Beach Music

A Novel

By: Pat Conroy

Narrated by: Jonathan Marosz

Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Pat Conroy is without doubt America's favorite storyteller, a writer who portrays the anguished truth of the human heart and the painful secrets of families in richly lyrical prose and unforgettable narratives.

Now, in Beach Music, he tells of the dark memories that haunt generations, in a story that spans South Carolina and Rome and reaches back into the unutterable terrors of the Holocaust.

Beach Music is about Jack McCall, an American living in Rome with his young daughter, trying to find peace after the recent trauma of his wife's suicide. But his solitude is disturbed by the appearance of his sister-in-law, who begs him to return home, and of two school friends asking for his help in tracking down another classmate who went underground as a Vietnam protester and never resurfaced. These requests launch Jack on a journey that encompasses the past and the present in both Europe and the American South, and that leads him to shocking--and ultimately liberating--truths.

Told with deep feeling and trademark Conroy humor, Beach Music is powerful and compulsively readable. It is another masterpiece in the legendary list of classics that his body of work has already become.

©2009 Pat Conroy (P)2009 Random House

Critic reviews

"Astonishing...stunning...the range of passions and subjects that brings life to every page is almost endless." (The Washington Post Book World)

“Reading Pat Conroy is like watching Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel.” (Houston Chronicle)

“Magnificent... Beach Music is clearly Conroy’s best.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

Melodious prose

The characters of Pat Conroy are always replete with tragedy. There are moments of happiness and the damaged characters manage to trudge through the often predicaments life deals them. I absolutely love the prose of Pat Conroy. His magical play of words flow like the rivers of which he often writes. To listen to his descriptions offers smells, tastes, sounds and even touch. A wonderful book that takes the listener to South Carolina & Rome during the twentieth century and its horrors of war, Jim Crow, poverty, wealth , love and misunderstandings.

Moving and beautifully written

I love Pat Conroy's writing. I love his ability to tell a story with words so lush you can feel them and taste them. I love his ability to create characters that are so full of humanity that they make you laugh and cry right along with them. I love his ability to tackle difficult themes like racism and dysfunction in people and families. I love that he isn't afraid to be both amazing and disgusting while his plot twists and turns through the pages of his novels. Beach Music is all of these things.

But I only gave it four stars because interlaced with the complex story of Jack, who is trying to heal from his wife's suicide while also loving his mother to the end of her life, were too many side stories that didn't really move the overall story forward. Some of the stories about Nazi Germany were interesting, and necessary to understand Shyla's character, and the detail was so complete as to bring those stories as alive as the rest of the book, but it became a distraction from the real story. The "theater" chapter towards the end was very tedious and did little more than to tell the story of the young-adult Jack and his childhood friends. It shed some light on Shyla's angst, but the tool of the theater fell flat.

All in all, it was another good summer ready, another beautifully written and lovingly told story, but it wasn't my favorite. Time to find the next Conroy gem.

The beauty of life .

Life is so many things . Up and down good and bad a constant duality to create balance . No matter how you experience it at the end of the day it is still beautiful and worth it .

Great story

What made the experience of listening to Beach Music the most enjoyable?

The multi-layered story that goes from the South to Italy and the past to the present.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The character of Lucy is my favorite - a strong and determined woman and a real character!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Lucy was being treated for cancer....very touching and also the mock trial with the priest.

Any additional comments?

This is one of my favorite books of all time and to be able to listen to it as well as read it is a true bonus. I was so glad when it finally became available on audible and on Kindle.

pat Conroy never disappoints

Every novel he has ever written has been epic and beautiful and told with weakness and strength, love and hate intermingled. His stories are complicated and beautiful and broken and whole at the same time.

Captivating and funny

The story kept me coming back for more as Jack lives in the present and re-tells the past.

Beautiful

This is one of Conroy’s best. Magnificent in scope of history an human emotion and written in beautiful evocative language.

One of the best books I’ve ever read.

I re-read this every few years. Pat Conroy at his best. Some people gave poor reviews about the narrator but I thought he did a great job. Greatly enjoyed listening to the book and as always I am sorry when the book comes to an end.

Really good story which does a great job at transporting the reader

This author has an amazing ability to use his descriptive settings to transport me to both a different time and place. One of my favorites.

I adore this book.

I love Pat Conroy. I have read Beach Music 3 times and listened to it once. The story telling is so intriguing.