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Dec 17, 2009

JT rated it:

I would never have read this book, had it not been left in a pile of paperbacks on a rig offshore, and I had I not finished the two books I brought with me already. I honestly had no idea what to expect, and almost put it down after 13 pages because Talladega Nights was on HBO.

But I didn't, and I spent large chunks of my afternoons once back onshore reading this monstrosity. Beach Music is a grand, sweeping novel of a Southern man in a Southern city in a Southern state (South Carol More...

2 comments like (15 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Jason rated it:

I met Pat Conroy at a book signing event in Atlanta when this book was released. There just so happened to be another Furman Alumni in line ahead of us and I heard Conroy say something about Furman. I spoke up making sure he knew I was there. His response was something like "You Furman people are like Lynx, you're everywhere!" So, thinking I understood that his spat with The Citadel had turned him sour against the school I made some smartass, derogatory comment about The Citadel. He si More...

3 comments like (13 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Erin rated it:

Beautiful!

It's weird because there's something amateur? unintellectual? about his writing, yet it's profoundly wise and he comes up with poetic comparisons all over the place. I can't place it. Maybe the characters are a bit too cheesy at times. Hopeless romantic? I don't know. But he writes about insanely tragic things and with utter understanding. This and Prince of Tides are very healing books - they have a raw power.

One paragraph summed up my Mom in such bea More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Lp rated it:

Possibly one of the worst books I have ever had the misfortune to read. I bought it after hearing Nan Talese, Conroy's editor, talk about how it was put together. In retrospect, I should have realized that her telling of how Conroy was impaired by drink and depression during the writing of the book, and her active role in putting the book together meant it would be a crazy-quilt hodgepodge rambling Faulkner wannabe of a book. When the Nazis showed up, I though, Oh My God.

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 20, 2008

megan rated it:

A good epic southern novel. I forgot how much fun it was to read these types of books full of family drama, unrealistic and over-the-top characters, and some good old romance.

I remember really enjoying Conroy's Prince of Tides when I read it back as the oldest 10th grader you'll ever know--this book has a similar feel to it. Jack McCall has fled to Rome after his wife commits suicide. He takes his daughter, Leah, with him and vows never to return to the South as there are too man More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 05, 2007

Ngaire rated it:

I fell in love with Pat Conroy's writing while on holiday at Hunting Island, South Carolina - it was accidental though, my professor at grad school had reccomended him and I thought it looked like a good meaty read for a beach holiday. I didn't have any idea that he sets most of his books there and is from there. But it just hooked me in and I could hardly put it down to even walk down to the beach from our camp site. This might very well be up there with Diana Wynne Jones's A Tale of Time Ci More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 16, 2009

Jodie rated it:

This is a really beautifully written story.
I've purchased this book no less than 4 different times. Every time someone saw it they wanted to borrow it and somehow it never got returned. My mother-in-law filched the last copy I bought and she SWEARS it belongs to her.

I picked up yet another copy to take away with me and read while traveling and am truly enjoying re-discovering just how wonderful it is to read Pat Conroy.

I'm so pleased to have picked this book up agai More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2009

Matthew rated it:

I was initially skeptical about starting up one of these "blockbuster" novels, but Beach Music's prologue was surprisingly well written and I found myself strangely captivated to read on. As a testament to the quality of that prologue, I waded through a couple hundred pages of overwrought and overweight storytelling just to find some closure on the Jack McCall's wife's suicide mystery. There would be times in my reading when I had to look away from the book because the prose would be s More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 02, 2009

Morgan rated it:

Set in the American South and Rome, this is one of my all time favorite books. Would give it 10 stars if I could. I loved the complex family dynamic AND the food descriptions. I really enjoy reading people's descriptions of food.* One of the main characters is a food critic and he discusses the meals be prepares for his broken family at various points in his life. This character also finds cooking soothing and a way to escape; I'm happy for this character that he has a job that is one of his pas More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 09, 2009

Loni rated it:

I read this a while back, but reread parts of it over the holidays and gave it as a gift to my brother Bill. It deals with several friends who grew up together in the 60's. They had various family problems -- one was a child of holocaust survivors, another had a physically and verbally abusive father, while yet another had an alcoholic father and a weak (terrified) mother. Because we grew up with an abusive step-father and an alcoholic father, it was the first book I ever read that I could ac More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 26, 2012

Rachel rated it:

Pat Conroy has the ability to weave a story out of the most deeply disturbing events and gorgeous prose ever to appear on a printed page. It's a strange combination, a reading experience that leaves you exhausted, nostalgic, wanting to close the book, compelled to read on, and glad you finished the novel at the end. Suicide, mental illness, the Vietnam War, the Holocaust, and domestic abuse scar the tapestry of this novel all the way through, but the beauty of South Carolina's low country, the More...

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Nov 02, 2011

Diane rated it:

This is a tough review, and I'm not going to even try to summarize the plot. It is so big and sprawling and spans the Holocaust to the Low Country to the Appalachians to Italy and back again. The story is beautiful and heart-breaking at the same time. Some of the characters are beautifully developed and some seem more like cardboard cut-outs. I love how the ending tied up the loose strings though I think some of it was unfair.
The writing is amazing. The author has a gift for description t More...

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Sep 13, 2011

Brian rated it:

Initially Beach Music seemed to me to be yet another trite, flavorless tale of a dysfunctional family. I'm glad I stayed with it, as there were some interesting turns of events. Jack is an at times unlikable protagonist, which probably adds to the novel's inertia. In the end, Pat Conroy manages to weave a tapestry of knotted mystery which intrigues and opens up the heart and mind for contemplation.

Spoilers beyond here:

I particularly liked the animated over-the-top portraya More...

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Feb 10, 2011

Matthew rated it:

I guess this goes on the "mainstream" shelf...the fact that it's the only book there right now says something about my tastes in reading. Anyway, I bushing loved this book. The end.

Oh, well, I guess I could go into some detail. The characters are fun, the stories they have are enthralling, and the settings are wonderfully described. The plot moves in a less-than-linear fashion, with flashbacks forming a significant portion of the book, but that's just fine.

And not o More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 16, 2011

Saadia rated it:

This is not an action/adventure story. More like a first person biography narrative, centered on the protagonist family and close friends and milestone events leading to the unfolding of the story over about a year in time.
My first time reading a novel by Pat Conroy so I had no idea what to expect. Very multi-layered story involving lots of characters which formed his psyche and personality. Some parts I could relate to better than others.
I enjoyed reading about the background fam More...

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Jan 05, 2011

Misty rated it:

I have read this book at least a dozen times, and it remains one of my very favorites. I can't recommend it enough.

The story centers around Jack McCall, who leaves his home in South Carolina and moves to Italy with his daughter, Leah, after losing his wife. The story follows Jack and Leah as they make a new life in Italy, eventually return to South Carolina, and cope with the loss of their beloved wife and mother. There are interesting subplots throughout, along with beautifully writ More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 19, 2010

Ella rated it:

Patrick Conroy hurls words and ideas at you and they all land in a perfectly harmonized formation of drama, humor and outrageously engaging characters. His gift for creating characters from words on a page to larger than life people is magnificent. Beach Music incorporates some very difficult topics and weaves together a number of complex story lines, which intertwine in this multi generational epic. In all his books he is excellent at depicting dysfunction in families and this book is no except More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 30, 2010

Elizabeth rated it:

I wanted to like Pat Conroy’s Beach Music. Really, I did. The opening paragraph (a stunning, lyrical evocation of a young woman’s suicide) drew me into the sprawling, eight hundred page tome. At first glance, the book seemed to have all the elements of a rip-roaring good yarn: betrayal, forgiveness, intergenerational conflict, and a number of love affairs thrown in for good measure.

At the story’s start, we meet main character Jack McCall, who (with only his daughter, Leah, for compa More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 17, 2010

Cynthia rated it:

This book was recommended to me by a patron from Cook Library. Great book, although too long I felt it could have skipped some of the World War II horror anc still accomplished the fact that Shyla's parents were the way they were because of it. Very visual with the scenes and history in South Carolina. The McCall boys seemed a little extreme in many instances but probably accurate. John Hardin naturally was out of control and I wondered if people really let him live that way but I am happy h More...

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Nov 29, 2009

Paul rated it:

this is a great book, especially for those of us who might have been close to draft age and/or in college in the late 60's

The story weaves around three guys (and a couple of neighbor girls) who grow up in a small coastal town of S Carolina. In their freshman year they befriend a new kids who comes in from Southern Cal whose old man is a mean Marine corp officer--that is mean to his kid.

they raise a lot of hell and play good sports through high school do many things we wo More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 12, 2009

Tim rated it:

Here is where Pat Conroy's foibles and weaknesses come home to roost. "Beach Music" is his worst book (I haven't read the hard-to-find and generally forgotten "The Boo") by a considerable distance. Even the most ardent Conroy admirers will likely admit his faults: an occasional tin ear for dialogue, a tendency for his main characters to indulge in too much forced humor, similar characters from book to book. And, of course, there's Conroy's astonishingly repetitive dialogue qu More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 27, 2009

Sherry rated it:

Overall it was a good story and I enjoyed reading it.

I did not respect any of the 5 "friends". I found the secondary characters, John Hardin, Betsy, the general, Jordan, Jack's Father and Mother much more interesting than the 5 "friends" characters.

The first half of the book kept me on the edge of my seat with the promise of some horrible, unforgiveable acts made by Jack's family that made him move all the way across the world to Italy which More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jul 14, 2011

Andrea rated it:

Pat Conroy is one of my favorite authors. His writing style is a joy to read, and if he occasionally screws up factual materials, well, isn't that what editors are for?

I sent an email to Doubleday as I reached the end of Beach Music and found an error so egregious ( M-W "conspicuously bad" "flagrant")that I was shocked it was not caught in the editing process. For those of you who think I am too picky, I won't go into the matter any further, but I was appalled. More...

1 comment like

Aug 21, 2010

Randy rated it:

I've read Beach Music twice. After the first reading, 15 years ago, I decided it was one of the best books I'd ever read. Now, in 2010, I finally re-read it and came to the exact same conclusion. It is simply a brilliant, complex work that few writers other than Pat Conroy would even attempt to pull off.

Those who don't like the book usually focus on its length (nearly 800 pages), and what they call the "indistinguishable" brothers. When it comes to book length, my view More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 30, 2011

Stuart rated it:

What a disappointment this book was. I gave up on it without finishing it. So many people had told me to read Pat Conroy, and how good an author he was. So I borrowed this one from the library. How did I choose? This one was in paperback, and I needed to take it on the road; also it was flagged on other Conroy novels. But it felt like a make-weight book to me. It was almost like the Beatles did in Abbey Road, throwing all the half-completed pieces of work into a pot and seeing how it turned o More...

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Feb 10, 2009

Diane rated it:

I read this book many, many years ago, and at that time, it was my favorite all time book. I just finished reading it again because it was one that I recommended along with Laura. I wanted to see if I still enjoyed it as much as I did the first time.

The answer is yes, I really enjoyed this book, but it is not my all time favorite now. I still characterize this book as "a slice of life" book because it is about a dysfunctional family, or rather 3 dysfunctional families! More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 30, 2011

Sissy rated it:

To read a book by Pat Conroy is to come to the realization that so much of everything else I read, and think is good, is truly just an appetizer getting me ready for the main course -- which is what Conroy is. Every sentence you read lures you into the web of Conroy's storytelling. This is a book that will take you from the piazzas in Rome to the low country of South Carolina. You will fall so deeply in love with each setting that you couldn't possibly decide which place you would prefer to live More...

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Oct 10, 2011

Linda rated it:

“Beach Music” by Pat Conroy was a delightful story. The characters were strong and well developed. I both strongly disliked or identified with and cared for different individuals in the story. Jack McCall and his childhood school friends compose the main characters in “Beach Music.” There was an important smaller story within about the Viet Nam war and the effect that it had upon one group of friends and family. Conroy’s descriptions of and loyalty to the South are demonstrated in all his More...

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Aug 05, 2011

John added it

Pat Conroy’s Beach Music is a story of reconciliation. Jack McCall has a dysfunctional family to the Nth degree. On initial introduction Jack is plagued by a pervasively negative attitude toward his brother, mother, friends et cetera. Eventually and through a slow progression his relationships go from animosity to truce and finally love. Jack is self absorbed and whiny, but he whines in an intelligent manner, try to resist the urge to scream at the book, “just be a man, Jack;” the story make More...

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Oct 11, 2009

Alison rated it:

I put "Beach Music" in the pile of books I've had for years and never read, with the intent of giving it a shot and then giving it away. Now that I've finally read it, it's back on my shelves.

It's far from a perfect book - full of overwrought melodrama and so many intense, horrible events that they lose some power, eventually leaving the reader more puzzled than sympathetic. There are also questions and discrepancies that are never addressed, and the pacing is often stilted More...

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