Beach Music

A Novel

By: Pat Conroy

Narrated by: Peter MacNicol

Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

From the contemporary ruins of the American South to the ancient ruins of Rome, and from the unutterable horrors of the Holocaust to the lingering trauma of Vietnam, Beach Music sings with life's pain and glory. Jack McCall, an American expatriate in Rome with his young daughter, is trying to find some peace after his wife's suicide. But his solitude is disturbed by the appearance of his sister-in-law, who begs him to return home. And once there, he finds himself drawn into a painful, intimate search for the one haunting secret in his family's past that can heal his anguished heart.

©1995 Pat Conroy (P)1995 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, a Division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.

I just loved it.

Would you consider the audio edition of Beach Music to be better than the print version?

I could not read through the book. so no comparison.

What did you like best about this story?

The idea of love for the home town.

What about Peter MacNicol’s performance did you like?

Yes! First time I found a better reader than Frank Muller.

If you could rename Beach Music, what would you call it?

Last dance at the beach

Any additional comments?

How I wish Peter would do unabridged version recording of this book.

Excellent story, but ...

This is my favorite of Pat Conroy’s books. It’s a compelling, rich story with a full range of feelings and experiences. The reader is excellent too. I found the occasional musical interludes to be annoying and distracting though. At times it was hard to hear the dialogue over it.

What a disappointment!

I have read Pat Conroy before, and this book (and the audbible version) was so bad, I am compelled to write my first review.

I should say that my biggest issue with the Audible version was the background music behind the reader. It was annoying, entirely too distracting. Hippie music, suspense music..it was all in there, and at times it was too loud!

I forced myself to finish this audiobook, while I really liked the storyline with his friend the priest, (but even that got a bit much to swallow after a fashion..)I felt the rest of the characters didn't really grab me. Frankly, most of them were downright dispicable! The mentally ill brother and his antics was over the top, as was the final letter from his dearly departed, selfish, self serving wife. I was so annoyed as this book ended.

Ghastly

This book was overwritten and maudlin. People don't talk in long, sweeping paragraphs. The ending was an artificial set up for the author to tell us what happened. It was amateur hour for Conroy. And then it went on and on and on as if the author just couldn't bear to wrap things up. The only good thing about this audible book is that that it was abridged. I wouldn't have finished it if it hadn't been required reading for my book club.

Ok if you've never read the book

This version of Beach Music is mediocre. I absolutely loved the book, and this abridged version loses a lot of the essence of the original. The narrator also distracts from the story with his breathy, somewhat obscene phone call kind of voice. Overall, not worth it.

big disappointment

I have read so many wonderful reviews of Conroy that this download was to be my vacation treat. The music was so very distracting that it ruined the experience.

Absolutely grand

Loved it, loved it, loved it

Pure Melodrama

Out of the 162 books that I have listened to, this was the worst - pure melodrama. The only reason I finished it was for respect to the person who recommended it, hoping that at some point it would get better, but it never did.

Terrible production, mediocre book

The producers of this book seemed bent on ruining what is otherwise a very capable reading by inserting random music clips. One would assume this was for dramatic effect, but the volume is far too loud -- often drowning out the reader -- and the music rarely seems related to the story. I've listened to many audio books, and I've never before come across such an amateurish production.
As for the story, I agree with the reviewer who called it pure melodrama. The characters are mostly one-dimensional. We're told who to like and dislike with no possibility of confusion. Also, because the main character is a food critic, the author uses some ridiculous food similies that left me shaking my head.
I chose this book because it's on my son's summer reading list for high school English. I can only assume his teacher chose it as an example of heavy-handed narrative.