The Great Santini

There's something about these old re-reads that gets me. It might be that so many of the recent books that I have read don't have the power to rope me in and then rip me up a bit. This is not the best book ever, but it has a power that is lacking in so much of recent writing. This was moving, funny,......more

Re-read this with On the Southern Literary Trail. The difference from reading this as a young woman with family in the military, and then as an older woman after serving in the Navy as an officer and also being married to a Naval officer and raising kids both while on active duty for 12 years & as a......more

Pat Conroy's thinly disguised autobiographical tale featuring Bull Meecham a hardcore Marine fighter pilot as the domineering and abusive husband and father of an oft relocating military family. The story is told by eldest son Ben, a teenager in the 1950's who is never quite able to appease his fath......more

Of all the Conroys I've read so far, this is my least favorite. The book jacket describes Bull Meacham as someone you should hate but will wind up loving, anyway - but that was not my experience. I found very little loveable about "The Great Santini". The thing that amazed me was how brave his family......more

This semi-fictional story is Pat Conroy's time growing up in Beaufort, South Carolina. I say "semi-fictional" because he transposed much of his life during that time (as a teenager) into the story's main character, Ben Meechum. It is a story of frustration, abuse, confusion, loyalty, and the hard ro......more