Helpful Score: 5
I haven't read Pat Conroy before but should have because we share a common background (teachers in unusual schools). I found the book to be a good read with lots action and the characters real. It was interesting that the Halocaust and the sixties mixed together to cause so much pain to the main character, Jack McCall. The loss of his wife and his search for understanding this loss is the thread through the entire story. His mother is a hoot with great grit and determination. Jack's brothers come across as believable showing what a close knit but volatile group is like. If you're around them it's kinda duck and cover time. I enjoyed it. Hope you do too.
Helpful Score: 4
This is the best book ever written, hands down. Every time I read a Pat Conroy book, I realize that he is the best author in the world. I have trouble describing how they make me feel but it's like every other book I've ever thought was good just paled in comparison. It's so deeply moving and thought-provoking. I don't normally cry or like to read books that move me to tears but I've read this one several times and keep coming back for more to remember the feeling. Any of his books are wonderful but this one is my personal favorite. However, it is not a light, easy read by any means and if you can't deal with some unpleasant parts and real family drama I don't recommend it. If you can get past how slowly it moves at times and how heartbreakingly depressing it can be, it will hit you when you finish it how fabulous this book truly is. I hope you like it as much as I do.
Helpful Score: 4
This is my new favorite book. Prince of Tides (also by Pat Conroy) used to be, now Beach Music has moved up in the rank. Much of his text is pure poetry. If I were an English teacher I would use many of his paragraphs to exemplify how to paint a heart-felt picture.
Conroy is amazing at developing the characters and providing rich detail of their personal experiences with poverty and war. These sections make a great narrative of the realities of the Holocaust and Vietnam, and how those experiences left indellible marks on those who lived through that time. I am going to have my teenage daughters read it just to get a first-person perspective of Germany in the 1940's and America in the 1970's.
I didn't want it to end. I spent several nights lying in bed awake, thinking of who I would cast in a film adaption of Beach Music.
Conroy is amazing at developing the characters and providing rich detail of their personal experiences with poverty and war. These sections make a great narrative of the realities of the Holocaust and Vietnam, and how those experiences left indellible marks on those who lived through that time. I am going to have my teenage daughters read it just to get a first-person perspective of Germany in the 1940's and America in the 1970's.
I didn't want it to end. I spent several nights lying in bed awake, thinking of who I would cast in a film adaption of Beach Music.
Helpful Score: 3
I read all 628 pages in such a short time. It kept my interest throughout.
Some of the many stories were incredibly brutal & hard to take.
It would be interesting to read just a pure Conroy biography -- what
makes his family relationships so dark???
Some of the many stories were incredibly brutal & hard to take.
It would be interesting to read just a pure Conroy biography -- what
makes his family relationships so dark???
Helpful Score: 3
This book keeps your intrest from the first page all the way to the last page. It is well written and you get involved in every character. 800 pages and it seems like maybe a 100 pages. It reads so quickly!
