Great story, 04 Oct 2007
One of the truly great stories of all time, right up there with SOPHIES CHOICE, THE PRINCE OF TIDES is a non-stop journey though darkness and into the light. Tom Wingo is one of the main characters in this vast and verbose tome by Pat Conroy, and he's both hero and anti-hero all at once.

The way Conroy sets the scenes in this book is remarkable. Little is left to the imagination as he covers every bit for himself, using adjectives until your head will hurt. But it's all for a reason; it's all there to make you "feel" what he wants you to feel.

The story, as most probably know by now, having seen the movie, is harrowing and fraught with pitfalls for the Wingo family. Some have survived--some haven't. Tom's sister is somewhere in the middle, and this is where the story gets its push--from the fact that Tom is in NY trying to figure out what to do "about" her after her latest suicide attempt.

Filled with relief humor and intricate tales of family dysfunction, PRINCE OF TIDES is a massive books that titillates, fascinates, and compels the reader to keep reading



you won't ever want this book to end, 09 Aug 2003
This is undoubtedly an amazing book. I have never read a book that has gripped me in the way Pat Conroys style of writting in this book did. The story of Tom Wingo, unemployed househusband, as it alternates between his current life and his past.
It is too easy to forget that this is a fiction and throughout the book I had to keep reminding myself that this was Tom Wingo's story and not Pat Conroy's.

A moving book that captures every emotion to your realisation that such emotions exist within you.
A long but very worthwhile read that you will want to read again and again.

Constantly surprising, thought provoking great read, 18 Jan 2002
This book was suggested by a friend and proved well worth it. Conroy develops characters that are extraordinary but you can believe they exist out there in the Deep South and in New York. Very funny in parts, it deals with the darker side of family life but does not down-hearten.

Poetry in prose - a breathtakingly lyrical read, 11 Aug 2000
Having seen the movie adaptation which starred Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte, both of whom I find highly irritating, I selected the book slightly reluctantly. To my surprise however, the film and it's visual memory drifted away as Conroy's extraordinarily lyrical style of writing prose wrapped me up in the very taste and smell of Tom's world.

The characters are believable, as are most of the events that unfold, and somehow even those occurrences which are slightly less plausible still seem perfectly so - probably because you don't just read about this world, but thanks to Conroy's style, you live in it. This makes it highly moving and at times uncomfortable. The secrets and lies of a family, the brutality that comes to light and the fact that there really is no happy ending, just life going on as before, perhaps in just a more worldly way - these are all captivating and I felt absolutely bereft when I closed the book.

I can't bring myself to read Conroy's other works in case they fail to live up to the high standard established with "The Prince of Tides".

I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story well told, and is not afraid to give their heart to a book without receiving it back with just a little piece missing......

Lyrical style and knowing characterisations., 09 Feb 1999
I first picked this book up when I needed something to read and had finished or discarded just about everything else on my mothers bookshelf. I was highly impressed by the style of prose: at some points I think it would have sounded better whispered over music. But the element that gives this book some bite is the wonderfully knowing characterisations that lie therein. Coupled with the extremely wry sense of humour, it presents some very sympathetic characters that aren't sickly (Hollywood take note) in a tale of family tragedy and shared secrets. Conroys' only fault is that he never uses one word where he could use ten. However, don't let this get in the way of a moving family saga well woth reading. If you like this try "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Great story, 04 Oct 2007
One of the truly great stories of all time, right up there with SOPHIES CHOICE, THE PRINCE OF TIDES is a non-stop journey though darkness and into the light. Tom Wingo is one of the main characters in this vast and verbose tome by Pat Conroy, and he's both hero and anti-hero all at once.

The way Conroy sets the scenes in this book is remarkable. Little is left to the imagination as he covers every bit for himself, using adjectives until your head will hurt. But it's all for a reason; it's all there to make you "feel" what he wants you to feel.

The story, as most probably know by now, having seen the movie, is harrowing and fraught with pitfalls for the Wingo family. Some have survived--some haven't. Tom's sister is somewhere in the middle, and this is where the story gets its push--from the fact that Tom is in NY trying to figure out what to do "about" her after her latest suicide attempt.

Filled with relief humor and intricate tales of family dysfunction, PRINCE OF TIDES is a massive books that titillates, fascinates, and compels the reader to keep reading



you won't ever want this book to end, 09 Aug 2003
This is undoubtedly an amazing book. I have never read a book that has gripped me in the way Pat Conroys style of writting in this book did. The story of Tom Wingo, unemployed househusband, as it alternates between his current life and his past.
It is too easy to forget that this is a fiction and throughout the book I had to keep reminding myself that this was Tom Wingo's story and not Pat Conroy's.

A moving book that captures every emotion to your realisation that such emotions exist within you.
A long but very worthwhile read that you will want to read again and again.

Constantly surprising, thought provoking great read, 18 Jan 2002
This book was suggested by a friend and proved well worth it. Conroy develops characters that are extraordinary but you can believe they exist out there in the Deep South and in New York. Very funny in parts, it deals with the darker side of family life but does not down-hearten.

Poetry in prose - a breathtakingly lyrical read, 11 Aug 2000
Having seen the movie adaptation which starred Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte, both of whom I find highly irritating, I selected the book slightly reluctantly. To my surprise however, the film and it's visual memory drifted away as Conroy's extraordinarily lyrical style of writing prose wrapped me up in the very taste and smell of Tom's world.

The characters are believable, as are most of the events that unfold, and somehow even those occurrences which are slightly less plausible still seem perfectly so - probably because you don't just read about this world, but thanks to Conroy's style, you live in it. This makes it highly moving and at times uncomfortable. The secrets and lies of a family, the brutality that comes to light and the fact that there really is no happy ending, just life going on as before, perhaps in just a more worldly way - these are all captivating and I felt absolutely bereft when I closed the book.

I can't bring myself to read Conroy's other works in case they fail to live up to the high standard established with "The Prince of Tides".

I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story well told, and is not afraid to give their heart to a book without receiving it back with just a little piece missing......

Lyrical style and knowing characterisations., 09 Feb 1999
I first picked this book up when I needed something to read and had finished or discarded just about everything else on my mothers bookshelf. I was highly impressed by the style of prose: at some points I think it would have sounded better whispered over music. But the element that gives this book some bite is the wonderfully knowing characterisations that lie therein. Coupled with the extremely wry sense of humour, it presents some very sympathetic characters that aren't sickly (Hollywood take note) in a tale of family tragedy and shared secrets. Conroys' only fault is that he never uses one word where he could use ten. However, don't let this get in the way of a moving family saga well woth reading. If you like this try "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Splendid, 23 Jul 2005
I think I've read it 4 times now. My father actually recommended it to me
(he read it more than 5 times now). As soon as I started reading it I could not put it down... it is just so poetic, complex, beautiful... It is a book of love, family, friendship, sorrow, it is magic... The best book ever !

There's poetry in this prose, 05 Jul 2005
I've read this book three times and each time it has moved me, made me laugh, cry, suffer and laugh again with the characters. It is a tale of love, loss, misery, cruelty, hurt, despair, unendurable pain, anguish, family ties, reconciliation and laughter. Pat Conroy has drawn his group of traumatised and suffering characters in a realistic way without melodrama where many others would have struggled to avoid it. There is such poetry in his prose, and it is powerful, warm and funny - humorous episodes sit alongside horror and despair. It is a masterpiece.

MUSIC TO MY EARS, 20 Oct 2002
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.

Every character is a tortured soul who has a tale to tell -- one more heartbreaking than the other. The main story follows Jack McCall, who flees to Rome with his young daughter Leah after his beloved wife Shyla has committed suicide. He leaves behind a bevy of colorful family and friends in an effort to escape his torment and begin a new life in a new land. As a travel writer by trade, Jack is able to pick up and live wherever he chooses. It is a telegram from a family member that will finally bring Jack back to South Carolina to face his demons and learn the stories of all those he loves.

Conroy has the ability of dropping crumbs along the way leading you to each character's hidden story. He touches on times in history involving the Holocaust and the Vietnam War -- each decade so real that I don't even want to think about the horrors. But it is these horrors that have come to shape the characters whose cards have been dealt and whose hands must be played. They are all part of a finely interwoven story with South Carolina as the stage for the grand finale.

In reading the book, I can only wonder if the author can write the last twenty pages and not cry himself. I don't usually cry when reading a book but I must admit that this one did me in. Conroy so neatly ties up all the loose ends so that the reader feels no need for a sequel as they are confident that the lives of the characters they have come to love will go on.

While this is a book about tortured souls, it is also a book that holds great promise filled with love and hope and devotion and yes...redemption. We always talk about the books that will stay with us forever. This is one for me...music to my ears...Beach Music that is.

Love it!, 15 Jan 2002
I would like to convey just how much I love this book. It is superb, just like all his others. The main character Jack McCall is so engaging and his relationships with his daughter, family, friends and enemies are excellently drawn. Also the intertwining of stories from his past, the history of others and the present means that the book is always leading you on. There is a kind of bittersweet humour about this story. This book makes me laugh but also made me cry.
I've lost count of the times I've re-read it and also loaned it to friends and colleagues. I simply think that its probably my favourite book ever!

It's about people. Those we love, hate, admire and distrust., 28 Sep 2001
Beach Music is the book I go back to time and time again. I think it's because, when I got to the end of the book, I felt like I knew the characters. It's about people. It's about the relationships we have in our lives - family, friends, enemies - and how those people affect us and change our lives. There's detail - you see the "view" that the author describes but there's also feelings and emotions. Described as they are, not as cliches or over-used lines, but simply and truthfully. It's a great book - if you enjoy watching lives unfold - it's for you.

Great story, 04 Oct 2007
One of the truly great stories of all time, right up there with SOPHIES CHOICE, THE PRINCE OF TIDES is a non-stop journey though darkness and into the light. Tom Wingo is one of the main characters in this vast and verbose tome by Pat Conroy, and he's both hero and anti-hero all at once.

The way Conroy sets the scenes in this book is remarkable. Little is left to the imagination as he covers every bit for himself, using adjectives until your head will hurt. But it's all for a reason; it's all there to make you "feel" what he wants you to feel.

The story, as most probably know by now, having seen the movie, is harrowing and fraught with pitfalls for the Wingo family. Some have survived--some haven't. Tom's sister is somewhere in the middle, and this is where the story gets its push--from the fact that Tom is in NY trying to figure out what to do "about" her after her latest suicide attempt.

Filled with relief humor and intricate tales of family dysfunction, PRINCE OF TIDES is a massive books that titillates, fascinates, and compels the reader to keep reading



you won't ever want this book to end, 09 Aug 2003
This is undoubtedly an amazing book. I have never read a book that has gripped me in the way Pat Conroys style of writting in this book did. The story of Tom Wingo, unemployed househusband, as it alternates between his current life and his past.
It is too easy to forget that this is a fiction and throughout the book I had to keep reminding myself that this was Tom Wingo's story and not Pat Conroy's.

A moving book that captures every emotion to your realisation that such emotions exist within you.
A long but very worthwhile read that you will want to read again and again.

Constantly surprising, thought provoking great read, 18 Jan 2002
This book was suggested by a friend and proved well worth it. Conroy develops characters that are extraordinary but you can believe they exist out there in the Deep South and in New York. Very funny in parts, it deals with the darker side of family life but does not down-hearten.

Poetry in prose - a breathtakingly lyrical read, 11 Aug 2000
Having seen the movie adaptation which starred Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte, both of whom I find highly irritating, I selected the book slightly reluctantly. To my surprise however, the film and it's visual memory drifted away as Conroy's extraordinarily lyrical style of writing prose wrapped me up in the very taste and smell of Tom's world.

The characters are believable, as are most of the events that unfold, and somehow even those occurrences which are slightly less plausible still seem perfectly so - probably because you don't just read about this world, but thanks to Conroy's style, you live in it. This makes it highly moving and at times uncomfortable. The secrets and lies of a family, the brutality that comes to light and the fact that there really is no happy ending, just life going on as before, perhaps in just a more worldly way - these are all captivating and I felt absolutely bereft when I closed the book.

I can't bring myself to read Conroy's other works in case they fail to live up to the high standard established with "The Prince of Tides".

I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story well told, and is not afraid to give their heart to a book without receiving it back with just a little piece missing......

Lyrical style and knowing characterisations., 09 Feb 1999
I first picked this book up when I needed something to read and had finished or discarded just about everything else on my mothers bookshelf. I was highly impressed by the style of prose: at some points I think it would have sounded better whispered over music. But the element that gives this book some bite is the wonderfully knowing characterisations that lie therein. Coupled with the extremely wry sense of humour, it presents some very sympathetic characters that aren't sickly (Hollywood take note) in a tale of family tragedy and shared secrets. Conroys' only fault is that he never uses one word where he could use ten. However, don't let this get in the way of a moving family saga well woth reading. If you like this try "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Splendid, 23 Jul 2005
I think I've read it 4 times now. My father actually recommended it to me
(he read it more than 5 times now). As soon as I started reading it I could not put it down... it is just so poetic, complex, beautiful... It is a book of love, family, friendship, sorrow, it is magic... The best book ever !

There's poetry in this prose, 05 Jul 2005
I've read this book three times and each time it has moved me, made me laugh, cry, suffer and laugh again with the characters. It is a tale of love, loss, misery, cruelty, hurt, despair, unendurable pain, anguish, family ties, reconciliation and laughter. Pat Conroy has drawn his group of traumatised and suffering characters in a realistic way without melodrama where many others would have struggled to avoid it. There is such poetry in his prose, and it is powerful, warm and funny - humorous episodes sit alongside horror and despair. It is a masterpiece.

MUSIC TO MY EARS, 20 Oct 2002
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.

Every character is a tortured soul who has a tale to tell -- one more heartbreaking than the other. The main story follows Jack McCall, who flees to Rome with his young daughter Leah after his beloved wife Shyla has committed suicide. He leaves behind a bevy of colorful family and friends in an effort to escape his torment and begin a new life in a new land. As a travel writer by trade, Jack is able to pick up and live wherever he chooses. It is a telegram from a family member that will finally bring Jack back to South Carolina to face his demons and learn the stories of all those he loves.

Conroy has the ability of dropping crumbs along the way leading you to each character's hidden story. He touches on times in history involving the Holocaust and the Vietnam War -- each decade so real that I don't even want to think about the horrors. But it is these horrors that have come to shape the characters whose cards have been dealt and whose hands must be played. They are all part of a finely interwoven story with South Carolina as the stage for the grand finale.

In reading the book, I can only wonder if the author can write the last twenty pages and not cry himself. I don't usually cry when reading a book but I must admit that this one did me in. Conroy so neatly ties up all the loose ends so that the reader feels no need for a sequel as they are confident that the lives of the characters they have come to love will go on.

While this is a book about tortured souls, it is also a book that holds great promise filled with love and hope and devotion and yes...redemption. We always talk about the books that will stay with us forever. This is one for me...music to my ears...Beach Music that is.

Love it!, 15 Jan 2002
I would like to convey just how much I love this book. It is superb, just like all his others. The main character Jack McCall is so engaging and his relationships with his daughter, family, friends and enemies are excellently drawn. Also the intertwining of stories from his past, the history of others and the present means that the book is always leading you on. There is a kind of bittersweet humour about this story. This book makes me laugh but also made me cry.
I've lost count of the times I've re-read it and also loaned it to friends and colleagues. I simply think that its probably my favourite book ever!

It's about people. Those we love, hate, admire and distrust., 28 Sep 2001
Beach Music is the book I go back to time and time again. I think it's because, when I got to the end of the book, I felt like I knew the characters. It's about people. It's about the relationships we have in our lives - family, friends, enemies - and how those people affect us and change our lives. There's detail - you see the "view" that the author describes but there's also feelings and emotions. Described as they are, not as cliches or over-used lines, but simply and truthfully. It's a great book - if you enjoy watching lives unfold - it's for you.

Brilliant, 04 Mar 2005
This book was a huge success in the USA but is largely unknown in the UK. This is a quintessentially American story set in an American phenomenon, military academies and as such British readers may have trouble relating to it. However, this is a fantastic book and well worth the effort.

The book follows the story of a young man, Will McLean, a student at the Carolina Military Institute (a barely disguised version of The Citadel, a very famous military academy), as he and his three friends attempt to graduate. To make matters more complicated, in fact much more complicated, he has an additional, secret assignment: to assist the first black student in getting through his first year.

The book has two major strands: the coming of age of Will McLean (who is based on Conroy himself) and a gripping conspiracy all set against the background of the unbelievably brutal and vicious practices of US military academies of the time (the late 1960s).

McLean is not a conventional cadet: he is a basketball player, an aspiring writer and he finds it difficult to conform to the ways of the military. However, it has immense personal integrity and (as it turns out) great inner strength. His secret assignment brings him and his friends into life threatening conflict with a powerful, clandestine organisation, the Ten, which is determined to never allow black students at the CMI.

Pat Conroy writes beautifully, with a wonderful, almost lyrical prose style. He paints a vivid and compelling picture of the American south in all its glory (and its faults). The sense of place is faultless, the characterisation is strong (although McLean is such a well-realised character that most of the other characters seem rather slight in comparison) and the plot is thrilling and well paced. He takes subject matter that would have been rendered as pap by many (if not most) writers and creates an enthralling and compelling novel.

Totally fantastic and highly recommended.

A final note: if you enjoy this book then I can thoroughly recommend Pat Conroy's autobiography, My Losing Season, which will provide additional insight into which elements are true and which are just fiction.

Absolutely fantastic, 16 Jan 2002
Pat Conroy is a superb writer. His use of language to convey emotions is second to none. This novel covers the transition to manhood for several young men who are enrolled as cadets in a military academy. It depicts the brutality of the system that the academy employs to remove unwanted students and how they survive. The story is told by Will McLean, a boy who is torn between the values that the system has ingrained in him and the questioning doubt he has that the values are the right ones. He has three very close friends and the book covers the development of that friendship until events take hold that threaten everything Will cares for.
It is a brilliant read-I couldn't put it down.

semi-true yet very interesting, 23 Aug 1999
I live and go to school less than a mile or two away from the Citadel which the authour describes in this book. He describes the Citadel and Charleston fairly accurately although Charleston is actually a very pleasant city. I have never heard of the TEN but who knows. I recommend reading this book for enjoyment and to give you a new perspective on something that goes on in Charleston, SC that you might not know about. A word of advice, remeber poetic licensce.

This is a wrenching, compelling novel--unforgettable., 09 Aug 1999
I read this book at the New Jersey shore, but Conroy's vivid descriptions made Charleston, its rivers, ocean, marshes, mansions and prison-like Institute more real than the coastal environment around me. Conroy's story, at times tender, at others unbearably tense, of Will McLean's coming of age in a military college is a harrowing fictionalization of what Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson call in "Raising Cain" the "culture of cruelty" to which all boys in our culture are exposed. Even more powerfully, he shows the consequences of placing one's faith in institutions rather than in persons. Mammas, don't let your children grow up to be soldiers.

What can one say about a book like this., 26 Jul 1999
I was one of those violated boys that never made it. I left the Academy humiliated and ashamed. This book has hepled me provide some closure to that part of my life. Please read it.

Great story, 04 Oct 2007
One of the truly great stories of all time, right up there with SOPHIES CHOICE, THE PRINCE OF TIDES is a non-stop journey though darkness and into the light. Tom Wingo is one of the main characters in this vast and verbose tome by Pat Conroy, and he's both hero and anti-hero all at once.

The way Conroy sets the scenes in this book is remarkable. Little is left to the imagination as he covers every bit for himself, using adjectives until your head will hurt. But it's all for a reason; it's all there to make you "feel" what he wants you to feel.

The story, as most probably know by now, having seen the movie, is harrowing and fraught with pitfalls for the Wingo family. Some have survived--some haven't. Tom's sister is somewhere in the middle, and this is where the story gets its push--from the fact that Tom is in NY trying to figure out what to do "about" her after her latest suicide attempt.

Filled with relief humor and intricate tales of family dysfunction, PRINCE OF TIDES is a massive books that titillates, fascinates, and compels the reader to keep reading



you won't ever want this book to end, 09 Aug 2003
This is undoubtedly an amazing book. I have never read a book that has gripped me in the way Pat Conroys style of writting in this book did. The story of Tom Wingo, unemployed househusband, as it alternates between his current life and his past.
It is too easy to forget that this is a fiction and throughout the book I had to keep reminding myself that this was Tom Wingo's story and not Pat Conroy's.

A moving book that captures every emotion to your realisation that such emotions exist within you.
A long but very worthwhile read that you will want to read again and again.

Constantly surprising, thought provoking great read, 18 Jan 2002
This book was suggested by a friend and proved well worth it. Conroy develops characters that are extraordinary but you can believe they exist out there in the Deep South and in New York. Very funny in parts, it deals with the darker side of family life but does not down-hearten.

Poetry in prose - a breathtakingly lyrical read, 11 Aug 2000
Having seen the movie adaptation which starred Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte, both of whom I find highly irritating, I selected the book slightly reluctantly. To my surprise however, the film and it's visual memory drifted away as Conroy's extraordinarily lyrical style of writing prose wrapped me up in the very taste and smell of Tom's world.

The characters are believable, as are most of the events that unfold, and somehow even those occurrences which are slightly less plausible still seem perfectly so - probably because you don't just read about this world, but thanks to Conroy's style, you live in it. This makes it highly moving and at times uncomfortable. The secrets and lies of a family, the brutality that comes to light and the fact that there really is no happy ending, just life going on as before, perhaps in just a more worldly way - these are all captivating and I felt absolutely bereft when I closed the book.

I can't bring myself to read Conroy's other works in case they fail to live up to the high standard established with "The Prince of Tides".

I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story well told, and is not afraid to give their heart to a book without receiving it back with just a little piece missing......

Lyrical style and knowing characterisations., 09 Feb 1999
I first picked this book up when I needed something to read and had finished or discarded just about everything else on my mothers bookshelf. I was highly impressed by the style of prose: at some points I think it would have sounded better whispered over music. But the element that gives this book some bite is the wonderfully knowing characterisations that lie therein. Coupled with the extremely wry sense of humour, it presents some very sympathetic characters that aren't sickly (Hollywood take note) in a tale of family tragedy and shared secrets. Conroys' only fault is that he never uses one word where he could use ten. However, don't let this get in the way of a moving family saga well woth reading. If you like this try "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Splendid, 23 Jul 2005
I think I've read it 4 times now. My father actually recommended it to me
(he read it more than 5 times now). As soon as I started reading it I could not put it down... it is just so poetic, complex, beautiful... It is a book of love, family, friendship, sorrow, it is magic... The best book ever !

There's poetry in this prose, 05 Jul 2005
I've read this book three times and each time it has moved me, made me laugh, cry, suffer and laugh again with the characters. It is a tale of love, loss, misery, cruelty, hurt, despair, unendurable pain, anguish, family ties, reconciliation and laughter. Pat Conroy has drawn his group of traumatised and suffering characters in a realistic way without melodrama where many others would have struggled to avoid it. There is such poetry in his prose, and it is powerful, warm and funny - humorous episodes sit alongside horror and despair. It is a masterpiece.

MUSIC TO MY EARS, 20 Oct 2002
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.

Every character is a tortured soul who has a tale to tell -- one more heartbreaking than the other. The main story follows Jack McCall, who flees to Rome with his young daughter Leah after his beloved wife Shyla has committed suicide. He leaves behind a bevy of colorful family and friends in an effort to escape his torment and begin a new life in a new land. As a travel writer by trade, Jack is able to pick up and live wherever he chooses. It is a telegram from a family member that will finally bring Jack back to South Carolina to face his demons and learn the stories of all those he loves.

Conroy has the ability of dropping crumbs along the way leading you to each character's hidden story. He touches on times in history involving the Holocaust and the Vietnam War -- each decade so real that I don't even want to think about the horrors. But it is these horrors that have come to shape the characters whose cards have been dealt and whose hands must be played. They are all part of a finely interwoven story with South Carolina as the stage for the grand finale.

In reading the book, I can only wonder if the author can write the last twenty pages and not cry himself. I don't usually cry when reading a book but I must admit that this one did me in. Conroy so neatly ties up all the loose ends so that the reader feels no need for a sequel as they are confident that the lives of the characters they have come to love will go on.

While this is a book about tortured souls, it is also a book that holds great promise filled with love and hope and devotion and yes...redemption. We always talk about the books that will stay with us forever. This is one for me...music to my ears...Beach Music that is.

Love it!, 15 Jan 2002
I would like to convey just how much I love this book. It is superb, just like all his others. The main character Jack McCall is so engaging and his relationships with his daughter, family, friends and enemies are excellently drawn. Also the intertwining of stories from his past, the history of others and the present means that the book is always leading you on. There is a kind of bittersweet humour about this story. This book makes me laugh but also made me cry.
I've lost count of the times I've re-read it and also loaned it to friends and colleagues. I simply think that its probably my favourite book ever!

It's about people. Those we love, hate, admire and distrust., 28 Sep 2001
Beach Music is the book I go back to time and time again. I think it's because, when I got to the end of the book, I felt like I knew the characters. It's about people. It's about the relationships we have in our lives - family, friends, enemies - and how those people affect us and change our lives. There's detail - you see the "view" that the author describes but there's also feelings and emotions. Described as they are, not as cliches or over-used lines, but simply and truthfully. It's a great book - if you enjoy watching lives unfold - it's for you.

Brilliant, 04 Mar 2005
This book was a huge success in the USA but is largely unknown in the UK. This is a quintessentially American story set in an American phenomenon, military academies and as such British readers may have trouble relating to it. However, this is a fantastic book and well worth the effort.

The book follows the story of a young man, Will McLean, a student at the Carolina Military Institute (a barely disguised version of The Citadel, a very famous military academy), as he and his three friends attempt to graduate. To make matters more complicated, in fact much more complicated, he has an additional, secret assignment: to assist the first black student in getting through his first year.

The book has two major strands: the coming of age of Will McLean (who is based on Conroy himself) and a gripping conspiracy all set against the background of the unbelievably brutal and vicious practices of US military academies of the time (the late 1960s).

McLean is not a conventional cadet: he is a basketball player, an aspiring writer and he finds it difficult to conform to the ways of the military. However, it has immense personal integrity and (as it turns out) great inner strength. His secret assignment brings him and his friends into life threatening conflict with a powerful, clandestine organisation, the Ten, which is determined to never allow black students at the CMI.

Pat Conroy writes beautifully, with a wonderful, almost lyrical prose style. He paints a vivid and compelling picture of the American south in all its glory (and its faults). The sense of place is faultless, the characterisation is strong (although McLean is such a well-realised character that most of the other characters seem rather slight in comparison) and the plot is thrilling and well paced. He takes subject matter that would have been rendered as pap by many (if not most) writers and creates an enthralling and compelling novel.

Totally fantastic and highly recommended.

A final note: if you enjoy this book then I can thoroughly recommend Pat Conroy's autobiography, My Losing Season, which will provide additional insight into which elements are true and which are just fiction.

Absolutely fantastic, 16 Jan 2002
Pat Conroy is a superb writer. His use of language to convey emotions is second to none. This novel covers the transition to manhood for several young men who are enrolled as cadets in a military academy. It depicts the brutality of the system that the academy employs to remove unwanted students and how they survive. The story is told by Will McLean, a boy who is torn between the values that the system has ingrained in him and the questioning doubt he has that the values are the right ones. He has three very close friends and the book covers the development of that friendship until events take hold that threaten everything Will cares for.
It is a brilliant read-I couldn't put it down.

semi-true yet very interesting, 23 Aug 1999
I live and go to school less than a mile or two away from the Citadel which the authour describes in this book. He describes the Citadel and Charleston fairly accurately although Charleston is actually a very pleasant city. I have never heard of the TEN but who knows. I recommend reading this book for enjoyment and to give you a new perspective on something that goes on in Charleston, SC that you might not know about. A word of advice, remeber poetic licensce.

This is a wrenching, compelling novel--unforgettable., 09 Aug 1999
I read this book at the New Jersey shore, but Conroy's vivid descriptions made Charleston, its rivers, ocean, marshes, mansions and prison-like Institute more real than the coastal environment around me. Conroy's story, at times tender, at others unbearably tense, of Will McLean's coming of age in a military college is a harrowing fictionalization of what Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson call in "Raising Cain" the "culture of cruelty" to which all boys in our culture are exposed. Even more powerfully, he shows the consequences of placing one's faith in institutions rather than in persons. Mammas, don't let your children grow up to be soldiers.

What can one say about a book like this., 26 Jul 1999
I was one of those violated boys that never made it. I left the Academy humiliated and ashamed. This book has hepled me provide some closure to that part of my life. Please read it.

Excellent, 25 Feb 2005
This is a wonderful book - an autobiography describing Pat Conroy's time at the Citadel (an American military academy). Conroy was not a typical cadet, he played basketball, he wanted to be a writer and he viewed the brutal regime that was in place at the Citadel with great distaste.

It is an interesting story and Conroy comes across as a likeable and intelligent man of great personal integrity and inner strength. He has that fascinating love-hate relationship with the American South that is quite common amongst highly intelligent southerners. Conroy writes beautifully with an easy, fluid, at times almost lyrical prose style that enables him to articulate his feelings and convey an amazing "sense of place".

Determining whether you will enjoy this book is simple. If you have read and enjoyed Conroy's excellent book 'The Lords of Discipline' then you will enjoy this. If you have not read 'The Lords of Discipline' then I recommend reading it and if you enjoy it then read this.

Great story, 04 Oct 2007
One of the truly great stories of all time, right up there with SOPHIES CHOICE, THE PRINCE OF TIDES is a non-stop journey though darkness and into the light. Tom Wingo is one of the main characters in this vast and verbose tome by Pat Conroy, and he's both hero and anti-hero all at once.

The way Conroy sets the scenes in this book is remarkable. Little is left to the imagination as he covers every bit for himself, using adjectives until your head will hurt. But it's all for a reason; it's all there to make you "feel" what he wants you to feel.

The story, as most probably know by now, having seen the movie, is harrowing and fraught with pitfalls for the Wingo family. Some have survived--some haven't. Tom's sister is somewhere in the middle, and this is where the story gets its push--from the fact that Tom is in NY trying to figure out what to do "about" her after her latest suicide attempt.

Filled with relief humor and intricate tales of family dysfunction, PRINCE OF TIDES is a massive books that titillates, fascinates, and compels the reader to keep reading



you won't ever want this book to end, 09 Aug 2003
This is undoubtedly an amazing book. I have never read a book that has gripped me in the way Pat Conroys style of writting in this book did. The story of Tom Wingo, unemployed househusband, as it alternates between his current life and his past.
It is too easy to forget that this is a fiction and throughout the book I had to keep reminding myself that this was Tom Wingo's story and not Pat Conroy's.

A moving book that captures every emotion to your realisation that such emotions exist within you.
A long but very worthwhile read that you will want to read again and again.

Constantly surprising, thought provoking great read, 18 Jan 2002
This book was suggested by a friend and proved well worth it. Conroy develops characters that are extraordinary but you can believe they exist out there in the Deep South and in New York. Very funny in parts, it deals with the darker side of family life but does not down-hearten.

Poetry in prose - a breathtakingly lyrical read, 11 Aug 2000
Having seen the movie adaptation which starred Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte, both of whom I find highly irritating, I selected the book slightly reluctantly. To my surprise however, the film and it's visual memory drifted away as Conroy's extraordinarily lyrical style of writing prose wrapped me up in the very taste and smell of Tom's world.

The characters are believable, as are most of the events that unfold, and somehow even those occurrences which are slightly less plausible still seem perfectly so - probably because you don't just read about this world, but thanks to Conroy's style, you live in it. This makes it highly moving and at times uncomfortable. The secrets and lies of a family, the brutality that comes to light and the fact that there really is no happy ending, just life going on as before, perhaps in just a more worldly way - these are all captivating and I felt absolutely bereft when I closed the book.

I can't bring myself to read Conroy's other works in case they fail to live up to the high standard established with "The Prince of Tides".

I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story well told, and is not afraid to give their heart to a book without receiving it back with just a little piece missing......

Lyrical style and knowing characterisations., 09 Feb 1999
I first picked this book up when I needed something to read and had finished or discarded just about everything else on my mothers bookshelf. I was highly impressed by the style of prose: at some points I think it would have sounded better whispered over music. But the element that gives this book some bite is the wonderfully knowing characterisations that lie therein. Coupled with the extremely wry sense of humour, it presents some very sympathetic characters that aren't sickly (Hollywood take note) in a tale of family tragedy and shared secrets. Conroys' only fault is that he never uses one word where he could use ten. However, don't let this get in the way of a moving family saga well woth reading. If you like this try "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Splendid, 23 Jul 2005
I think I've read it 4 times now. My father actually recommended it to me
(he read it more than 5 times now). As soon as I started reading it I could not put it down... it is just so poetic, complex, beautiful... It is a book of love, family, friendship, sorrow, it is magic... The best book ever !

There's poetry in this prose, 05 Jul 2005
I've read this book three times and each time it has moved me, made me laugh, cry, suffer and laugh again with the characters. It is a tale of love, loss, misery, cruelty, hurt, despair, unendurable pain, anguish, family ties, reconciliation and laughter. Pat Conroy has drawn his group of traumatised and suffering characters in a realistic way without melodrama where many others would have struggled to avoid it. There is such poetry in his prose, and it is powerful, warm and funny - humorous episodes sit alongside horror and despair. It is a masterpiece.

MUSIC TO MY EARS, 20 Oct 2002
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.

Every character is a tortured soul who has a tale to tell -- one more heartbreaking than the other. The main story follows Jack McCall, who flees to Rome with his young daughter Leah after his beloved wife Shyla has committed suicide. He leaves behind a bevy of colorful family and friends in an effort to escape his torment and begin a new life in a new land. As a travel writer by trade, Jack is able to pick up and live wherever he chooses. It is a telegram from a family member that will finally bring Jack back to South Carolina to face his demons and learn the stories of all those he loves.

Conroy has the ability of dropping crumbs along the way leading you to each character's hidden story. He touches on times in history involving the Holocaust and the Vietnam War -- each decade so real that I don't even want to think about the horrors. But it is these horrors that have come to shape the characters whose cards have been dealt and whose hands must be played. They are all part of a finely interwoven story with South Carolina as the stage for the grand finale.

In reading the book, I can only wonder if the author can write the last twenty pages and not cry himself. I don't usually cry when reading a book but I must admit that this one did me in. Conroy so neatly ties up all the loose ends so that the reader feels no need for a sequel as they are confident that the lives of the characters they have come to love will go on.

While this is a book about tortured souls, it is also a book that holds great promise filled with love and hope and devotion and yes...redemption. We always talk about the books that will stay with us forever. This is one for me...music to my ears...Beach Music that is.

Love it!, 15 Jan 2002
I would like to convey just how much I love this book. It is superb, just like all his others. The main character Jack McCall is so engaging and his relationships with his daughter, family, friends and enemies are excellently drawn. Also the intertwining of stories from his past, the history of others and the present means that the book is always leading you on. There is a kind of bittersweet humour about this story. This book makes me laugh but also made me cry.
I've lost count of the times I've re-read it and also loaned it to friends and colleagues. I simply think that its probably my favourite book ever!

It's about people. Those we love, hate, admire and distrust., 28 Sep 2001
Beach Music is the book I go back to time and time again. I think it's because, when I got to the end of the book, I felt like I knew the characters. It's about people. It's about the relationships we have in our lives - family, friends, enemies - and how those people affect us and change our lives. There's detail - you see the "view" that the author describes but there's also feelings and emotions. Described as they are, not as cliches or over-used lines, but simply and truthfully. It's a great book - if you enjoy watching lives unfold - it's for you.

Brilliant, 04 Mar 2005
This book was a huge success in the USA but is largely unknown in the UK. This is a quintessentially American story set in an American phenomenon, military academies and as such British readers may have trouble relating to it. However, this is a fantastic book and well worth the effort.

The book follows the story of a young man, Will McLean, a student at the Carolina Military Institute (a barely disguised version of The Citadel, a very famous military academy), as he and his three friends attempt to graduate. To make matters more complicated, in fact much more complicated, he has an additional, secret assignment: to assist the first black student in getting through his first year.

The book has two major strands: the coming of age of Will McLean (who is based on Conroy himself) and a gripping conspiracy all set against the background of the unbelievably brutal and vicious practices of US military academies of the time (the late 1960s).

McLean is not a conventional cadet: he is a basketball player, an aspiring writer and he finds it difficult to conform to the ways of the military. However, it has immense personal integrity and (as it turns out) great inner strength. His secret assignment brings him and his friends into life threatening conflict with a powerful, clandestine organisation, the Ten, which is determined to never allow black students at the CMI.

Pat Conroy writes beautifully, with a wonderful, almost lyrical prose style. He paints a vivid and compelling picture of the American south in all its glory (and its faults). The sense of place is faultless, the characterisation is strong (although McLean is such a well-realised character that most of the other characters seem rather slight in comparison) and the plot is thrilling and well paced. He takes subject matter that would have been rendered as pap by many (if not most) writers and creates an enthralling and compelling novel.

Totally fantastic and highly recommended.

A final note: if you enjoy this book then I can thoroughly recommend Pat Conroy's autobiography, My Losing Season, which will provide additional insight into which elements are true and which are just fiction.

Absolutely fantastic, 16 Jan 2002
Pat Conroy is a superb writer. His use of language to convey emotions is second to none. This novel covers the transition to manhood for several young men who are enrolled as cadets in a military academy. It depicts the brutality of the system that the academy employs to remove unwanted students and how they survive. The story is told by Will McLean, a boy who is torn between the values that the system has ingrained in him and the questioning doubt he has that the values are the right ones. He has three very close friends and the book covers the development of that friendship until events take hold that threaten everything Will cares for.
It is a brilliant read-I couldn't put it down.

semi-true yet very interesting, 23 Aug 1999
I live and go to school less than a mile or two away from the Citadel which the authour describes in this book. He describes the Citadel and Charleston fairly accurately although Charleston is actually a very pleasant city. I have never heard of the TEN but who knows. I recommend reading this book for enjoyment and to give you a new perspective on something that goes on in Charleston, SC that you might not know about. A word of advice, remeber poetic licensce.

This is a wrenching, compelling novel--unforgettable., 09 Aug 1999
I read this book at the New Jersey shore, but Conroy's vivid descriptions made Charleston, its rivers, ocean, marshes, mansions and prison-like Institute more real than the coastal environment around me. Conroy's story, at times tender, at others unbearably tense, of Will McLean's coming of age in a military college is a harrowing fictionalization of what Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson call in "Raising Cain" the "culture of cruelty" to which all boys in our culture are exposed. Even more powerfully, he shows the consequences of placing one's faith in institutions rather than in persons. Mammas, don't let your children grow up to be soldiers.

What can one say about a book like this., 26 Jul 1999
I was one of those violated boys that never made it. I left the Academy humiliated and ashamed. This book has hepled me provide some closure to that part of my life. Please read it.

Excellent, 25 Feb 2005
This is a wonderful book - an autobiography describing Pat Conroy's time at the Citadel (an American military academy). Conroy was not a typical cadet, he played basketball, he wanted to be a writer and he viewed the brutal regime that was in place at the Citadel with great distaste.

It is an interesting story and Conroy comes across as a likeable and intelligent man of great personal integrity and inner strength. He has that fascinating love-hate relationship with the American South that is quite common amongst highly intelligent southerners. Conroy writes beautifully with an easy, fluid, at times almost lyrical prose style that enables him to articulate his feelings and convey an amazing "sense of place".

Determining whether you will enjoy this book is simple. If you have read and enjoyed Conroy's excellent book 'The Lords of Discipline' then you will enjoy this. If you have not read 'The Lords of Discipline' then I recommend reading it and if you enjoy it then read this.

Great autobiography in food, 14 Feb 2006
Do you like Pat Conroy? Do you like food? You'll love this combo. Made hungry and ready to go to the South straight away. More of this please!

Great story, 04 Oct 2007
One of the truly great stories of all time, right up there with SOPHIES CHOICE, THE PRINCE OF TIDES is a non-stop journey though darkness and into the light. Tom Wingo is one of the main characters in this vast and verbose tome by Pat Conroy, and he's both hero and anti-hero all at once.

The way Conroy sets the scenes in this book is remarkable. Little is left to the imagination as he covers every bit for himself, using adjectives until your head will hurt. But it's all for a reason; it's all there to make you "feel" what he wants you to feel.

The story, as most probably know by now, having seen the movie, is harrowing and fraught with pitfalls for the Wingo family. Some have survived--some haven't. Tom's sister is somewhere in the middle, and this is where the story gets its push--from the fact that Tom is in NY trying to figure out what to do "about" her after her latest suicide attempt.

Filled with relief humor and intricate tales of family dysfunction, PRINCE OF TIDES is a massive books that titillates, fascinates, and compels the reader to keep reading



you won't ever want this book to end, 09 Aug 2003
This is undoubtedly an amazing book. I have never read a book that has gripped me in the way Pat Conroys style of writting in this book did. The story of Tom Wingo, unemployed househusband, as it alternates between his current life and his past.
It is too easy to forget that this is a fiction and throughout the book I had to keep reminding myself that this was Tom Wingo's story and not Pat Conroy's.

A moving book that captures every emotion to your realisation that such emotions exist within you.
A long but very worthwhile read that you will want to read again and again.

Constantly surprising, thought provoking great read, 18 Jan 2002
This book was suggested by a friend and proved well worth it. Conroy develops characters that are extraordinary but you can believe they exist out there in the Deep South and in New York. Very funny in parts, it deals with the darker side of family life but does not down-hearten.

Poetry in prose - a breathtakingly lyrical read, 11 Aug 2000
Having seen the movie adaptation which starred Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte, both of whom I find highly irritating, I selected the book slightly reluctantly. To my surprise however, the film and it's visual memory drifted away as Conroy's extraordinarily lyrical style of writing prose wrapped me up in the very taste and smell of Tom's world.

The characters are believable, as are most of the events that unfold, and somehow even those occurrences which are slightly less plausible still seem perfectly so - probably because you don't just read about this world, but thanks to Conroy's style, you live in it. This makes it highly moving and at times uncomfortable. The secrets and lies of a family, the brutality that comes to light and the fact that there really is no happy ending, just life going on as before, perhaps in just a more worldly way - these are all captivating and I felt absolutely bereft when I closed the book.

I can't bring myself to read Conroy's other works in case they fail to live up to the high standard established with "The Prince of Tides".

I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story well told, and is not afraid to give their heart to a book without receiving it back with just a little piece missing......

Lyrical style and knowing characterisations., 09 Feb 1999
I first picked this book up when I needed something to read and had finished or discarded just about everything else on my mothers bookshelf. I was highly impressed by the style of prose: at some points I think it would have sounded better whispered over music. But the element that gives this book some bite is the wonderfully knowing characterisations that lie therein. Coupled with the extremely wry sense of humour, it presents some very sympathetic characters that aren't sickly (Hollywood take note) in a tale of family tragedy and shared secrets. Conroys' only fault is that he never uses one word where he could use ten. However, don't let this get in the way of a moving family saga well woth reading. If you like this try "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Splendid, 23 Jul 2005
I think I've read it 4 times now. My father actually recommended it to me
(he read it more than 5 times now). As soon as I started reading it I could not put it down... it is just so poetic, complex, beautiful... It is a book of love, family, friendship, sorrow, it is magic... The best book ever !

There's poetry in this prose, 05 Jul 2005
I've read this book three times and each time it has moved me, made me laugh, cry, suffer and laugh again with the characters. It is a tale of love, loss, misery, cruelty, hurt, despair, unendurable pain, anguish, family ties, reconciliation and laughter. Pat Conroy has drawn his group of traumatised and suffering characters in a realistic way without melodrama where many others would have struggled to avoid it. There is such poetry in his prose, and it is powerful, warm and funny - humorous episodes sit alongside horror and despair. It is a masterpiece.

MUSIC TO MY EARS, 20 Oct 2002
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.

Every character is a tortured soul who has a tale to tell -- one more heartbreaking than the other. The main story follows Jack McCall, who flees to Rome with his young daughter Leah after his beloved wife Shyla has committed suicide. He leaves behind a bevy of colorful family and friends in an effort to escape his torment and begin a new life in a new land. As a travel writer by trade, Jack is able to pick up and live wherever he chooses. It is a telegram from a family member that will finally bring Jack back to South Carolina to face his demons and learn the stories of all those he loves.

Conroy has the ability of dropping crumbs along the way leading you to each character's hidden story. He touches on times in history involving the Holocaust and the Vietnam War -- each decade so real that I don't even want to think about the horrors. But it is these horrors that have come to shape the characters whose cards have been dealt and whose hands must be played. They are all part of a finely interwoven story with South Carolina as the stage for the grand finale.

In reading the book, I can only wonder if the author can write the last twenty pages and not cry himself. I don't usually cry when reading a book but I must admit that this one did me in. Conroy so neatly ties up all the loose ends so that the reader feels no need for a sequel as they are confident that the lives of the characters they have come to love will go on.

While this is a book about tortured souls, it is also a book that holds great promise filled with love and hope and devotion and yes...redemption. We always talk about the books that will stay with us forever. This is one for me...music to my ears...Beach Music that is.

Love it!, 15 Jan 2002
I would like to convey just how much I love this book. It is superb, just like all his others. The main character Jack McCall is so engaging and his relationships with his daughter, family, friends and enemies are excellently drawn. Also the intertwining of stories from his past, the history of others and the present means that the book is always leading you on. There is a kind of bittersweet humour about this story. This book makes me laugh but also made me cry.
I've lost count of the times I've re-read it and also loaned it to friends and colleagues. I simply think that its probably my favourite book ever!

It's about people. Those we love, hate, admire and distrust., 28 Sep 2001
Beach Music is the book I go back to time and time again. I think it's because, when I got to the end of the book, I felt like I knew the characters. It's about people. It's about the relationships we have in our lives - family, friends, enemies - and how those people affect us and change our lives. There's detail - you see the "view" that the author describes but there's also feelings and emotions. Described as they are, not as cliches or over-used lines, but simply and truthfully. It's a great book - if you enjoy watching lives unfold - it's for you.

Brilliant, 04 Mar 2005
This book was a huge success in the USA but is largely unknown in the UK. This is a quintessentially American story set in an American phenomenon, military academies and as such British readers may have trouble relating to it. However, this is a fantastic book and well worth the effort.

The book follows the story of a young man, Will McLean, a student at the Carolina Military Institute (a barely disguised version of The Citadel, a very famous military academy), as he and his three friends attempt to graduate. To make matters more complicated, in fact much more complicated, he has an additional, secret assignment: to assist the first black student in getting through his first year.

The book has two major strands: the coming of age of Will McLean (who is based on Conroy himself) and a gripping conspiracy all set against the background of the unbelievably brutal and vicious practices of US military academies of the time (the late 1960s).

McLean is not a conventional cadet: he is a basketball player, an aspiring writer and he finds it difficult to conform to the ways of the military. However, it has immense personal integrity and (as it turns out) great inner strength. His secret assignment brings him and his friends into life threatening conflict with a powerful, clandestine organisation, the Ten, which is determined to never allow black students at the CMI.

Pat Conroy writes beautifully, with a wonderful, almost lyrical prose style. He paints a vivid and compelling picture of the American south in all its glory (and its faults). The sense of place is faultless, the characterisation is strong (although McLean is such a well-realised character that most of the other characters seem rather slight in comparison) and the plot is thrilling and well paced. He takes subject matter that would have been rendered as pap by many (if not most) writers and creates an enthralling and compelling novel.

Totally fantastic and highly recommended.

A final note: if you enjoy this book then I can thoroughly recommend Pat Conroy's autobiography, My Losing Season, which will provide additional insight into which elements are true and which are just fiction.

Absolutely fantastic, 16 Jan 2002
Pat Conroy is a superb writer. His use of language to convey emotions is second to none. This novel covers the transition to manhood for several young men who are enrolled as cadets in a military academy. It depicts the brutality of the system that the academy employs to remove unwanted students and how they survive. The story is told by Will McLean, a boy who is torn between the values that the system has ingrained in him and the questioning doubt he has that the values are the right ones. He has three very close friends and the book covers the development of that friendship until events take hold that threaten everything Will cares for.
It is a brilliant read-I couldn't put it down.

semi-true yet very interesting, 23 Aug 1999
I live and go to school less than a mile or two away from the Citadel which the authour describes in this book. He describes the Citadel and Charleston fairly accurately although Charleston is actually a very pleasant city. I have never heard of the TEN but who knows. I recommend reading this book for enjoyment and to give you a new perspective on something that goes on in Charleston, SC that you might not know about. A word of advice, remeber poetic licensce.

This is a wrenching, compelling novel--unforgettable., 09 Aug 1999
I read this book at the New Jersey shore, but Conroy's vivid descriptions made Charleston, its rivers, ocean, marshes, mansions and prison-like Institute more real than the coastal environment around me. Conroy's story, at times tender, at others unbearably tense, of Will McLean's coming of age in a military college is a harrowing fictionalization of what Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson call in "Raising Cain" the "culture of cruelty" to which all boys in our culture are exposed. Even more powerfully, he shows the consequences of placing one's faith in institutions rather than in persons. Mammas, don't let your children grow up to be soldiers.

What can one say about a book like this., 26 Jul 1999
I was one of those violated boys that never made it. I left the Academy humiliated and ashamed. This book has hepled me provide some closure to that part of my life. Please read it.

Excellent, 25 Feb 2005
This is a wonderful book - an autobiography describing Pat Conroy's time at the Citadel (an American military academy). Conroy was not a typical cadet, he played basketball, he wanted to be a writer and he viewed the brutal regime that was in place at the Citadel with great distaste.

It is an interesting story and Conroy comes across as a likeable and intelligent man of great personal integrity and inner strength. He has that fascinating love-hate relationship with the American South that is quite common amongst highly intelligent southerners. Conroy writes beautifully with an easy, fluid, at times almost lyrical prose style that enables him to articulate his feelings and convey an amazing "sense of place".

Determining whether you will enjoy this book is simple. If you have read and enjoyed Conroy's excellent book 'The Lords of Discipline' then you will enjoy this. If you have not read 'The Lords of Discipline' then I recommend reading it and if you enjoy it then read this.

Great autobiography in food, 14 Feb 2006
Do you like Pat Conroy? Do you like food? You'll love this combo. Made hungry and ready to go to the South straight away. More of this please!

The force that moves nations, 25 Aug 2008
(contains spoilers)

There are two themes in War and Peace: one is "What is the force that moves nations", in other words what causes historical events to take place, the motivation that drives all humans; and the second is the particular focussing on a small number of families and their circle.

The sections of the book that deal with warfare and Napoleon are naturally biased towards the Russian viewpoint, with Tolstoy sarcastically referring to "that genius Napoleon." Rules of warfare and theories of battle are expounded and are (surprisingly to me) engrossing. The statistics of this war are staggering: although Moscow was taken by the French, the French army of 600,000 virtually ceased to exist as they struggled to leave Russia.

Tolstoy points out how extraordinary it is, that a country's army, though a tiny percentage of the population, brings about the subjugation of millions if they triumph in battle.

The human element of the novel focuses on a huge cast of characters. People claim they mix up the Russian names; but this edition didn't pose any problems. I loved the picture of Russian life, one of socialising, balls, hunting, serfs, peasants, Cossacks...during a war, life goes on elsewhere in that country as normal. A valued hunting dog is purchased for "three families of house serfs" and one of my favourite chapters describes a wolf hunt with 130 dogs

Pierre and Prince Andrei are tormented by their search for happiness in life, an objective, an aim. It is described as a torment that can never be satisfied. Tolstoy perceives man's restlessness as being a result of the Fall - as a result we can't be idle without feeling guilty. "A secret voice warns that for us idleness is sin". These two men strive against their baser nature, towards "the infinite, the eternal and the absolute".

These two upright, decent men contrast with Anatole, with his moral vacuum, self aggrandisement, vanity and pride. He is a rake, a "male Magdalen" who believes: "all will be forgiven him because he enjoyed himself so much"

Prince Andrei comes to the conclusion that we must have sympathy, love of our brothers, "a happiness beyond the reach of material forces, of the soul alone, the happiness of loving".

Pierre, who was captured by the French and endured dreadful privations, achieved peace and inner harmony through living through the horrors of death, and realising that his wealth had caused such a superfluity of the comforts of life that it had destroyed all the joy in gratifying his needs and choosing his occupations.

Women are central, essential to the male characters, but very much in the Miltonic mould: "he for God only, she for God in him." Initially Prince Andrei advised Pierre against women: "tie yourself up with a woman and like a convict in irons you lose all freedom....selfish, vain, humdrum, trivial in everything". Women such as Helene seem "as it were, covered with the hard polish left by the thousands of eyes that had scanned her person".

Natasha, who loves Prince Andrei but is spurned by him and becomes Pierre's devoted wife, receives one of literature's most romantic declarations: "if I were not myself, but the handsomest, cleverest, best man in the world, and if I were free, I would be on my knees this minute to beg for your hand and your love."

War and Peace is one of those remarkable books where the reader is surprised with the pleasure of recognition of the human situation. The old countess "evinced to a remarkable degree a trait noticeable in the very young and the very old. Her existence had no manifest aim...but was merely...occupied by the need to exercise her various functions."

One of a handful of books to regularly re-read.



Still historical, 30 Jun 2008
You can't not give one of the world's greatest novels five stars. But you can consider how modern readers might find it. There are undoubtedly elements of what we would now call soap opera here - just as there are in Hardy, say, or Austen. Tolstoy's didactic purpose (a critique of 'modern' theories of history) waxes as the book progresses and concludes in a hundred page theoretical diatribe that - while it addresses philosophical issues that still have currency - probably won't detain many non-academic readers. This translation - now nearly 40 years old - has probably been surpassed but remains highly serviceable; realising, as it does, Tolstoy's ability to experiment with narrative postures without ever upsetting the reader's sense of 'normality'. Pierre remains one of the most fully-realised characters in fiction, while the battle scenes (especially, for my money, Schon Graben) are breathtaking pieces of writing. Tolstoy's innately aristocratic values can grate: the serfs invariably exist in a kind of Benthamite world of ignorant charm, while the author's worldly irony can create a sense that humanity barely deserves the humanist outrage that he occasionally heaps on Europe's warmongers. But this is just firing a catapult at an oil tanker. It's 'War and Peace' for goodness sake!

The best soap opera ever written!, 26 May 2008
Starting this book I thought I was going to be reading classic literature in a way that was going to be very intellectual. What I got was one of the best dramas ever written but with an epic soap opera feel. If you can make it past the first two hundred pages you will love this book but getting there is hard as there are so many characters that I was very lost for a long time as to who was who and what was happening. Once I'd got past this I found I was reading a great drama about two families and the interaction that happens between them with love and war as the main events to occur. This is not highbrow literature this is great literature of a universal story about life and it doesn't get much better than this. Ignore the amount of pages and enjoy this for what it is epic drama!

THE novel, 23 Mar 2008
Obviously there has been a lot said about this book, and taken together with its sheer size, this makes it a slightly daunting adventure. It took me about 3 months to get through, with a few breaks thrown in, but I enjoyed it from cover to cover.
While you might think that no book can merit 1500 pages, Tolstoy dispels this idea. No page is wasted - it really does put a lot of contemporary fiction to shame.
The story covers the period 1805-1820, looking at Napoleon's invasion and retreat from Russia. It's main concerns are history and its representation (philosophically expounded upon in the final 50 pages, where all the hints and asides of the previous 1450 are brought together into one huge rebuke of humanity's attitude to itself and its past).
The narrative covers the love lives of an intricately linked cast of characters as they flit in and out of the war with France, and Tolstoy proves adept at portraying both the grand and the menial in equally brilliant flourishes.
If you have read and enjoyed other Russian novels, you'll need to psyche yourself up and go in for this one at some point or other. My advice is not to delay. It's a rewarding, absorbing read...and even the sort of mini-achievement in our own lives that Tolstoy might have recognised.

TO be taken lightly, 29 Feb 2008
People will normally utter such platitudes with this book as 'don't start it lightly', but what is the alternative, to build up to it for years and never end up reading it at all? That, unfortunately is what the majority of owners of this piece do, buy it and let it stand on their shelves gathering dust. I was close to being of this ilk, but a moment of caprice had me actually starting on this tome, and now I'm 670 pages through. I don't hesitate to add, that it is growing tedious at this stage, and I am losing motivation, and it has become an exercise in my determination to finish it.

It is difficult to sum up the content briefly. Napoleon has come to power and is aggressively expanding. The Russians, under Kutuzov, and of course Alexander I, are drawn into a war of heavy attrition. In between bouts of peace and alliances, are major campaigns which culminate in the battles of Austerlitz and Borodino, at which our protagonists are present. The story alternates between these campaigns and the affairs of the gentry in Russian society, with its balls, affairs, rumours and petty quarrels.

We focus on three main characters, (Count) Nicolas Rostov, (Count) Pierre Besuchov and (Prince) Andrew Bolonski. Between the three we see the horrors and futility (and duplicity) of war, duels, freemasons, emancipation, romance (and heartache), loveless marriage, fraud, and everything you can conceive in any society. In fact it is rather overwhelming, and once you have read it you are only really left with a vague impression.

The beauty of the book, in my eyes, are these and other characters, who are so complete that they are constantly changing in personailty and outlook. Bolkonski himself goes from arrogant aide-de-camp, to disillusioned hermit, to philanthropist, to an unwilling colonel, from sheer hate and merciless regard of the French, to complete humanitarian, from hate to love..... It goes on.

The story skips between over 500 characters, all of whom seem to be 'princes' or 'counts'. The fact that they all have Russian, and therefore unfamiliar names, makes it easy to lose track, and to forget some of the minor characters. Also there are some people with almost identical names. I was caught out by the similarity between the Kuragins and the Karagins.

The book is certainly intimidating, open the first page and you see it is divided into 3 volumes, around 15 books, and hundreds of chapters, complete with epilogues, notes, a Tolstoy biography, historical notes and other paraphernalia. Do not forget that the origional version was around 1,800 pages, this has been condensed to around 950 (of the actual text), and is unabridged. It follows that the writing is going to be cramped on each page, as indeed it is, and this can fill you with a sense of forboding.

One frustrating thing about this novel, and believe it or not I am enjoying it in parts, is the constant need of the gentry to resort to speaking in French. In the version I am reading (translated by Maude), these remain intact and you must refer to the notes every time this happens, which breaks the concentration. An early example of this is a conversation by Shinshin, only a paragraph long, in which you have to refer to the notes 4 times!

I fully expected that I would not enjoy this novel, yet I tried (and am still) reading it anyway. The battles are fascinating, particularly young cadet Rostovs first action, and Austerlitz. Tolstoy fully researched his history and formulated his story around it, so you also learn some of the events of the Russian campaign. Later on, around half way through I think, we are 'treated' to Tolstoys philosophical digressions, by which he argues that the course of history is not formed by great individuals, but by myriad chances, by which people have no choice but to act as they do. this may sound confusing, and it detracts from the story.

Yet I gave it 4 stars. In summation, a great, truly epic story, and whoever it was who said this was a fantasy epic without the elves etc, was correct. It is easy to become absorbed in the story, and the characters. In many respects, no novel can compare to this, it is completely unique, and truly a literary experience.

Great story, 04 Oct 2007
One of the truly great stories of all time, right up there with SOPHIES CHOICE, THE PRINCE OF TIDES is a non-stop journey though darkness and into the light. Tom Wingo is one of the main characters in this vast and verbose tome by Pat Conroy, and he's both hero and anti-hero all at once.

The way Conroy sets the scenes in this book is remarkable. Little is left to the imagination as he covers every bit for himself, using adjectives until your head will hurt. But it's all for a reason; it's all there to make you "feel" what he wants you to feel.

The story, as most probably know by now, having seen the movie, is harrowing and fraught with pitfalls for the Wingo family. Some have survived--some haven't. Tom's sister is somewhere in the middle, and this is where the story gets its push--from the fact that Tom is in NY trying to figure out what to do "about" her after her latest suicide attempt.

Filled with relief humor and intricate tales of family dysfunction, PRINCE OF TIDES is a massive books that titillates, fascinates, and compels the reader to keep reading



you won't ever want this book to end, 09 Aug 2003
This is undoubtedly an amazing book. I have never read a book that has gripped me in the way Pat Conroys style of writting in this book did. The story of Tom Wingo, unemployed househusband, as it alternates between his current life and his past.
It is too easy to forget that this is a fiction and throughout the book I had to keep reminding myself that this was Tom Wingo's story and not Pat Conroy's.

A moving book that captures every emotion to your realisation that such emotions exist within you.
A long but very worthwhile read that you will want to read again and again.

Constantly surprising, thought provoking great read, 18 Jan 2002
This book was suggested by a friend and proved well worth it. Conroy develops characters that are extraordinary but you can believe they exist out there in the Deep South and in New York. Very funny in parts, it deals with the darker side of family life but does not down-hearten.

Poetry in prose - a breathtakingly lyrical read, 11 Aug 2000
Having seen the movie adaptation which starred Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte, both of whom I find highly irritating, I selected the book slightly reluctantly. To my surprise however, the film and it's visual memory drifted away as Conroy's extraordinarily lyrical style of writing prose wrapped me up in the very taste and smell of Tom's world.

The characters are believable, as are most of the events that unfold, and somehow even those occurrences which are slightly less plausible still seem perfectly so - probably because you don't just read about this world, but thanks to Conroy's style, you live in it. This makes it highly moving and at times uncomfortable. The secrets and lies of a family, the brutality that comes to light and the fact that there really is no happy ending, just life going on as before, perhaps in just a more worldly way - these are all captivating and I felt absolutely bereft when I closed the book.

I can't bring myself to read Conroy's other works in case they fail to live up to the high standard established with "The Prince of Tides".

I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story well told, and is not afraid to give their heart to a book without receiving it back with just a little piece missing......

Lyrical style and knowing characterisations., 09 Feb 1999
I first picked this book up when I needed something to read and had finished or discarded just about everything else on my mothers bookshelf. I was highly impressed by the style of prose: at some points I think it would have sounded better whispered over music. But the element that gives this book some bite is the wonderfully knowing characterisations that lie therein. Coupled with the extremely wry sense of humour, it presents some very sympathetic characters that aren't sickly (Hollywood take note) in a tale of family tragedy and shared secrets. Conroys' only fault is that he never uses one word where he could use ten. However, don't let this get in the way of a moving family saga well woth reading. If you like this try "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Splendid, 23 Jul 2005
I think I've read it 4 times now. My father actually recommended it to me
(he read it more than 5 times now). As soon as I started reading it I could not put it down... it is just so poetic, complex, beautiful... It is a book of love, family, friendship, sorrow, it is magic... The best book ever !

There's poetry in this prose, 05 Jul 2005
I've read this book three times and each time it has moved me, made me laugh, cry, suffer and laugh again with the characters. It is a tale of love, loss, misery, cruelty, hurt, despair, unendurable pain, anguish, family ties, reconciliation and laughter. Pat Conroy has drawn his group of traumatised and suffering characters in a realistic way without melodrama where many others would have struggled to avoid it. There is such poetry in his prose, and it is powerful, warm and funny - humorous episodes sit alongside horror and despair. It is a masterpiece.

MUSIC TO MY EARS, 20 Oct 2002
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.

Every character is a tortured soul who has a tale to tell -- one more heartbreaking than the other. The main story follows Jack McCall, who flees to Rome with his young daughter Leah after his beloved wife Shyla has committed suicide. He leaves behind a bevy of colorful family and friends in an effort to escape his torment and begin a new life in a new land. As a travel writer by trade, Jack is able to pick up and live wherever he chooses. It is a telegram from a family member that will finally bring Jack back to South Carolina to face his demons and learn the stories of all those he loves.

Conroy has the ability of dropping crumbs along the way leading you to each character's hidden story. He touches on times in history involving the Holocaust and the Vietnam War -- each decade so real that I don't even want to think about the horrors. But it is these horrors that have come to shape the characters whose cards have been dealt and whose hands must be played. They are all part of a finely interwoven story with South Carolina as the stage for the grand finale.

In reading the book, I can only wonder if the author can write the last twenty pages and not cry himself. I don't usually cry when reading a book but I must admit that this one did me in. Conroy so neatly ties up all the loose ends so that the reader feels no need for a sequel as they are confident that the lives of the characters they have come to love will go on.

While this is a book about tortured souls, it is also a book that holds great promise filled with love and hope and devotion and yes...redemption. We always talk about the books that will stay with us forever. This is one for me...music to my ears...Beach Music that is.

Love it!, 15 Jan 2002
I would like to convey just how much I love this book. It is superb, just like all his others. The main character Jack McCall is so engaging and his relationships with his daughter, family, friends and enemies are excellently drawn. Also the intertwining of stories from his past, the history of others and the present means that the book is always leading you on. There is a kind of bittersweet humour about this story. This book makes me laugh but also made me cry.
I've lost count of the times I've re-read it and also loaned it to friends and colleagues. I simply think that its probably my favourite book ever!

It's about people. Those we love, hate, admire and distrust., 28 Sep 2001
Beach Music is the book I go back to time and time again. I think it's because, when I got to the end of the book, I felt like I knew the characters. It's about people. It's about the relationships we have in our lives - family, friends, enemies - and how those people affect us and change our lives. There's detail - you see the "view" that the author describes but there's also feelings and emotions. Described as they are, not as cliches or over-used lines, but simply and truthfully. It's a great book - if you enjoy watching lives unfold - it's for you.

Brilliant, 04 Mar 2005
This book was a huge success in the USA but is largely unknown in the UK. This is a quintessentially American story set in an American phenomenon, military academies and as such British readers may have trouble relating to it. However, this is a fantastic book and well worth the effort.

The book follows the story of a young man, Will McLean, a student at the Carolina Military Institute (a barely disguised version of The Citadel, a very famous military academy), as he and his three friends attempt to graduate. To make matters more complicated, in fact much more complicated, he has an additional, secret assignment: to assist the first black student in getting through his first year.

The book has two major strands: the coming of age of Will McLean (who is based on Conroy himself) and a gripping conspiracy all set against the background of the unbelievably brutal and vicious practices of US military academies of the time (the late 1960s).

McLean is not a conventional cadet: he is a basketball player, an aspiring writer and he finds it difficult to conform to the ways of the military. However, it has immense personal integrity and (as it turns out) great inner strength. His secret assignment brings him and his friends into life threatening conflict with a powerful, clandestine organisation, the Ten, which is determined to never allow