Pat Conroy

Last night Laura and I watched "The Water is Wide", which was a movie based on Pat Conroy's book. I have always loved Pat Conroy. My senior year in high school my English teacher had us read "The Lords of Discipline". I remember thinking when he told us about this book I wasn't too sure about it. When I heard the title I thought it was a science fiction book. And I have never liked science fiction. Well, within a few pages I realized this was a really good story. I finished the book by the end of the week. My English teacher knew I had finished the book early and told me that if I really liked this book I would probably enjoy reading his other book which was getting ready to be released in the theatres as a movies...The Prince of Tides. I remember going and getting the book and not being able to set it down. It was one of the best books I had ever read. When the movie came out my English teacher said he would take some of us to go see the movie as long as we had permission from our parents. (It is rated R) I was in lovee with the movie. I went and saw it probably 10 times in the theatre. Everytime my friends wanted to go see a movie I would say, "let's go see the Prince of Tides". Those were the good ol' days when I had $15-20 to burn in a week without thinking about it.

So, last night we sat and watched the movie. We had seen commericals about it and Laura also said it looked good. This story was based on his one year of teaching on a small island off of South Carolina and he was teaching poor black kids. It was an intense movie anyway, but then you add that it was presented by Hallmark. The first commercial was a killer. It showed this older man going to a school at night and he was learning how to read. At the end of the commercial (which was about 3 minutes long) you see him going to his closet and getting out a box of cards he had received throughout the years. He pulls out this one that is from his daughter and he reads the card out loud. We were bawling by the end of this commercial. It was so touching.

Pat Conroy's last book was put out in 1995. It was a very, very intense book called "Beach Music". I think it took me a year to get through it. It was so hard to read because it was very detailed. I think the book is 900 pages long. Everytime I go into a Barnes and Noble or any other bookstore I ask them if he has anything new coming out. I think he has written one book since then, but it's a nonfiction book about his year playing basketball. For some reason I have never bought the book.

What I love about his books are that they are mostly about his life and his struggles through life. Reminds me a lot of James Frey. If James Frey was smart he would have published his book as fiction since he changed so much in it. Pat Conroy writes about what he knows best..himself and his life. If you have never read any of his books you should. The Prince of Tides movie was awesome, but the book is so much better.

I think I am going to go reread one of his books. They always make me feel that I can get over anything.