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Oct 09, 2011

Jana rated it:

I'm a bit scared that I won't be able to describe how much I love this book and that I’ll screw up this review. Every time I have the same problem with Conroy. Every time when I finish reading ''him'' I have this properly deep ache. I get spoiled and I find myself measuring almost everything I’ve read so far.

I even get angry because I know it will take a long and thorough research to find book(s), author(s) that will replace me this Pat Conroy feeling. And I never do, I never did. T More...

3 comments like (9 people liked it)

Feb 15, 2010

Buck rated it:

I was introduced to this book at Pat Conroy by my high school algebra teacher. She was reading the book just after it came out and suggested that we all read it. I think I may have been the only one who did.

I immediately fell in love with this work. Conroy's descriptions of Charleston are priceless. Some of my favorite quotes come from this book.

I return to this work yearly to explore my old friends once more and with each reading I find a nuance that I had overlooked in More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2008

Caley rated it:

Fantastic book! Pat Conroy does an excellent job conveying the life of a student at Carolina Military Institute (based on the Citadel). Conroy has a wonderful writing style that really enables the reader to visualize everything in the novel, from the atmosphere of Charleson to the vicious beating the cadets endure. The book is told from one boy's point of view and begins with his senior year, but has flashbacks to his earlier years. While you may flinch at the violence that is tolerated at s More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 24, 2007

Annie rated it:

A powerful, moving story written in Conroy's trademark poetic style. Some parts of it were harder for me to read than even the descriptions of mental illness in The Prince of Tides, or the Holocaust story woven through Beach Music. I found it immensely disturbing that young men could be so cruel to one another. I was impressed by the way Conroy captured and portrayed the inconsistency and confusion of the main character, Will, bearing in mind that Will was a young man between the ages of 18 a More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 05, 2008

Steffany rated it:

I love Conroy's humor in this book, the way he uses it to diffuse some incredibly raw scenes. I cried so hard when Pig walks down the line and the men turn their back on him. And then the train. Ugh. It absolutely broke my heart. I love all of Conroy's books for their descriptions, for introducing me to the beautiful South, and for his characters. He has strong people with strong issues which makes them real. And the men are vulnerable and strong and that's not something you see in many b More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 31, 2010

George rated it:

This would be the 3rd unforgettable book I've read by Mr. Conroy in the past year, and to date. I just love reading his work. There is no other way to put it. He just simply writes, in my humble opinion, the most beautiful sentences I have ever read. He has an unflinching capacity to be so brutally honest it, sometimes, hurts. But it is the greatest pain one can recieve from a great novel. The amount of passion, pain, and pure adrenaline within the pages of this book will not let the reader put More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

May 19, 2008

Michael rated it:

I read this book over the course of two days in September 2000. I could not put it down. It was recommended to me by a friend who attend The Citadel. I rarely read books as fast as I read this one. I highly recommend it.

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jul 19, 2007

Lori rated it:

There are sections of this book I could recite from memory. Two very different passages -- the walk of shame and the big basketball game -- were regularly done as "prose" pieces in my high school drama class, and as I read them, I could hear my classmates' 15-year-old voices in my head. (Hey Larry and Chris.)

Other than those, though, I'd forgotten a lot of the specifics. And I'm so very glad.

Conroy stunned me all over again, nearly two decades after I'd gotten t More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 31, 2007

Tom rated it:

The title of this book makes it sound like Fabio should be posing on the cover. However, the book is absolutely riveting. It's about Will Macleans's trip through four years of The Citadel, the military college in South Carolina where Pat Conroy did in fact go. It's structured around his task of trying to assist the first black cadet to enter the citadel, but is mostly about Will's friendships and battles against the more sadistic members of his class.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2007

Drew rated it:

This is quite simply my very favorite book of all time. Pat Conroy draws upon some of the events of his days as a cadet at The Citadel to tell the story of Will McLean, a senior who attends the fictional Carolina Military Institute in Charleston, South Carolina on a basketball scholarship. Will is charged with shepherding the Institute's first black cadet, Tom Pearce, through his freshman year at CMI. In Charleston, South Carolina, in 1967, Pearce is being welcomed through the Gates of Legrand w More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2009

David rated it:

Rare indeed is it that I, someone early to bed and late to rise, finds himself wide awake at 1:30am unable to even consider going to bed until the book being read is finished. This almost unbelievable scenario took place last night as I kept turning the pages of this book.

This is the 3rd or 4th Conroy novel I have read to date (I have my Losing Season on the shelf) and it is without doubt the best so far. The characters, the dialog, the quality of the plot, and the intensity of the w More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 27, 2007

Joanie rated it:

Another great book by Conroy. This book is a little different than Beach Music and Prince of Tides, it's about Will, a student at a millitary college. (not too hard to figure out it's supposed to be the Citadel) A black student is accepted to the school for the first time and the whole school is up in arms. The parts about the hazing rituals are described in such brutal detail that I'd get anxious reading them. The part about class and old money was a little goofy to me but I guess it's a real More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 24, 2008

Maurica rated it:

I really enjoyed this book and I recommend it for anyone who has been a cadet. Though this book was written in 1980, set in the 1960's and written by a graduate of The Citadel, I find situations that I can identify with having been a member of the Corps of Cadets at Virginia Tech. Some things never change with the passing of time, in this case 40+ years. I felt a strong personal connection with the main character, Will McLean. I borrowed this book from the library but I will definitely purchase More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 23, 2011

Gladys rated it:

I got so much more from this book than I expected. I had expected to hear a story of hazing and tough military discipline. And I knew that the main character was loosely based on Conroy and his years at The Citadel because I had read about his tenuous relationship with his alma mater for years and read about the reconciliation and his returning to the college to deliver what I think was a commencement address.
I did not, however, expect to read a story of a whole and complete person, one w More...

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Dec 04, 2011

Cindy rated it:

The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy follows Will McLean and his three roommates through their life at a military college, The Institute, in Charleston, South Carolina in the early 1960s. This is one of those books that I always wanted to read, but just never got around to it. Once I started, I could not put it down. This book draws on every emotion as these very different young men come together to share the joys and tragedies of their four years together. The good times are as good as they ge More...

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Dec 29, 2011

Richard rated it:

Like all of Conroy's work, The Lords of Discipline is semi-autobiographical. This time it's about his years as a cadet at The Citadel in Charleston, SC. I think Conroy is an excellent wordsmith and I wrote the following quote down years ago when I first read the book (this is a re-read) and carried it around ever since...

"I had once read in a book that traced the natural history of blue whales that the great creatures often had to travel thousands of miles through the dark wa More...

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Aug 15, 2011

Sidna rated it:

In this book Pat Conroy graphically describes the conditions at a private military college in Charleston, SC between 1963 and 1967. The name of the school is the Carolina Military Institute and it sounds much like The Citadel which Pat attended during those years and which happens to be located in Charleston.

Pat describes all horrors of hazing and brutal treatment you could possibly imagine at a military college, but there is a lot more to the story than that. The ending has all the tw More...

2 comments like

Jun 22, 2011

Karen rated it:

I adore Pat Conroy to a degree that is fanatical. He writes the most beautiful sentences about the most heartbreaking yet real human relationships I've ever read in contemporary fiction and non-fiction. This is my favorite of his novels, but I haven't read them all and that could change as I read more and as I age. Perhaps I love this book so much because all the conflict and action centers around a tight-knit group of friends, or maybe it's because the central characters are in college--as I More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 19, 2010

Ella rated it:

Pat Conroy is to words as Beethoven is to music. In Lords of Discipline, Conroy spins a tale filled with torture, degradation, lies and deception all in the venue of a US military academy whose purpose is to create men of honor. The time is 1966 in Charleston, North Carolina. The story revolves around 4 boys at the "Institute" - roommates. They have created their own cacoon and deep friendships in spite of all that is going on around them. The protagonist, Will Mclean, has suspicions o More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 20, 2010

Gail rated it:

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A frequent Audie finalist and Earphones award winner Dan John Miller delivers a riveting narration of the book many have called an American classic. Also a film actor and songwriter Miller gives eloquent voice to protagonist Will McLean who attends the South Carolina Military Institute, which is a fictional military school and said to be inspired by Conroy's personal experiences at The Citadel.

Not only is THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE extremely well performed but a new introduction More...

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Mar 09, 2010

Leslie rated it:

My trust for Pat Conroy's disclaimer that this is a work of fiction born of his investigation into military education in this country is low. He went to the Citadel, the book is about a military academy in Charleston, the main character is a Southern Irish Catholic who attended the exact years he did, the dedication is to two men with Italian names, and two of the best friends of the main character are Italians...etc. Just seems a little fishy.

Nonetheless, the descriptions of Charl More...

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Aug 12, 2009

Keira rated it:

The book was very well written, with excellent description of both setting and characters. I especially liked Conroy's accuracy in explaining complex feelings. His metaphors really struck a chord with me. However, what earned this book a three was its mediocre plot. I pretty much knew what was going to happen about half way through the book. Also, the beginning dragged, and the book took a long time to get where it was going. Conroy lays some heavy foreshadowing on the reader, which is hig More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2008

Amanda rated it:

I'm not into the military and never thought that I would like a military story, but after reading "Beach Music" I had to read more by Mr. Connroy. This story is excellent. All of his tales have an ounce of autobiography to them. Connroy had a military upbringing, and this is brought out in this book. This is the story of a boy who has to go to the Citadel for school. You get to read about the hazing and all the craziness that goes on. You'll laugh, but you'll also cry -- EXCELLENT!

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 24, 2009

Judy rated it:

I was considering buying South of Broad, the new novel by Pat Conroy, when I realized that I STILL hadn't read The Lords of Discipline which had been on my to-read list for over a decade. Okay, check it off. I think that so much time had gone by between Pat Conroy books that I had forgotten about his writing style that I find sometimes over the top. The story itself is gripping as it follows life in The Citadel (in a fictionalize form) during 1966, the year that it integrated. Pat Conroy is More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 27, 2010

Heidi rated it:

The Lords of Discipline is a powerful novel by one of my favorite authors. Will McLean is a student at the Carolina Military Institute in Charleston, South Carolina, a fictionalized version of The Citadel (which Pat Conroy actually attended). As he comes of age, Will suffers betrayal and heartbreak, discovers the deep love a man can have for his friends, loves his country, and finds out how strong he truly is.

Pat Conroy's writing is always masterful, something to be savored. I espec More...

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Jun 05, 2008

Maureen rated it:

This book is a harrowing thriller about four cadets at an unnamed military academy that closely resembles The Citadel. Although there is a murder involved, the treatment of the plebes by the upperclassmen and the punishments meted out for not striving to be just like everyone else are some of the scariest scenes in the book. This is a ripping good story, and anyone who loves the South Carolina Low Country will particularly enjoy it.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 05, 2011

James rated it:

One of the great versions of the 'elite secret society,' this one about the effects of a select group at a military academy. The story is well developed and the characters are like the interesting Southern cousins you here stories about when you meet someone from Georgia, expansive and gregarious and engaging. The tale itself lurches from interesting digression into a smattering of plot and back into the plot again, not all that concerned about getting any place at a particular time. With a s More...

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Jan 09, 2012

James rated it:

I recently re-read this book for the third or fourth time. I should probably have known that I would end up as a teacher, given that I love books about schools. Since reading this book I have read other Conroy books, icluding his memoir "My Losing Season" which happens to be one of my favorite books. The two constant themes of Conroy's books are 1)scars of childhood abuse and trauma and 2) male characters who are locked in a cycle of self hatred and self righteousness. After a while, t More...

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Mar 14, 2008

deLille rated it:

I was born in Charleston, went to school at the College of Charleston back in the '80s and dated several Citadel cadets. What I found so incredible about this book was the number of characters in the book that I knew! Okay, I don't really "know" them, but the characters in the book are amazingly authentic, so much so that I can't help but to think that I knew some of the people in the book in real life.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 09, 2008

Lyn rated it:

My very favorite Pat Conroy book, and I love most of them. The plot is woven in Conroy's complex style of twists and turns that never do exactly get tied up in neat little bows although they do finally intersect. That's what makes his novels so real. Also, I sorta kinda halfway fell in love with the main character. I want Will to be a real guy, I want to make him feel better, I want to fix his life.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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