Guest Book

I’ve always been an avid reader but I’ll never forget the first time I read The Prince of Tides. I could not put it down. It wasn’t just one thing but so many. Being from the south I understood so much and then there’s his eloquent verbiage. My my my… his words evoke such emotion... everything from joy to horror and all points in between. It’s a masterpiece. Such treasures he left. Thank you Mr Conroy.

I Have read The Prince of Tides every year since I first purchased it shortly after publication. Reading this novel, finished once more early this morning, is like reading my favorite poem, or the Bible--so full of beauty and horror, the amazing ying-yang of life. It is a healing read, especially for folks like me, victims and heirs to a southern upbringing. I say prayers of thanksgiving to you, Mr. Conroy.

Beach Music ... a classic. While I am a few years older than Shyla & company, so much of the book resonated with me. It was all about how I lived & thought & loved & feared during the 1960s. Pat Conroy, please save the last dance for me... !!

Started re-reading The Great Santini today, for the fifth or sixth time, and decided to delve a bit more into the life of the author. I have read all of his books, I believe, and count him as not just one of the South’s greatest authors, but one of the greatest American authors.
His writing is so full of passion and misery and honesty, simply put, he compares favorably with any Nobel prize winner or other major award winner in my opinion.
I am sure he is entertaining the good folks in heaven with his stories.

I first read Pat Conroy in my high school English class when I was 16 years. We read The Prince of Tides. TPoT completely changed my life. Anyone who knows me knows my deep and great love for Pat Conroy.

There truly is something for everyone in his books. I love his floral vocabulary, descriptive imagery, writing style, and the way that Pat painted the most realistic and intricate depiction of the South. He knew the South Carolina that I had grown up in even though we grew up 50 years apart. Although he wrote about the South of his youth, I had seen the same things and felt similar ways. I thought being a Southerner was a shame, but I held on to Pat’s words and devoured his entire collection of work.

I tried to run from South Carolina. I moved to Los Angeles to study Fine Art and I brought Pat Conroy with me. Despite my attempt to reinvent myself and reject the place I grew up (doesn’t everyone do this in their late teens-early 20’s???), I realized the landscape of South Carolina haunted me. It came out in everything I did and in the art that I made/make.

I kept going back to Pat’s books- reading them as I maneuvered life in new places, through college and life after college, through loss, hardship, and love. I realized I longed to get back home to sweet South Carolina and when I really couldn’t bare it, I would settle into one of Pat’s books. His books continue to remind me why I love the landscape and magic of South Carolina. It’s been almost 10 years since I first read The Prince of Tides and I will never get over the beauty and truth that Pat breathed into the pages of his books. I wish I could have met him before he was gone.

I was devastated when he passed because I felt like I knew him, and I had come to truly love him like all of his readers do. Thank you, Pat, for your words. I am only 25 but you continue to change the way I see, love, create, and of course, read.

I miss new Pat Conroe books. There was nothing like getting his new hardback, opening it, smelling the paper and ink, and starting reading.

I am the Assistant Head of School at the Cochabamba Cooperative School, in Cochabamba, Bolivia. When my Dad (also an educator) took me to see Conrack when I was 14, that inspired me to be an educator. I now have 35 years of experience as an educational administrator. His other books were great.
However a book that touched my heart was My Losing Season. I played in the professional basketball league in Bolivia for 10 seasons. When I read that book, it was so moving about my own basketball experience in life. I got to take my students from Bolivia one time to Ford's Theater to see the adaptation of Conrack, the play.

The booth where Lincoln got shot was open that night because someone forgot to lock it. I took my students in to see it and be there. We were there maybe 5 minutes before a security guard told us to get out. Pat Conroy inspired me to become a teacher. Just thank you Pat Conroy. Dr. Bryn Gabriel

I read "The Lords of Discipline" for the first time during the summer of my sophomore year in high school. I thought... "I'll never go to The Citadel - even if it is the last college on earth." Then I read it the following summer, and thought, "If they recruit me, I will go." I played soccer for The Citadel, and it was the only college to which I applied.

Pat's nephew, Ed Conroy was a fellow knob in my company, and oddly the cadet upperclassman I loathed the most was named McClain (same last name as the protagonist in TLoD). Before I knew it, I had changed my major to English (because Pat was an English major) and was trying to figure out if it were possible that Col Mathis (who was as large as a right whale) and Col Alexander (whom everyone called "Trashmouth") where the two characters the legendary professor "Alexander the Great" in TLoD was based on.

Anyway, I regretfully never met Mr. Conroy in person, but I think we would have gotten along well together. In one of his books, he claimed something akin to, "I don't write fiction - I just change the names of the characters so I don't get sued." I really grew to feel like I knew him, and most of his friends personally.

Like everyone else, I was devastated when I heard of his cancer diagnosis, and I felt like I'd lost a friend when when he passed. The world needs more Pat Conroys. When I meet a future cadet, I make it a point to gift them "The Lords of Discipline." That book changed the trajectory of my life, as I know it has many others.
Happy Birthday Pat Conroy.

What led me to the writings of Pat Conroy? I wanted to see the movie The Prince of Tides, but wanted to read the book first. When I read it fireworks went off in my head. Every story within the book was better than than the last one, how much creativity could one human being possess? I was hooked. The Prince of Tides led to The Great Santini, which led to Beach Music...

I am in the middle of a literary experience I have never known before. Needless to say, the movies were not nearly as good as the novels. But how can you cram a Pat Conroy book into a two hour Hollywood production? It is never too late to discover the charms of Conroy's work.

I am originally from San Francisco. I was transplanted to Charleston from Southern CA 6 years ago for employment. I fell in love with Charleston immediately; love at first sight.
Since I was already acquainted with with NC's favorite author, Thomas Wolfe, I decided to pick up and read Prince of Tides. It was enjoyable but I wasn't really moved. Then I read 'The Water is Wide' and fell in love with it.

I have just finished 'South of Broad' which I thought deserved a Pulitzer. Mr. Conroy somehow wrote the story of my life (at least in parts). Loved all the Joyce references and sarcasm. I know every step of "The City" which he described in perfect detail. I could almost smell the Tenderloin again. I have walked every step in Charleston he artfully painted on each page. I felt I was there with Leo.
I knew and loved the characters and found myself in tears at different points . It's been a long time since a novel has moved me so much emotionally. My real regret is never having the opportunity to meet Mr. Conroy. God Bless you Pat and thank you for the gifts you shared with us.