that the dialogue did not ring true. Conversations between Tom and Susan were annoying to read when each character said the other's name in almost every sentence. Savannah as a child did not sound like a child; she spoke as though she were an adult. Tom's incessant whining about his horrible childhood was irritating. Lots of people had worse childhoods Tom, get over it. And his "humor" was just not funny to me.
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Summary: My favourite book.
Review: I first read this book when I was about 15 and I was absolutely captivated. I've read it countless times since and every time I seem to love it even more. Pat Conroy is so lyrical it is almost as if you are reading great poetry. I also thought the movie directed by Barbra Streisand was brilliant. The book is so huge and epic I thought Streisand did a fantastic job translating it to the screen. (Streisand was robbed of an Oscar nomination for best director.)
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Summary: The Prince of Tides... Erasing the Past
Review: I opened The Prince of Tides, quickly began to read, and then I realized that I was finished. The Prince of Tides is a book that you can't put down because it's so interesting, but at the same time, when you finally reach the end, you wish you had read it a little more slowly because that way you would have appreciated it more. The book is about a man torn in half by his past, family, and love. Tom is forced to go to New York from his conservative town in South Carolina. He is not fond of the city, to say the least, none the less he is forced to go there because his sister, Savannah, has once again tried to kill herself. Savannah can never remember the past because she has put a block on her memory; the thoughts of her past life are too hurtful. Tom, his sister, and brother Luke grew up with their father and mother. Their father would come home everyday from his job as a shrimper and would beat them constantly whenever he felt something went wrong. He would always get his way. It is the story of a not so basic family, but an example of a family that needs help and goes unnoticed. Pat Conroy takes everything that happens and puts it in such a way that you find yourself telling Tom what to do, wishing he'd make a different decision, or cheering him on when he makes a good one. Tom becomes very close to Savannah's Doctor, she is the only link to finding out what's wrong with his sister, and he is the only link to Savannah's past. There are numerous conflicts through out the book, and always clashing personalities. There's the liberal Savannah, and the South loving Luke. And in the middle there's Tom, sarcastic and apparently stable.
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Summary: The Book is a Wonder, the movie was an abomination....
Review: Pat Conroy is a writer whom I emulate, and with this novel he shows his mastery at telling of the horror and love that comes from a poor family, and the journey of a son on the path of healing. Tom Wingo narrates this story of his family's life in backwater Colleton, and it is the best novel I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Mr. Conroy is a witty, cynical writer, so much that a laugh can be had during even the most brutal of scenes. I have recommended this novel to all I know, and of those who have read it, they cannot use enough superlatives in describing how truly great it is. Please, please write a new novel soon, Mr. Conroy! I am impatient to read anything you put on paper. But please do not let anyone in LA or NYC get their hands on a novel of yours again and make a movie without A). Reading it first and B). Banning the awful Ms. Streisand from ever getting her long tapered fingernails into it.
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Summary: read and walk
Review: The book I read was one of those books that draws you in, and when you wake up in the morning to feel as if you are a character, living out the plot of the story. Prince of tides is the one book that you just can't possibly put down even to eat. You read walk. I could not put this book down even to tie my shoe. I would of rather tripped and fallen then to miss apart of this book. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone, who wants to feel the adventure of a life soo twisted and yet so fimailiar. I usually don't enjoy long lengthy books.. actually just books in gernral. At 14 this book for me was a little thick but i got through it well.
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Summary: The movie was nothing......
Review: I read this book shortly after it came out. It is the kind of book that will make you burn dinner, miss appointments and neglect hygiene, you can't put it down. I had the sense all through this book that it was somewhat autobiographical, There is alot of symbolism, and pure Southern, particularly Charlestonian, culture that Ms. Streisand completely neglected in the disappointing film version of this great story. Nick Nolte was perfect for the character he played, however. Very southern, very Charleston. This book is graphic in it's violence and tortuously painful in it's hardest parts, but so real. If you're not Southern, you might not be able to fully appreciate the subjects he deals with. But, it's one of my absolute favorite books of fiction, ever.
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Summary: Unabridged Audiocassette Review -- Superb!
Review: Listing to 27 90-minute tapes sounds like a gruesome chore, but listening to Peter MacNicol read this excellent Conroy novel was an absolute delight. Conroy paints his settings so superbly you can almost feel the South Carolina humidity and smell the ocean. His characters come alive with MacNicol's perfect reading of the script. This is a jewel and is highly recommended, even if you can only find the abridged version to listen to. (My library had the unabridged text on tape.)
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