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.
wrote on May 9, 2021
at
9:44 pm
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.
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
You are a faithful reader. We thank you for continuing to be a Conroy supporter.
wrote on April 5, 2021
at
1:09 am
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.
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
Peter Francis welcome to 'Pat Conroy' - I say this as a welcome to a world you have not heard of before or ever experienced. As I said decades ago you will raise and fall with the greatness of the English language at its best... like riding an unique surf wave coming to your shore. You can see the order of his books on this site... Read whatever order you decide but starting with past to the latest will give you an unprecedented look at his evolution... no matter what you choose you'll be handsomely rewarded...
wrote on April 4, 2021
at
8:02 am
I love Beach Music and I want to nominate it to be made into a film.
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
From your words to the GOD's ear Robin; it might be possible at some time... Thank you for the good omen!!!
wrote on April 2, 2021
at
10:18 pm
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.
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
Dear Henrietta Blair, we are the "guardians" and the supporters of Pat Conroy presence on the Internet. His family reads and enjoys every word you send to him. Thank you and keep reading Pat's works which are life enhancing literary pearls.
wrote on March 7, 2021
at
11:06 am
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!
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
South of Broad is indeed a great book of Pat's - it has some detractors but it is mostly loved. It is a complex narrative running on various tracks sometimes parallel. I wouldn't be surprised if some smart producer would take it to the screen... Thank you for writing.
wrote on February 23, 2021
at
9:12 pm
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.
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
This is a very poetic message to Pat. I hope he reads these all from the better place where he is...
wrote on February 21, 2021
at
9:50 pm
Love the books.
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
Thank you Tina for writing in the guestbook.
wrote on January 3, 2021
at
11:01 am
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.
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
I should not wonder about these notes to our beloved Pat Conroy... Often times I write something to him... sometimes it gets in a message on his author Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/PatConroyAuthor - I know how others feel as well. We are all part of the same tribe.
Often when we are in Beaufort and cross the long bridge over the Port Royal Sound we (Marly and I Pat's agents and friends) we both say loudly "Lowenstein, Lowenstein" the words with which The Prince of Tides movie ends since it was filmed on that bridge...
Thank you for writing.
Often when we are in Beaufort and cross the long bridge over the Port Royal Sound we (Marly and I Pat's agents and friends) we both say loudly "Lowenstein, Lowenstein" the words with which The Prince of Tides movie ends since it was filmed on that bridge...
Thank you for writing.
wrote on January 2, 2021
at
3:14 am
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.
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
Dear Sandy Paterson - you are right that the family, friends, we the agents and decades long friends, want to hear from Pat's readers, esp from serious readers like you. Pat felt things more deeply than most and was a master at putting his feelings into words. I too wish you would have met him. He would have liked you and your family. You seem to understand how the world can break you but also make you laugh at the absurdities of life.
I know that being deeply understood by readers like you sustained him. And the truth is knowing that people like you exists in this world makes these difficult days a lot easier for the rest of us to bear. Thank you for writing.
I know that being deeply understood by readers like you sustained him. And the truth is knowing that people like you exists in this world makes these difficult days a lot easier for the rest of us to bear. Thank you for writing.
wrote on December 28, 2020
at
3:50 pm
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!!
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
Ronald, We are so very thrilled that you are sharing your thoughts about Pat here. Janis Owens is a dear friend of ours too. I am Mihai Radulescu who with Marly Rusoff are Pat's literary agents and friends for decades. I maintain this site and Pat's Facebook author page here https://www.facebook.com/PatConroyAuthor where you can see a lot of his fans...
Thank you for writing!
Thank you for writing!
wrote on December 21, 2020
at
6:48 pm
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!
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
Becca, we are familiar with the Decatur Book Festival which was initially set up and run for a great number of years by Daren Wang a friend and now an author of our agency https://rusoffagency.com
South of Broad is an extraordinary novel quite complicated and intricate in its multi-plot threads. I wrote a review on it that is now on this site under "blogs". Stay close and we'll post some news on this novel...
South of Broad is an extraordinary novel quite complicated and intricate in its multi-plot threads. I wrote a review on it that is now on this site under "blogs". Stay close and we'll post some news on this novel...
wrote on November 29, 2020
at
4:28 pm
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.
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for you message. Pat's family enjoys reading these messages from Pat's fans. We wish you a successful way to deal with glaucoma - today medicine might be able to help...
wrote on November 23, 2020
at
1:16 pm
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.”
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
Obviously yours, like mine and others' writing was influenced by Pat's elegant style. Thank you for posting this great message. Pat's family enjoys reading the guestbook.
wrote on November 10, 2020
at
1:57 am
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!
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
James Myers I'd like you to know that Pat Conroy family reads these messages which provide them solace. Thank you for posting.
wrote on October 13, 2020
at
1:52 am
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.
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
Lorraine, these places in the lowcountry are gorgeous. You should visit Pat's Beaufort where you'll find lowcountry at its best. However you'll find good pizza in some places but no place will ever match Johnny Pizzeria on Lincoln Avenue in Mount Vernon, NY - I've been in Beaufort for a some months now but that is my favorite place... Mount Vernon has other great food places but Johnny take the prize! Thank you for liking Pat Conroy; do not miss his other masterpieces...
wrote on October 7, 2020
at
10:33 am
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!
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
Lori, it was a pleasure to help you with the "The Boo" signature. In fact I did not have it myself but Cassandra, Pat's wife who found a signed book and took a picture of the signature and send it... Now we both have the confirmation. Indeed it is hard to find Pat's books in hard cover. You might want to try Penguin Random House web site, they sell books there too. It's been a pleasure to interact with you and I wish the best luck to the "Knob", my thanks for the kind words; we love Pat Conroy...
wrote on September 19, 2020
at
3:35 pm
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.
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
Thank you for the kind words Rachel from...
wrote on September 13, 2020
at
1:58 pm
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.
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
Cathy you will run out of Kindle's memory - there are thousands of beautiful pages in Pat's work - don't overlook the cookbook - I had an exchange in this guest book with another reader about some hysterically hilarious essays there... Good luck you are in for the English language at its best...
wrote on August 28, 2020
at
2:17 am
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!
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
I don't know anybody like Pat Conroy. However he liked his friend Rick Brag (for his humor), Terry Kay and a few others... Thank you for posting, I'll ask Cassandra for more names...
wrote on August 27, 2020
at
6:05 pm
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.”
Agency Reply by: Mihai Radulescu
Linda, I said this about Pat in the past: "Some say grief cannot be shared; it nests inside one’s heart and has no outside help or resolve. " and I see it happened the same with you... We are puzzled that the word still goes around on the very day our hearts are broken... I am certain Pat would have talked to you had you called him... Thank you for sharing this with us.