Pat very much enjoyed hearing from his readers and was often moved and inspired by your comments.
As you know, Pat Conroy died on March 4, 2016. This site continues to be managed by his longtime friends and literary agents. You may join in a community of his readers by sharing your comments about Pat’s books or anything else that comes to mind in this guest book. We, the family, the agents and the friends are deeply moved by the outpouring of love you, his beloved readers, wrote here… Much gratitude to you all; Thank you.
Read what others are saying or click the button to add your own thoughts
150 entries.
I first read The Great Santini when I was a Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune in 1977. Pat Conroy is in the top 3 of my all-time favorite authors.
Greetings from Bullarto, in the State of Victoria, Australia. I’m about half way through my first Pat Conroy book, The Prince of Tides. Henry Wingo has just bought the gas station (or as we would call it the petrol station) and he and the kids are at the circus.
It took me a little while to appreciate the language and engage with the plot, but now I’m in and hooked and know that this won’t be my last Conroy. Thanks for the website, it’s a great way to see how others having enjoyed what I’m now enjoying. The Great Santini is next.
It took me a little while to appreciate the language and engage with the plot, but now I’m in and hooked and know that this won’t be my last Conroy. Thanks for the website, it’s a great way to see how others having enjoyed what I’m now enjoying. The Great Santini is next.
I love Beach Music and I want to nominate it to be made into a film.
I just watched the movie Conrack for the 3rd time in the past few weeks. I remember seeing it with my mom growing up. This is my favorite movie from that era and being a native of South Carolina, I can say, it has a special place. I wish I could've met Mr. Conroy and learned more of his experience on the island of Daufauski.
I just finished South of Broad. I wish that there were still another 300 pages to read. Mr. Conroy has a wonderful way with words. My favorite author, Ken Follett, also puts the best words in the best order. I once referred to him as the "goat." Now Mr. Conroy has joined the fray and now it's the Jordan and James debate for me in the book world, lol!
His books are companions. When you read his books, you discover sentences so well-crafted that it requires an appreciative pause. You experience places so descriptive, you are right next to him observing every nuance.
Thank you for patconroy.com in 2021.
Thank you for patconroy.com in 2021.
Love the books.
Pat Conroy is and always has been my very favorite author. I always wanted to meet him. I wanted to thank him and hug him-thank him for his beautiful stories and for helping me understand the “complexities” of my own family better,-hug him to absorb some of his pain and share with him some of my own without the need for words.
I remember reading the Lords of Discipline as a teenager on a road trip during a hot summer in the back of a van. I sobbed for several days while reading that book. Beach Music is the best book I have ever read. I go back and read it every few years and I wish the story never ended. I am now reading it for probably the 7th or 8th time. I will always return to this book and am so happy to have it in first edition hardcover. My best to the Conroy family in this new year.
I remember reading the Lords of Discipline as a teenager on a road trip during a hot summer in the back of a van. I sobbed for several days while reading that book. Beach Music is the best book I have ever read. I go back and read it every few years and I wish the story never ended. I am now reading it for probably the 7th or 8th time. I will always return to this book and am so happy to have it in first edition hardcover. My best to the Conroy family in this new year.
I don’t know why I’m making an entry to a guestbook of someone already passed on-except to perhaps let family and friends that had the honor to be called such might once again be reminded of what they undoubtedly know.
I love to read. I love books. It is a love passed down to me from my mother, who would have 3-4 books “going” at any point of her life. It was through her that I discovered Pat Conroy. She had a system for handing down bags of read books to me... one check on the title page meant that she’d read it, but that I should only resort to reading if there were no books left in the bag. Two checks meant worth the time and three meant read first! When she gave me the book, “Beach Music”, it not only had the valued three checks, but she wrote-“Really good” followed with three exclamation points!!!
I saved the book to read on a long plane trip to Colorado with my husband. I, like my mother, am a very fast reader. If going on a 10 day vacation, I will bring 3 books. But this book was different...Pat Conroy created something that made that book last for the entire vacation. I found, that instead of flying through a book, I would read then reread and, as with the first pages of the prologue, read a third time, think about what I’d just read and then interrupt my husband’s book to read it to him. When I finally did finish the book, as is the experience with a truly good book, I was sorry I’d finished it. So was my husband who had essentially listened to a near entire reading of the book through me.
Without belaboring more than I already have, Pat Conroy changed the way I read when I read any of his works. They are prose and fiction, but so much more. He writes in poetry and tells a story in such detail that whether funny or tragic pulls you in and makes you experience the written situation as a silent but present observer.
I wish I’d been able to tell him that I read him differently than I did other author’s works. I wish there were more of his books. So, I’ve bought “Beach Music” again. I’ve only read three sections to my husband so far. I’ve just finished the prologue.
I love to read. I love books. It is a love passed down to me from my mother, who would have 3-4 books “going” at any point of her life. It was through her that I discovered Pat Conroy. She had a system for handing down bags of read books to me... one check on the title page meant that she’d read it, but that I should only resort to reading if there were no books left in the bag. Two checks meant worth the time and three meant read first! When she gave me the book, “Beach Music”, it not only had the valued three checks, but she wrote-“Really good” followed with three exclamation points!!!
I saved the book to read on a long plane trip to Colorado with my husband. I, like my mother, am a very fast reader. If going on a 10 day vacation, I will bring 3 books. But this book was different...Pat Conroy created something that made that book last for the entire vacation. I found, that instead of flying through a book, I would read then reread and, as with the first pages of the prologue, read a third time, think about what I’d just read and then interrupt my husband’s book to read it to him. When I finally did finish the book, as is the experience with a truly good book, I was sorry I’d finished it. So was my husband who had essentially listened to a near entire reading of the book through me.
Without belaboring more than I already have, Pat Conroy changed the way I read when I read any of his works. They are prose and fiction, but so much more. He writes in poetry and tells a story in such detail that whether funny or tragic pulls you in and makes you experience the written situation as a silent but present observer.
I wish I’d been able to tell him that I read him differently than I did other author’s works. I wish there were more of his books. So, I’ve bought “Beach Music” again. I’ve only read three sections to my husband so far. I’ve just finished the prologue.
Hello, I have been a huge Pat Conroy fan going back to "The Great Santini" which spoke to me so big due to my relationship with my father. Then, after having a rough car wreck a number of years ago, a mutual friend Pat and I have, Janis Owens, brought me a signed copy of "My Losing Season". It is a prized possession and sits proudly on my desk. I just finished "A Low Country Heart" absolutely fantastic!!!! Thanks for letting me share!!
Pat's books are so hard to put down - they haunt your sleep in a good way. I'm about to start South of Broad and am so looking forward to another masterpiece.
Beach Music was bittersweet and I'm almost positive I'll feel the same about this one. Thank you Mr. Conroy for your wonderful books!
Beach Music was bittersweet and I'm almost positive I'll feel the same about this one. Thank you Mr. Conroy for your wonderful books!
My son, who is 45 and reads only what appears on a "phone” or a computer, and I were conversing via e-mail this afternoon when I mentioned the Sea Islands. He was not familiar with them, and, of course, the talk led to Pat Conroy and his works. He became immediately interested, even though he is not a "book reader".
I had told him stories from Mr. Conroy’s books...the young mother with two children watching the sunset and the Moonrise, The Great Santini, My Losing Season. Now he is interested in reading more, and I told him that I would like to read them with him, but I cannot.
Two years ago I was diagnosed with glaucoma and I have had to put down my precious books... all of them... but I would, if I had a choice of some to read (not to listen to) Conroy’s would be at the top of the list... especially now that I have awakened a glimmer of interest in my son.
I had told him stories from Mr. Conroy’s books...the young mother with two children watching the sunset and the Moonrise, The Great Santini, My Losing Season. Now he is interested in reading more, and I told him that I would like to read them with him, but I cannot.
Two years ago I was diagnosed with glaucoma and I have had to put down my precious books... all of them... but I would, if I had a choice of some to read (not to listen to) Conroy’s would be at the top of the list... especially now that I have awakened a glimmer of interest in my son.
I’ve read Beach Music three times, the Prince of Tides twice. When I close my eyes, I can see the Piazza Farnese coming to life with the first light of the sun. It’s breathtaking. At the same time, I can walk the Street of Tides and imagine the aromas of Colleton. Pat Conroy’s dexterity with verse draws the reader into the story like no other author I have ever read. I will borrow a line from the Prince of Tides and take literary license because it perfectly expresses my feelings once I’ve read a Pat Conroy novel. “His secret, we would discover, was that once you have traveled (through one of Pat’s novels), the voyage never ends, but is played over and over again in the quietest chambers, that the mind can never break off from the journey.”
When I read Pat Conroy, it is not uncommon for me to stop and breathe in his poetry, again and again and again. I then say aloud to myself, Lord have mercy, that man could write!
I arrived in Bluffton today for the first time and I feel like I have been here before. Of course! In Conroy’s books. “The Water is Wide” and “Beach Music” made particular impressions on me. His humanity came shining through his perfect and unique combinations of words. RIP Pat.
I have just recently become so endeared by Pats books since my youngest son entered the Citadel this year as a knob. My husband ordered The Lords of Discipline for us to enjoy (since we had a Knob) and my breath was taken away at Pat's beautiful storytelling! I’ve never read an author that brings such passion to his writing with a poetic choice of words, that you can see his life story unfolding between the pages.
Then I was in the right time at the right place. Travelers Rest, SC. An book collector, Jim, who owned My Sisters Store had a first edition, signed copy of My Losing Season. I fell in love and bought it right away. My husband read it and I’m currently reading it.
My husband then mentioned that he read The Boo in elementary school and he remembered it moving him deeply as being one of his favorite reads.
It’s tough to find Pats hardcover books in print. And for good reason. Sooooo, I came across The Boo on Amazon, through a small book store. Inside it is signed. (I’m certain the seller had no idea it was signed since I got it very cheap) It reads “Welcome Lamb. The Boo.” Of course my heart wants it to be Lt Colonel Nugent Courvoisie! **Update-the website monitors confirmed it is his signature**
I will be reading all his books!
Thank you for maintaining this website! God Bless!
Then I was in the right time at the right place. Travelers Rest, SC. An book collector, Jim, who owned My Sisters Store had a first edition, signed copy of My Losing Season. I fell in love and bought it right away. My husband read it and I’m currently reading it.
My husband then mentioned that he read The Boo in elementary school and he remembered it moving him deeply as being one of his favorite reads.
It’s tough to find Pats hardcover books in print. And for good reason. Sooooo, I came across The Boo on Amazon, through a small book store. Inside it is signed. (I’m certain the seller had no idea it was signed since I got it very cheap) It reads “Welcome Lamb. The Boo.” Of course my heart wants it to be Lt Colonel Nugent Courvoisie! **Update-the website monitors confirmed it is his signature**
I will be reading all his books!
Thank you for maintaining this website! God Bless!
Pat,
I miss your beautiful words, love of language, and your immense talent which cultivates a writer in all of us. Rest in perfect peace.
I miss your beautiful words, love of language, and your immense talent which cultivates a writer in all of us. Rest in perfect peace.
I have downloaded all of Pat Conroy's books on my Kindle. I enjoy reading them and marking the passages that are so beautifully written.
It is a blessing and a curse to have read Pat Conroy's books: blessing is clear for us all, but the curse part is that after reading all of the books, you have a hard time finding another author that can mesmerize you like Conroy. Nowadays I find myself reading books for the first 50 pages and then totally bored giving up... if anybody has good ideas to help me out of this misery by revealing some other conroy-style-authors, PLEASE help!
Pat Conroy is the only author I ever idolized. I never knew him, never met him, but I loved the words he could string together to make me feel drunk with the heady pleasure of reading his books. He saved my life once, and one of my life's regrets was not telling him so.
At the lowest point in my life, my husband had died soon after a deadly diagnosis. I questioned whether I could go on living. Of course, my children and family topped the list of reasons why I must. However, profoundly selfish, the piercing truth reminded me, "If I were dead, I'd never get to read Pat Conroy again.”
At the lowest point in my life, my husband had died soon after a deadly diagnosis. I questioned whether I could go on living. Of course, my children and family topped the list of reasons why I must. However, profoundly selfish, the piercing truth reminded me, "If I were dead, I'd never get to read Pat Conroy again.”