The Death of Santini

The Story of a Father and His Son

By: Pat Conroy

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

In this powerful and intimate memoir, the beloved best-selling author of The Prince of Tides and his father, the inspiration for The Great Santini, find some common ground at long last.

Pat Conroy's father, Donald Patrick Conroy, was a towering figure in his son's life. The Marine Corps fighter pilot was often brutal, cruel, and violent; as Pat says, "I hated my father long before I knew there was an English word for 'hate.'" As the oldest of seven children who were dragged from military base to military base across the South, Pat bore witness to the toll his father's behavior took on his siblings, and especially on his mother, Peg. She was Pat's lifeline to a better world - that of books and culture. But eventually, despite repeated confrontations with his father, Pat managed to claw his way toward a life he could have only imagined as a child.

Pat's great success as a writer has always been intimately linked with the exploration of his family history. While the publication of The Great Santini brought Pat much acclaim, the rift it caused with his father brought even more attention. Their long-simmering conflict burst into the open, fracturing an already battered family. But as Pat tenderly chronicles here, even the oldest of wounds can heal. In the final years of Don Conroy's life, he and his son reached a rapprochement of sorts. Quite unexpectedly, the Santini who had freely doled out physical abuse to his wife and children refocused his ire on those who had turned on Pat over the years. He defended his son's honor.

The Death of Santini is at once a heart-wrenching account of personal and family struggle and a poignant lesson in how the ties of blood can both strangle and offer succor. It is an act of reckoning, an exorcism of demons, but one whose ultimate conclusion is that love can soften even the meanest of men, lending significance to one of the most-often quoted lines from Pat's best-selling novel The Prince of Tides: "In families there are no crimes beyond forgiveness."

©2013 Pat Conroy (P)2013 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Listeners will be moved as they listen to Conroy's latest memoir... The humorous and gut wrenching prologue, read by Conroy himself, transitions perfectly to Dick Hill's delivery of the soul-searching memoir. Hill inhabits all the Conroy family members well, but his shifts between father and son...is where the story soars.” (AudioFile Magazine)

"Despite the inherently bleak nature of so much of this material, Conroy has fashioned a memoir that is vital, large-hearted and often raucously funny. The result is an act of hard-won forgiveness, a deeply considered meditation on the impossibly complex nature of families and a valuable contribution to the literature of fathers and sons." (The Washington Post)

"The Death of Santini instantly reminded me of the decadent pleasures of [Conroy's] language, of his promiscuous gift for metaphor and of his ability, in the finest passages of his fiction, to make the love, hurt or terror a protagonist feels seem to be the only emotion the world could possibly have room for, the rightful center of the trembling universe.... Conroy’s conviction pulls you fleetly through the book, as does the potency of his bond with his family, no matter their sins, their discord, their shortcomings.” (The New York Times Book Review)

A Family's Idiosyncrasies Are What Make A Family

in listening to the portrayal of Conroy's family one can't help but love his and one's own family's idiosyncratic ways. Everytime you want to get angry at one of them, each has their redeeming qualities. Fell in love with Dick Hill's voice. "Stand by for a fighter pilot" will forever echo in my memory.

Raw & explosive view of author's life!

This is a "tell it like it is" story of the life of Pat Conroy's family, specifically involving his father--"THE Great Santini". I believe Conroy is one of the very best of American writers. This story comes from his memories of his life with his family----memories that are admittedly different for each Conroy family member. After years of best sellers with fictitious names telling family stories, this gets to the heart of this family with real names and memories.

I have a special interest in Pat Conroy's writings because my husband was also a '67 Citadel graduate, and one of Boo's Boys (Conroy's first book). Conroy also spoke about his family at a CASA ( Court Appointed Special Advocate--working with abused and neglected children) conference that I attended in Charleston, SC when I was a CASA. Name dropping??-- Pat Conroy wouldn't know me if he ran into me on the street. But, these things have added another level of enjoyment to books that needed nothing additional to become favorites in my library!!

Pat is the eldest of seven children born to a Chicago Irish Catholic highly decorated Marine pilot, and a beautiful daughter of a snake handling religious fanatic from the back woods country and a mother who deserted her four young children to defend for themselves. Pat's young life saw him going from place to place where ever his father was stationed at the time. Violence and love centered a difficult and volition family life, resulting in five of the seven kids eventually trying to commit suicide, with the youngest son eventually succeeding.

But the real beauty of this ranting family life, is the continual love-hate relationship between everyone in the family. After The Great Santini was published, Pat was demonized by most of his family, but his father---"THE Great Santini"---took perverse pleasure in referring to himself by that name for the rest of his life. The movie version somehow brought family members back together again in a mixing bowl of emotions. This book is Pat's version of a famous line from his book, The Prince Of Tides: " in families there are no crimes beyond forgiveness."

Though memories can be different for members of a family who lived through the same events, the raw emotions, and spectacularly open and dramatic telling of this story by Pat Conroy, makes this a timeless story of many families where violence harms and divides families, children and marriages take a beating figuratively and literally, and love and forgiveness manages to inch their way into people's hearts. Though this could have been a morbid tale if told be a different author, Pat Conroy brings this story into the realm of timeless story telling because of the explosive personality of someone who can get right to the heart of a classic tale! Wonderfully told and expertly written!

Better than I remembered

2nd time around for me, after reading it years ago. then it made go get the santini move, this time it just makes me want to write a list of what to pass along to my kids and hoe to die. Conroy my favorite family

Excellent

Pat Conroy ' s books are wonderful but can also be hard to listen too if there's any kind of abuse in your life past or present..I would suggest reading this book last..I just loved the Water is Wide and South of Broad and of course Prince of Tides.

Full Disclosure

I greatly admire Pat Conroy’s transparency in his writing about family relationships. I have enjoyed his other books more than
I did this this title, though I’m not sure how much of my feeling had to do with the Audible narrator. I found his cadence annoyingly reminiscent of Howard Cosell, which is great for sports but,sounded inappropriate to me for this book.

No book Conroy writes is not worth reading.

Would you listen to The Death of Santini again? Why?

I would guess everyone knows that Pat Conroy's fiction is based on his real-life family. The importance of parents is almost as seminal as water in Conroy's fiction. Here we have the real story of Conroy's father, The Great Santini. Conroy the non-fiction writer is never as good as Conroy the novelist. HIs works of fiction, as emotionally difficult as they are, are still transcendental experiences. His works of nonfiction lack the emotional impact and the soaring language found in his novels. But they are never bad reads nor are they ever uninteresting. They are just not as brilliant as his fictional works.If you are unfamiliar with Conroy's fictional work you should read those books first. If you are aware of his fictional work then this book will bring you both joy and facts with which will lead to insight that inform reading his fictional work. While he spends time growing up the son of a dominant and abusive father if you are looking for a primer for each of his factional works you may be disappointed. It is a sort of eulogy to a father who loved the fame his son brought him and to whom his abused son, nonetheless, loved. It is the story of a family with too much mental illness. Conroy does not dwell long on these incidents but he does write of his brother's suicide, his sister's instability as well as his own descent into madness. He does not spare us the gory details of his mother's and father's abusive relationship--hardly a surprise to any reader of Conroy's fictional accounts of their marriage. You get additional details of this ultimate outsider to bring to his fiction. You see the social slights small down elites inflict on both him and his family and how these acts of social violence were met. You read the familiar Greek tragedy that make up the relationship of the Conroy siblings. You meet the Chicago Conroys and recognize the meilleure that created the Great Santini. However bad your own family experience growing up you will again thank your stars that you did not grow up in this family or these siblings. The saddest part of this book is that I fear it may be the last published work of this great writer.

A must read for fans

What did you like best about The Death of Santini? What did you like least?

Anyone who has read most of Conroy's books has to read this one because his father loomed large over virtually all of his work and everyone wants to know how it ends. However, I would not suggest that someone not into Conroy buy the book. It really doesn't have the strength to stand alone.

Which character – as performed by Dick Hill – was your favorite?

Dick Hill is a decent reader, but no one can read a Conroy book like Conroy.

Do you think The Death of Santini needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

As to whether there should be a followup book, there can't be - as Conroy died recently, and from a reader's standpoint, his collection is complete. I enjoyed all of his books except Beach Music, which to me is a sore thumb. After reading it I felt like finding his editor to shake him senseless.

Any additional comments?

Pat Conroy shouldn't be underrated. He was an excellent writer who wrote for all the right reasons. He was a true Southern writer in the same way Steinbeck was a Western writer - he made the land, sea and marshes come alive. We miss him.

From military spouse

Bravo Pat. So many things resonated with me and my children whose own father a West Pointer loved his children through their mother. Emotionally distant and a raging alcoholic after retiring.
I will send the book to all my children. One injured Marine and one Air Force officer, your kindred spirits. Your courage to write this book will let them know they are not alone.
The biggest aha moment for me was the chapter about Santinis missions to kill as a fighter pilot and then come home to vulnerable children.
It must be confusing for warriors to navigate worlds and the families pay the price. And then to honor these warriors as heroes. My wounded warrior son says don't thank me and don't call me a hero.
War is sick. Thank you for allowing us to have a glimpse of life for those of us who have loved the Warriors

What a Life

Conroy's memoir delivers the excellent writing found in his novels. There's no mystery about what inspired his stories but there's plenty of new info here for those interested in his life.

Another Great One

I listened to this shortly after the passing of my favorite author, Pat Conroy. I cried at the end, listening to The Great Santini's eulogy. excellent