Product Description

By the author of "Prince of Tides". This book tells of a family haunted by dark memories that reach back into the terrors of the Holocaust. Jack McCall is taken on a journey that encompasses the past and present in both Europe and the American South.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #161925 in Books
• Published on: 1996-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 779 pages

From the Back Cover
With the spectacular worldwide success of his unforgettable novel The Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy established himself as a major international writer. He now returns with Beach Music, the powerful story of a family haunted by memories that reach back into a troubled past.

Jack McCall, an American living in Rome with his young daughter, is trying to find peace after the recent trauma of his wife's suicide. But his search for solitude is disturbed by his sister-in-law, and by two schoolfriends who want his help in tracking down another classmate who went underground as a Vietnam protestor and never resurfaced. As Jack begins a journey that encompasses the past and the present in both Europe and the American South, he also begins a quest that will lead him to shocking and ultimately liberating truths.

About the Author
Pat Conroy
Pat Conroy's first novel, The Water is Wide, was filmed as 'Conrack', starring Jon Voigt, and came out of his time as a schoolteacher on a black island in South Carolina. Pat Conroy grew up on Marine bases around the American South and The Great Santini is based on his family life with his father and was made into a memorable film starring Robert Duvall. He eventually went to The Citadel Military school in Charleston, an experience that led to his remarkable novel, The Lords of Discipline, which was also made into a film. His international bestselling novel, The Prince of Tides, was made into a film starring Barbra Streisand. His latest novel is Beach Music. Pat Conroy lives in San Francisco.

Customer Reviews

MUSIC TO MY EARS
To read a book by Pat Conroy is to come to the realization that so much of everything else I read, and think is good, is truly just an appetizer getting me ready for the main course -- which is what Conroy is. Every sentence you read lures you into the web of Conroy's storytelling. This is a book that will take you from the piazzas in Rome to the low country of South Carolina. You will fall so deeply in love with each setting that you couldn't possibly decide which place you would prefer to live.

Every character is a tortured soul who has a tale to tell -- one more heartbreaking than the other. The main story follows Jack McCall, who flees to Rome with his young daughter Leah after his beloved wife Shyla has committed suicide. He leaves behind a bevy of colorful family and friends in an effort to escape his torment and begin a new life in a new land. As a travel writer by trade, Jack is able to pick up and live wherever he chooses. It is a telegram from a family member that will finally bring Jack back to South Carolina to face his demons and learn the stories of all those he loves.

Conroy has the ability of dropping crumbs along the way leading you to each character's hidden story. He touches on times in history involving the Holocaust and the Vietnam War -- each decade so real that I don't even want to think about the horrors. But it is these horrors that have come to shape the characters whose cards have been dealt and whose hands must be played. They are all part of a finely interwoven story with South Carolina as the stage for the grand finale.

In reading the book, I can only wonder if the author can write the last twenty pages and not cry himself. I don't usually cry when reading a book but I must admit that this one did me in. Conroy so neatly ties up all the loose ends so that the reader feels no need for a sequel as they are confident that the lives of the characters they have come to love will go on.

While this is a book about tortured souls, it is also a book that holds great promise filled with love and hope and devotion and yes...redemption. We always talk about the books that will stay with us forever. This is one for me...music to my ears...Beach Music that is.

It's about people. Those we love, hate, admire and distrust.
Beach Music is the book I go back to time and time again. I think it's because, when I got to the end of the book, I felt like I knew the characters. It's about people. It's about the relationships we have in our lives - family, friends, enemies - and how those people affect us and change our lives. There's detail - you see the "view" that the author describes but there's also feelings and emotions. Described as they are, not as cliches or over-used lines, but simply and truthfully. It's a great book - if you enjoy watching lives unfold - it's for you.

The Master of Dialogue
Pat Conroys' superb novel of family relations and tragedy is remarkable for many reasons. The dialogue is sparkingly witty, poignante and awakening. The personalities each retain their own morals and views of their own worlds whilst still evolving in their own right. The story line is everything one could ask of a novelist, a sheer delight. Here, there is something for every human being interested in the tragi/comedie of life. ENJOY!