The Prince of Tides
by Pat Conroy
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If you are interested in reading novels with vibrant descriptions of the southeastern US, Conroy is a good bet.
I gave it three stars mostly because of the wrap up of the plot and the ending. It fell flat and was depressing. Although the protagonist Tom represented a complex and thoughtful narrator in the beginning of his tale, I was unhappy with his adult self, the decisions he made, his attitude towards life, and the consequences of his decisions.
At the onset of the story, the aut...more
I gave it three stars mostly because of the wrap up of the plot and the ending. It fell flat and was depressing. Although the protagonist Tom represented a complex and thoughtful narrator in the beginning of his tale, I was unhappy with his adult self, the decisions he made, his attitude towards life, and the consequences of his decisions.
At the onset of the story, the aut...more
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Read in June, 2007
Pat Conroy's prose is tragically acquainted with all the misery and glory and pain and beauty of humanity. It is also deeply entrenched in the American south. I believe he immortalizes his own time and place the way Hemingway did for wartime Europe. This story, so startlingly brutal and direct in it's engagement of the reader, lays out the impressive and failed life of Tom Wingo. The plain good virtue and astonishing cruelty of small-town South Carolina take shape in an uneasy and inevitable con...more
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recommends it for:
all my friends
My favorite novels are written by Irish authors or authors from America's South. "Mama won't read that novel...it's too uplifting!!!" O.K., I have been accused of liking novels with a darker side. Guilty as charged. The theme of Prince of Tides is indeed dark...but oh, the beauty of the words that Pat Conroy weaves together. He is a Master of Words. On page one, his words grab you and he won't let you escape until the final page. Pat Conroy begins, "My wound is my geography....more
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Read in January, 1990
This story is narrated by Tom, a twin to sister Savannah, who is being treated by a psychiatrist for a second suicide attempt. Savannah is in a severe dissociatative state, having suffered auditory and visual halluciations. As she is unable to communicate with her psychiatrist, Tom reluctantly begins to go back in time with his sister's psychiatrist to their childhood in the South, to uncover the traumas, beliefs and behaviours that have affected them both.
The author conjurs up incredible ...more
The author conjurs up incredible ...more
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Read in January, 1989
recommends it for:
Anyone
Every time I read one of Pat Conroy's books my heart nearly bursts, and Prince of Tides is no exception. Being a Marine Corps brat, from the Lowcountry and now a counselor for addiction and abuse recovery, I can relate to many of the scenes he writes about. He writes with such passion about this family's lifespan, in all their sordid and glorious life experiences. The character seeking to understand his sister's plight ends up learning more about himself. (Too bad the movie left out so much g...more
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recommends it for:
anyone
Forget the awful movie version (it tried hard, but I maintain that this book is essentially unfilmable in terms of attempting to truly do it justice). Forget that a summary of its plot would make it sound hopelessly maudlin and soap opera-esque. This is an extraordinary book. I remember going directly home from seeing the movie with my parents and digging out their copy, which I then read nearly without stopping and have reread a minimum of ten times since. I may have read better "literary&...more
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Read in June, 2008
GAH!! this book is so friggin' frustrating! I read part of it and had to put it down. Don't get me wrong, it's beautifully written and the plot is extremely compelling but oh my goodness... why??!!?? Pat conroy is probably one of the most talented writers of our time, his imagery reads like a poem but it's also really easy to understand. I fell in love with the book and was rejoicing at its length because I would have even longer to enjoy it... but no. It's one of the most graphic things I...more
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ok so i loved 9/10ths of this book. it was beautifully written...like a long poem that had both inter-sentence and inter-paragraph symmetry. each line is cleverly carved to make a whole. the story itself is not anything new: parents who screw up in the same ways as always, children who cope or don't cope. but it was the language really that was wonderful.
what i didn't like about this book was the ending. i felt like that was pulled out of a hat. here's a family whose daily lives were ...more
what i didn't like about this book was the ending. i felt like that was pulled out of a hat. here's a family whose daily lives were ...more
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Read in January, 1991
This is the book that is the reason I read anything at all for pleasure. I decided I was going to read it before the movie came out and COMPLETELY fell in love with Conroy's style, renewed my love-affair with the low country of South Carolina, and discovered the joy of diving into a book wholeheartedly. Mr. Conroy is the reason I read today. The stories of what this family went through are heartbreaking at one (or more) moment(s) and hysterical at others. I didn't think the movie was half-bad, b...more
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Read in July, 2004
I finally got around to reading this after having it on my shelf for at least 10 years and avoiding the movie for that entire time.
I'm totally glad I waited. It was a wonderful book, very well-written and captivating. The problems that plague the family in the book do seem a bit over the top at times, but coming from a a person who had a perfectly normal childhood, perhaps I just don't know what it's like to have a terrible childhood. It's interesting to read about anyway. The only problem I...more
I'm totally glad I waited. It was a wonderful book, very well-written and captivating. The problems that plague the family in the book do seem a bit over the top at times, but coming from a a person who had a perfectly normal childhood, perhaps I just don't know what it's like to have a terrible childhood. It's interesting to read about anyway. The only problem I...more
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Read in November, 2007
I don't understand why this book gets rave reviews. I made it through the nearly 600 pages, but I can't say that I enjoyed most of it. Here is a random excerpt: "I tasted the wine and it was so robust and appealing that I could feel my mouth singing with pleasure when I brought the glass from my lips. The aftertaste held like a chord on my tongue; my mouth felt like a field of flowers. The mousse made me happy to be alive." Give me a break. Am I supposed to believe all of this? I felt ...more
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Read in July, 2007
I recently moved to South Carolina and randomly picked this book up off my roommate's bookshelf to read. This was the perfect book for me to read since I have been a little unsure about my move south. Adapting to the people and the attitude around here has been the biggest speed bump in Charleston and this book gave me a unique perspective on southern life through the eyes of both a Carolina native and a New Yorker. The time that Tom and Dr. Lowenstein spend together and the progression of their...more
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Read in March, 2008
I like Pat Conroy's books, and I really enjoyed this one! I like the movie (I like Nick Nolte, Barbra Streisand, not so much); but the book is much better. The story gets a bit plodding at times due to the amount of deep interpersonal stuff going on. However, Mr. Conroy makes up for that by using the english language like a great painter handles brushes and colors. When he describes Savannah's poetry, he uses poetic language. When he describes his father's violence he uses violent imagery. ...more
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In many ways, this books seems to eerily familiar - to Beach Music by this same author. Both books depict the nature and after-effects of dysfunctional families. Both take place in about the same venue. Both deal with suicide and exile. And both resolve in similar manners. I have to say that I like this author and will likely read more of his stuff. His dialog is snappy and his characters are interesting. Some of his descriptions of surroundings are extremely good. But I do find the endings a bi...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
everyone from a dysfunctional family == everyone
This is my 2nd Pat Conroy book after the autobiographical 'My Losing Season' which I also loved. This one is fiction, but there are some scarey parallels to the narrator's life and my own - but nuff said. I listened to it as an audiobook - twice in a row! This book just makes me want stop everything and write the story of my own life. What great writing, pacing, character building and plot! This book has it all. The message at the end is irresistible also. Some of the plot may be a bit co...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone with compassion and wit.
I picked up The Prince of Tides a few days ago because it was referenced in another book I was reading. I haven't been able to put it down! The story is amazing, and sadly, one I connect with on a very personal level. The prose is fast paced - you forget the narrator is suppose to be southern. I love descriptions of New York, a seeming back drop to the story, but a larger than life metaphor for the chaos the characters are entrenched within. Tim, the narrator, uses his sarcasim and wit to mask a...more
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Andrew gave this to me for our first Channukah together, and I was like, what the hell? I had read "The Great Santini" in high school and disliked it and heard all about the movie "Prince of Tides," which was by all accounts horrendous, and I had no interest in reading this book. But Andrew told me it was one of his favorite books, so I relented because I trust him. WHAT A WONDERFUL story. It was moving, it was full of action, surprise. Pretty much all the elements of a great...more
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Read in March, 2003
recommends it for:
Everyone with a father.
Pat Conroy's theme is all too predictable: he has unresolved issues with his father. After The Great Santini, I'm sure we're all aware of this.
Prince certainly staggers under the weight of Conroy's obsessive theme, but there's so many other things occuring in the (long) narrative, that the reader can easily pick out more complex and fresh ideas within. A multilayered, compelling story, Prince delivers an amazing variety of ideas in a relatively quick 600 pages.
I t...more
Prince certainly staggers under the weight of Conroy's obsessive theme, but there's so many other things occuring in the (long) narrative, that the reader can easily pick out more complex and fresh ideas within. A multilayered, compelling story, Prince delivers an amazing variety of ideas in a relatively quick 600 pages.
I t...more
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Read in January, 1998
This didn't miss a five-star rating by much. I have read it twice, and have read parts a third time. It is the story of an unemployed South Carolina teacher/coach in a failing marriage who is called to New York to help his brilliant twin sister, a writer who has attempted suicide yet again. He begins a series of sessions with her psychiatrist in which events from their southern childhood are revealed layer by layer, and the brother learns as much about himself as he does about his sister. Th...more
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Read in May, 2008
This is a beautifully written, engrossing story of a horribly abusive family in the 1960's in South Carolina. It has everything: foreshadowing of doom running through the plot like a shark lurking under a dive boat, horrific natural disasters to mark key plot points, various animals symbolizing things that only literature majors can decipher for sure, and laugh-out-loud funny cultural references about the South. But as I read it I couldn't help wondering if people from the South really suffer as...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 4.17 (3464 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 4.16 (2793 ratings) number of reviews: 365popular shelves
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