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Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2025
So many beautiful stories packed together. And just like life, connected. The stories ate as relevant today as they were when Mr.. Conroy put them to paper. I'm so glad I found this book.
Customer
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2025
As usual, Pat Conroy's words are magic, even on paper. I can almost hear them as I read. I was hooked after reading his work the first time.
Banana
Reviewed in Canada on May 19, 2024
Book in perfect condition.
Ashara Branson
Reviewed in Australia on February 22, 2024
Always enjoy Pat Conroy’s books
clytie ann miller
Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2024
Amazing read!! Did not want the book to end. Pat Conroy’s books never disappoint!! I felt I was there being a graduate in 1966. Thank you Pat Conroy
sheila
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 24, 2024
First book I have read by this author. Lots of different aspects to the story, with smiles and sadness. Well worth reading
Megan Elizabeth
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2024
At times this book was painful to read but presented important subject matter. I wish that I hadn’t found it necessary to look up so many words. That was distracting. And I thought I had a good vocabulary. 😔
Cheryle Tebor
Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2024
I have read this book three times now. Pat Conroy is hands down three best author and my favorite. author. I find. Each time I read it i find something new I didn't notice the last time. You willl laugh out loud and then find yourself sobbing uncontrollably the next minute. I would encourage every one to read this book and often. Simply brilliant.
alex basco
Reviewed in Spain on July 6, 2020
Muy bien
Gianluca Carpiceci
Reviewed in Italy on January 22, 2017
I am in the phase of re-reading, more than 20 years after, Tom Conroy's books, and I am appreciating the different angle from which you look at his stories and characters at a more mature life stage.Like in most, if not every, Conroy novels, also Beach Music alternates moments of beautiful prose and dialogues to others of agonising slowness and boredom; but that is what it is, I am not sure that surgically extracting the latter to leave only the former ones would still feel like Conroy; so, I guess one has to take it as a "package".I thought Beach Music is, compared for instance to The Prince Of Tides, more elegiac, less dark and tragic, even the dialogues don't have the same sarcastic bitterness while being still quite sassy.The novel tells the stories of several characters' lives, and reading it gave me the feeling of navigating through an arcipelago of icebergs: every top of each iceberg offered extremely engaging and gripping aspects, but in order to fully understand the top, Conroy thought it was necessary to explain in excruciatingly detailed manner the below-the-surface parts of each iceberg. At different points of the book, he tells the whole life stories of each and everyone of the key characters; this is what gives the novel an epic breadth, but also at times an almost unbearable slowness....but that's the "package", folks...Once again, like for The Prince of Tides, I could not connect with the end Conroy proposes for this novel; it is as if he felt a compulsive need to close all lose ends and to dissolve the huge amount of tensions he built all along the story into happy, syrupy ends which feels like anticlimax to me.Most of the protagonists are quite powerful, 3-D characters, though I did not find the hero (Jack McCall) as unforgettable as The Prince of Tides' Tom Wingo; one character I found genuinely unbearable is Jack's daughter, Leah, unbearably wiseacre, know-it-all for a 7 years old kid.I guess the key problem of the book is that, on top of its over-articulated narrative architecture, Conroy lays down a lot of (too many?) themes: the coming of age and its rites of passage, the effects of dysfunctional families, a walk through some aspects of catholicism and hebraism, the anti Vietnam war movement of the 60's, the holocaust and the jewish diaspora, all of them interconnected with a number of individual themes associated to each character. This makes of Beach Music a huge and very ambitious project, which in my view succeeds only partially, as the task of keeping it all together, keeping all these themes, all these individual stories, all the time levels together is an almost impossible one. Yet, the prose is as usual so luxuriant and the narrative pearls you of find all along the long reading journey so precious that Beach Music is despite everything a very enjoyable read.
Judithal
Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2014
I've read most of Conroy's works and consider him a writer of incomparable skill in crafting imagery and putting words together in fresh, new ways that make me grab my highlighter in a vain attempt to remember and cherish the lines. There are plenty of these opportunities in Beach Music however Beach Music tries to be and do too much. The story of Jack in Rome, the story of Lucy, the story of Shyla and the holocaust, the story of John Hardin, the story of Capers (one complicated guy), the story of Mike and the movies..... Anyone of these stories was enough to digest alone but altogether they often fought for attention instead of working together. Having said that, the story of Shyla's parents as persecuted Jews was the most powerful, memorable one I've ever read and provided details that were new to me. Conroy's telling will haunt me and I can believe that grief could permeate a home strongly enough to cause Shyla's mental fragility. Jack comes off as largely likeable and Lucy is lovable and daughter Leah is dear so there was enough character-driven force to get me through the novel even though I felt that I was reading 4-5 novels under one title. There is a mock courtroom scene on a movie set that tries a little too hard to tie all the loose ends together late in the novel and I did expect more revelation about Shyla but her letter to Jack was one of sheer beauty and grace worth waiting for. The long and short of it is that even a less than flowing Conroy missive has so much poetry and story-telling prowess that it's worthy of praise.
mmkeekah
Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2014
I love Pat Conroy's writing style, and he told a beautiful story. However, I felt like I'd already read this book once before since I'd read The Prince of Tides; not to say the story was identical but the plot of the story was similar enough that I was in no rush to finish this novel like I'd done with The Prince of Tides (which I read, non-stop, in three days because I was so wrapped up in the characters, the plot and the writing itself.)**Might have some spoilers**The items that were different didn't feel as if they were executed successfully. I am not sure the multiple story lines that were involved in this novel were integrated smoothly, and as a result, the reading was choppy and not altogether interesting all of the time. Sometimes, his characters were one dimensional, and thus they were boring. I kept hoping he would flesh out the father character as much as he did the mother character, and I kept waiting for his protagonist to grow up a bit. The protagonist did a bit in the end but it was so abrupt that it felt false and flawed.But Pat Conroy has a gift with words and his prose is wonderful. The mother-son arc of the story was touching and beautiful. I would recommend it as a good read but I doubt I would ever read this book again - and I keep re-reading The Prince of Tides.
Laurel-Rain Snow
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2014
With lyrical prose and haunting imagery, the author tells the numerous stories that make up , beginning by introducing the characters of Jack McCall and his daughter Leah, who have fled to Rome after the suicide of Shyla, Jack's wife and Leah's mother.Jack grew up in Waterford, South Carolina, a true Southerner blessed with all that makes a person feel that particular spirit and identity. Coming of age with the sound of the waves and the beach music that lulls the nighttime moments and greets the day with each sunrise, a child can come to a true understanding of all that Nature has to give.Narrated in Jack's first person voice, the story helps us feel the lost little boy inside, along with the angry, embittered soul who has been scarred by tragedy and betrayal. Each decade of his life has been marked by something auspicious, just as it has for his whole generation. But others have their stories, too, and Shyla's parents, George and Ruth Fox, barely escaped the Holocaust to live to tell about it. But they kept their true stories hidden, even as those tales would mark their lives indelibly, just as the next generation would be marked by the Sixties and the lingering trauma of the Vietnam War. And Jack's own mother Lucy, who created a fictional background, has a true story to share as well.While some of the stories are poignant and bring us the powerful moments of young childhood and early adolescence, with the fishing trips and the childish pranks, it would be the betrayals of a contentious Antiwar Movement and those who would turn on their best friends that would remind us that nothing can injure us more in life than the turning away of those we call friends or family.What has to happen to bring Jack home to South Carolina? What will he discover about his family and his legacy that will ultimately allow him to heal? And what mock trial staged by an old friend will finally bring out those last hidden truths and show Jack how to forgive?There is nothing like an epic story told with special attention to the details, as well as one that allows the thoughts and feelings of the characters to unfold gradually, that can bring the reader into the midst of the tale and feel along with the characters. An unforgettable novel. 5 stars.
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