NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A brilliant storyteller, a master of sarcasm, and a hallucinatory stylist whose obsession with the impress of the past on the present binds him to Southern literary tradition.”—The Boston Globe Pat Conroy’s great success as a writer has always been intimately linked with the exploration of his family history. As the oldest of seven children who were dragged from … seven children who were dragged from military base to military base across the South, Pat bore witness to the often cruel and violent behavior of his father, Marine Corps fighter pilot Donald Patrick Conroy. While the publication of The Great Santini brought Pat much acclaim, the rift it caused brought even more attention, fracturing an already battered family. But as Pat tenderly chronicles here, even the oldest of wounds can heal. In the final years of Don Conroy’s life, the Santini unexpectedly refocused his ire to defend his son’s honor.
The Death of Santini is a heart-wrenching act of reckoning whose ultimate conclusion is that love can soften even the meanest of men, lending significance to the oft-quoted line from Pat’s novel The Prince of Tides: “In families there are no crimes beyond forgiveness.”
Praise for The Death of Santini
“A painful, lyrical, addictive read that [Pat Conroy’s] fans won’t want to miss.”—People
“Conroy’s conviction pulls you fleetly through the book, as does the potency of his bond with his family, no matter their sins.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Vital, large-hearted and often raucously funny.”—The Washington Post
“Conroy writes athletically and beautifully, slicing through painful memories like a point guard splitting the defense.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
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The relationship between father and son is examined in detail, after the fiction of the Great Santini. Parents shape their children for both good and bad. This story examines it in Pat Conroy’s case.
Pat Conroy spent the last decades of his life contemplating, writing, and trying to make sense of his upbringing in a military family with an abusive father and his experience at the Citadel during his college years. This book represents his final contribution in that effort and at least partial reconciliation with that abusive father who is the Santini of the title of this book. Some great books came out of that but I did not find this to be one of the best. Conroy lead a rather tortured life after his early experiences and while it did lead to some great literature it also lead to somewhat tragic life. I found it hard to read of his efforts to bring the abuser into a better relationship because my opinion is that this toxic father would have been better shunned.
I really enjoy Pat Conroy’s writing and this book was no exception.
I wanted to know more about the father-son dynamic after I’d read The Great Santini, so this filled in the ever-after. This is not fiction, so I got snapshots of some of the other people in his surroundings and family. I think Pat Conroy himself was probably a larger-than-life character as well. i have a new respect for them both.
I have been a lifelong fan of Pat Conroy. This book tied together all the loose ends and gave the back story to a lot of his novels. Miss him greatly.
Anyone who has read and loved Pat Conroy’s realistic, sometimes gut-wrenching novels will appreciate this memoir and, perhaps, shed a few tears.
My all-time favorite author. A warm and fitting epitaph to a complicated relationship.
Often disjointed and leaning toward self-indulgent. Not my favorite from this author.
Lame
Loved all of Conroy’s books
One of Conroy’s best
Wonderful, A true story told well.
This book seems to redeem Conroy’s father who was portrayed as an abusive monster in previous books. Just how much did Conroy creatively demonize his father and then in this book, “aw shucks. I guess he wasn’t that bad.”
I have read all of Pat Conroy’s books, which were excellent. This one, not so much.
I expected more from Conroy
Magical writing
Conroy has been our most emotionally evocative, honest writer in the decades bracketing the turn of the century. This book brings his wit, humanity, and ambivalence towards his father to brilliant light. Reading this final family tale makes you wish you could have observed the outrageousness of this family regularly, but at a safe distance. The love that each had, and tied, but miserably failed, to share with each other is at turns heart wrenching and hilarious. Conroy’s gimlet prose makes this emotional roller coaster a page after page pleasure.
Not the best of Pat Conroy
Couldn’t put it down. Love in a loving but dysfunctional family, in the best sense.
Pat Conroy is a genius writer and can tell his family stories so realistically.
Pat Conroy was in a league of his own