Customer Reviews

Beach Music

5 star:		(154)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

Wonderful book! I was transported into the sixties, in the south, among a close family of childhood friends. Emotional, yet, not sappy----I couldn't put it down.
This is the third of Conroy's books I have read and I feel---his best!

Conroy blends lots of characters with an exquisite style that pulled me into the world of Beach Music. Beach Music and Prince of Tides were what Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil could have been, but wasn't. His Southern characters and settings are magical.There are some complaints about the plot, but his writing is so exquisite, who cares? Pat Conroy turns emotional turbulence into a mystery plot. I can't wait to find out why his characters are so screwed up. The payoff isn't always as great as the anticipation, but the journey is delicious.

Southern Fiction to dwell in, Mr. Conroy is a talented storyteller and knits together a most amazing novel. Holocaust survivor stories meet a coming of age in the 60s tale, seasoned with sand and sea, betrayals, mental illness and drunkenness, which then evolves into a novel of family, faith, friends and forgiveness. There are numerous vivid and emotionally rich stories within this book, and many social statements. The language is stunningly brilliant, the characterizations are almost caricatures but somehow quite believable. A multilayered book, that not only maps out the city of Rome, but which is rich in the cadence of the South (specifically low country of South Carolina) with side trips to California, Minnesota, the hills of Appalachia, Canada and Nazi occupied Europe. Between the places and the stories, music and food weave in and out, and this was a book I was sad to finish. Crossing my fingers for a film and a soundtrack to go along with it.

Product was satisfactory. Condition of cover was a little less than expected but did not effect the product. Enjoyed the audio book.

Nobody writes about the South like Pat Conroy. This is another "Winner"
the characters are wonderful and believable. I never want his books to end.
I do hope he has another coming soon!!

For a book that curiously begins with an error in the first sentence (the "Silas Pearlman Bridge in Charleston" is really the Silas Pearman Bridge), this is a fine read. Perhaps the change in spelling is literary license. After 500 pages down and 300 to go, I was ready to drive to Charleston and throw the book over the bridge from which Shyla leapt. However, I'm afraid of heights and, since the book was heavy enough to kill a whale if it hit him on the head, I decided to just finish it. It was a richly rewarding experience.

Still, I was left with the feeling that I had read three different books rolled into one. The material relating to the holocaust could have been incorporated into one standalone book, the story of Jack and his friends would have made a great vacation read all by itself, and the story of Jack and his family would have been a wonderful third book. Beach Music is a good thing, but maybe too much of a good thing. Anyway, I loved the story but wished the descriptions of food, marshes, cities, sunsets, sunrises, so forth and so on could have been shorter. At 800 pages, even a masterpiece can be laborious. No doubt though, Conroy should never be speed-read, just as Mozart should never be fast-played.

I first read this book several years ago and then again about three years ago and now again. As a southerner with a love/hate relationship with the south, Conroy was right on target with his character and location discriptions. The book gets slow at times but just sticking with it pays off. The only thing I hated about it was finishing it. It draws you in and you just want it to continue forever.

I almost put this book down when the first chapter became too descriptive but fortunately I did not! I laughed, I cried and I became totally immersed in the character's lives. I was so sorry when the book came to an end and I look forward to the next Pat Conroy novel.

Reminiscent of Jackson McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD or some of William Styon's works, BEACH MUSIC is a tour-de-force of emotions. Conroy is one of the few authors who can so perfectly draw chacters that we both hate and love at the same time, and set them in situations that take our breath away. I've always considered PRINCE OF TIDES to be his greatest work, but after reading this one, there's no contest!

I love a book that you can really sink your teeth into. I love a great story that offers a story within a story, espescially when it eventually completes a puzzle. I love a satisfying ending, even if it isn't necessarily a happy one.

Beach Music was frustratingly close to all of these things, but it never quite got there. I'm not sure why the author chose to no go the entire mile in many parts of this book. Don't get me wrong: I didn't HATE it. I just think it missed the mark on a lot of points.

The main characters interactions with his family were not quite believable. The conversations and actions seemed forced by the author. I mean, do people really talk this way to each other? I loved the Mother character and thought Conroy did a great job explaining a portion of her background. I kept looking for the rest of it, however, and it never materialized. Same thing with the main characters former in-laws. Explanations never came to be. What exactly happened between him and his mother? In the present tense, they seemed to get along fine but the main character kept deferring to his terrible childhood. There was not even one sentence explaining what was so terrible in the book.

It was ok. I was just kept looking for more. I'm not real excited about reading another Conroy novel. He seems a little lazy to me.