-
The Death of Santini
- The Story of a Father and His Son
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $35.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
South of Broad
- By: Pat Conroy
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 20 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leopold Bloom King has been raised in a family shattered - and shadowed - by tragedy. Lonely and adrift, he searches for something to sustain him and finds it among a tightly knit group of outsiders. Surviving marriages happy and troubled, unrequited loves and unspoken longings, hard-won successes and devastating breakdowns, as well as Charleston, South Carolina’s dark legacy of racism and class divisions, these friends will endure until a final test forces them to face something none of them are prepared for.
-
-
More please?
- By Terry P. Klein on 09-29-09
By: Pat Conroy
-
My Losing Season
- By: Pat Conroy
- Narrated by: Chuck Montgomery
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During one unforgettable season as a Citadel cadet, Pat Conroy becomes part of a basketball team that is ultimately destined to fail. And yet for a military kid who grew up on the move, the Bulldogs provide a sanctuary from the cold, abrasive father who dominates his life- and a crucible for becoming his own man.
-
-
Great Listen
- By Sue on 01-01-10
By: Pat Conroy
-
Beach Music
- A Novel
- By: Pat Conroy
- Narrated by: Jonathan Marosz
- Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Memorable
- By Ella on 03-14-10
By: Pat Conroy
-
A Lowcountry Heart
- Reflections on a Writing Life
- By: Pat Conroy
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Lowcountry Heart: Reflections on a Writing Life by Pat Conroy is a new nonfiction collection of letters, interviews, and magazine articles spanning Conroy's long literary career, supplemented by touching pieces from the beloved author's many friends. The book collects some of Conroy's most charming pieces of short nonfiction, many of them addressed directly to his listeners, with his habitual greeting: "Hey, out there".
-
-
Pat Conroy was "A Great Love"
- By Susie Q on 11-16-16
By: Pat Conroy
-
My Reading Life
- By: Pat Conroy
- Narrated by: Pat Conroy
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author Pat Conroy acknowledges the books that have shaped him and celebrates the profound effect reading has had on his life. Pat Conroy, the beloved American storyteller, is a voracious reader. Starting as a childhood passion that bloomed into a life-long companion, reading has been Conroy’s portal to the world, both to the farthest corners of the globe and to the deepest chambers of the human soul. His interests range widely, from Milton to Tolkien, Philip Roth to Thucydides, encompassing poetry, history, philosophy, and any mesmerizing tale of his native South.
-
-
Conroy shares his storytelling
- By Howard on 11-17-10
By: Pat Conroy
-
Sparring Partners
- By: John Grisham
- Narrated by: Jeff Daniels, Ethan Hawke, January LaVoy, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Grisham is the acknowledged master of the legal thriller. In his first collection of novellas, law is a common thread, but America’s favorite storyteller has several surprises in store. “Homecoming” takes us back to Ford County. Jake Brigance is back, but he’s not in the courtroom. In “Strawberry Moon,” we meet Cody Wallace, a young death row inmate only three hours away from execution. The “Sparring Partners” are the Malloy brothers, Kirk and Rusty, two young lawyers who inherited a once prosperous firm when its founder, their father, was sent to prison.
-
-
Poor Jeff Daniels
- By Linda Wingrove on 05-31-22
By: John Grisham
-
South of Broad
- By: Pat Conroy
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 20 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leopold Bloom King has been raised in a family shattered - and shadowed - by tragedy. Lonely and adrift, he searches for something to sustain him and finds it among a tightly knit group of outsiders. Surviving marriages happy and troubled, unrequited loves and unspoken longings, hard-won successes and devastating breakdowns, as well as Charleston, South Carolina’s dark legacy of racism and class divisions, these friends will endure until a final test forces them to face something none of them are prepared for.
-
-
More please?
- By Terry P. Klein on 09-29-09
By: Pat Conroy
-
My Losing Season
- By: Pat Conroy
- Narrated by: Chuck Montgomery
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During one unforgettable season as a Citadel cadet, Pat Conroy becomes part of a basketball team that is ultimately destined to fail. And yet for a military kid who grew up on the move, the Bulldogs provide a sanctuary from the cold, abrasive father who dominates his life- and a crucible for becoming his own man.
-
-
Great Listen
- By Sue on 01-01-10
By: Pat Conroy
-
Beach Music
- A Novel
- By: Pat Conroy
- Narrated by: Jonathan Marosz
- Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Memorable
- By Ella on 03-14-10
By: Pat Conroy
-
A Lowcountry Heart
- Reflections on a Writing Life
- By: Pat Conroy
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Lowcountry Heart: Reflections on a Writing Life by Pat Conroy is a new nonfiction collection of letters, interviews, and magazine articles spanning Conroy's long literary career, supplemented by touching pieces from the beloved author's many friends. The book collects some of Conroy's most charming pieces of short nonfiction, many of them addressed directly to his listeners, with his habitual greeting: "Hey, out there".
-
-
Pat Conroy was "A Great Love"
- By Susie Q on 11-16-16
By: Pat Conroy
-
My Reading Life
- By: Pat Conroy
- Narrated by: Pat Conroy
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author Pat Conroy acknowledges the books that have shaped him and celebrates the profound effect reading has had on his life. Pat Conroy, the beloved American storyteller, is a voracious reader. Starting as a childhood passion that bloomed into a life-long companion, reading has been Conroy’s portal to the world, both to the farthest corners of the globe and to the deepest chambers of the human soul. His interests range widely, from Milton to Tolkien, Philip Roth to Thucydides, encompassing poetry, history, philosophy, and any mesmerizing tale of his native South.
-
-
Conroy shares his storytelling
- By Howard on 11-17-10
By: Pat Conroy
-
Sparring Partners
- By: John Grisham
- Narrated by: Jeff Daniels, Ethan Hawke, January LaVoy, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Grisham is the acknowledged master of the legal thriller. In his first collection of novellas, law is a common thread, but America’s favorite storyteller has several surprises in store. “Homecoming” takes us back to Ford County. Jake Brigance is back, but he’s not in the courtroom. In “Strawberry Moon,” we meet Cody Wallace, a young death row inmate only three hours away from execution. The “Sparring Partners” are the Malloy brothers, Kirk and Rusty, two young lawyers who inherited a once prosperous firm when its founder, their father, was sent to prison.
-
-
Poor Jeff Daniels
- By Linda Wingrove on 05-31-22
By: John Grisham
-
Tell Me a Story
- My Life with Pat Conroy
- By: Cassandra King Conroy
- Narrated by: Susan Bennett
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cassandra King was leading a quiet life as a professor, divorced "Sunday wife" of a preacher, and debut novelist when she met Pat Conroy. Their friendship bloomed into a tentative, long-distance relationship. Pat and Cassandra ultimately married, partly because Pat hated the commute from coastal South Carolina to her native Alabama. It was a union that would last 18 years, until the beloved literary icon’s death from pancreatic cancer in 2016. In this poignant, intimate memoir, the woman he called King Ray looks back at her love affair with a natural-born storyteller.
-
-
Thank you.
- By TWP on 08-17-20
-
My Exaggerated Life
- Pat Conroy
- By: Katherine Clark
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett, Wendy Tremont King
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pat Conroy's memoirs and autobiographical novels contain a great deal about his life, but there is much he hasn't revealed to readers and listeners - until now. My Exaggerated Life is the product of a special collaboration between this great American author and oral biographer Katherine Clark, who recorded two hundred hours of conversations with Conroy before he passed away in 2016. In the spring and summer of 2014, the two spoke for an hour or more on the phone every day. No subject was off limits, including aspects of his tumultuous life he had never before revealed.
-
-
Excellent Book and performance
- By Tracy on 12-06-19
By: Katherine Clark
-
Recipes From My Life
- Unabridged Selections from the Pat Conroy Cookbook
- By: Pat Conroy, Suzanne Williamson Pollak
- Narrated by: Pat Conroy
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It all started 30 years ago with a chance purchase of The Escoffier Cookbook, an unlikely and daunting introduction for the beginner. But Conroy was more than up to the task. He set out with unwavering determination to learn the basics of French cooking, stocks and dough, and moved swiftly on to veal demi-glace and pâte brisée.
-
-
Hearing my favorite author read his own book!
- By Barbara Kreykenbohm on 06-10-14
By: Pat Conroy, and others
-
The Lincoln Highway
- A Novel
- By: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Marin Ireland, Dion Graham
- Length: 16 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car.
-
-
I'm totally opposite
- By Meaghan Bynum on 10-10-21
By: Amor Towles
-
The Judge's List
- A Novel
- By: John Grisham
- Narrated by: Mary-Louise Parker, John Grisham
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Whistler, Lacy Stoltz investigated a corrupt judge who was taking millions in bribes from a crime syndicate. She put the criminals away, but only after being attacked and nearly killed. Three years later, and approaching forty, she is tired of her work for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct and ready for a change.
-
-
THE NARRATION IS FINE!
- By JTH on 10-20-21
By: John Grisham
-
East of Eden
- By: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families - the Trasks and the Hamiltons - whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
-
-
Why have I avoided this Beautiful Book???
- By Kelly on 03-25-17
By: John Steinbeck
-
The Sunday Wife
- By: Cassandra King
- Narrated by: Joan Allen
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Married for 20 years to the Reverend Benjamin Lynch, a handsome, ambitious minister of the prestigious Methodist church, Dean Lynch has never quite adjusted her temperament to the demands of the role of a "Sunday wife." When her husband is assigned to a larger and more demanding community in the Florida panhandle, Dean becomes fast friends with Augusta Holderfield, a woman with a secret past whose good looks and extravagant habits immediately entrance Dean, much to Ben's disgust.
-
-
A bit sappy
- By Slabtown on 09-14-16
By: Cassandra King
-
Low Country
- A Novel
- By: Anne Rivers Siddons
- Narrated by: Cristine McMurdo-Wallis
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Caroline Venable has everything her Southern heritage promised: money, prestige, a powerful husband - and a predictable routine of country-club luncheons, cocktail parties, and dinners hosting her husband's wealthy friends, clients, and associates in his successful land-developing conglomerate. To escape her stifling routine, Caro drinks a little too much. But her true solace is the Lowcountry island her beloved Granddaddy left her - an oasis of breathtaking beauty that is home to a band of wild ponies.
-
-
Superbly written and performed
- By Deboi on 12-05-17
-
Pat Conroy
- Our Lifelong Friendship
- By: Bernie Schein
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pat Conroy, the bestselling author of The Prince of Tides among many other books, was beloved by millions. Bernie Schein was his best friend from the time they met in a high-school pickup basketball game in Beaufort, South Carolina, until Conroy’s death in 2016. A love letter, homage, and a way to share the Pat he knew, this book collects Bernie’s cherished memories about the gregarious, welcoming, larger-than-life man who remained his best friend, even during the years they didn’t speak.
By: Bernie Schein
-
The Book Thief
- By: Markus Zusak
- Narrated by: Allan Corduner
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's just a small story really, about, among other things, a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak's groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist: books.
-
-
Glad I took a chance.
- By Robert on 08-20-11
By: Markus Zusak
-
All Over But the Shoutin'
- By: Rick Bragg
- Narrated by: Rick Bragg
- Length: 2 hrs and 41 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This haunting, harrowing, gloriously moving recollection of a life on the American margin is the story of Rick Bragg, who grew up dirt-poor in northeastern Alabama, seemingly destined for either the cotton mills or the penitentiary, and instead became a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. It is the story of Bragg's father, a hard-drinking man with a murderous temper and the habit of running out on the people who needed him most.
-
-
ABRIDGED
- By Amazon Customer on 03-17-16
By: Rick Bragg
-
The Glass Castle
- A Memoir
- By: Jeannette Walls
- Narrated by: Jeannette Walls
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination. Rose Mary painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family; she called herself an "excitement addict."
-
-
A CAPTIVATING READ
- By Jennifer on 09-25-12
By: Jeannette Walls
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."
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)
More from the same
What listeners say about The Death of Santini
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Candace
- 01-12-14
Brutal Narration - couldn't finish
What disappointed you about The Death of Santini?
Both the prologue and the book's narrators were remedial at best. Surprised at Pat Conroy's stumbled prologue delivery. Dick Hill was brutal. Reminded me of a third grader reciting the adventures of Dick, Jane and Sally. Too bad. It was disappointing as I was eager to hear Pat Conroy's newest book. Plan to read it as soon as I can erase Dick Hill's voice from my memory.
What could Pat Conroy have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
Selected Will Patten to read it - including the prologue.
Would you be willing to try another one of Dick Hill’s performances?
NEVER
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ronald
- 12-21-13
A Necessary End Note
Would you listen to The Death of Santini again? Why?
If you have followed Conroy's saga of Santini and his other family members through the decades, this is a necessary listen. It presents new details - many horrible of course - as well as several very moving scenes. As Conroy's neighbors note in several scenes, "Your family always puts on a great show!"
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Death of Santini?
Pat's eulogy for his father was fitting and memorable.
What about Dick Hill’s performance did you like?
Dick Hill had a great voice for Santini as I imagine him. For Pat Conroy, his voice was less perfect (I have met Pat several times over the years).
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Any book about Santini makes one cry (my god, how did that family survive at all!) as well as laugh at and with Santini and the other characters in response to the outrageousness of their lives.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- ZORRO
- 12-05-13
Conroy at his best
Would you consider the audio edition of The Death of Santini to be better than the print version?
I haven't read the print version, so I can't compare, but the audio version was excellent. The dialogue between the family members was extremely well performed by Dick Hill and at times, I laughed out loud.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Death of Santini?
The conversations between the parents and the siblings were at times funny and at times shocking, but always entertaining.
Have you listened to any of Dick Hill’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Its the first book of Hill's that I have listened to, but I don't think it will be the last. Pat Conroy read the preface only, and at first I was disappointed he didn't read the book.Now I see why he didn't. There was a wonderful variety of "voices" that only a professional like Dick Hill could have delivered with such perfection. Many times I totally forgot that Pat Conroy was not reading, because Hill did such a wonderful job capturing the sarcasm, bitterness, pain and love in the voices.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes. Every free minute, I was plugged in and was sorry when it was over.
Any additional comments?
Its an amazing testimony to the power of forgiveness and love that Don Conroy was loved and mourned by so many people. It was also interesting, though not surprising to learn that Pat Conroy was similar to his father in many ways, minus the physical abuse to his loved ones. It was a fascinating followup to The Great Santini.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 12-24-13
Another great Conroy book
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes!
What other book might you compare The Death of Santini to and why?
Prince of Tides. Same subject matter and tone.
What about Dick Hill’s performance did you like?
Excellent!! Coudn't be better.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Part where Conroy gives eulogy for his dad.
Any additional comments?
I loved Hill's rendering of Conroy's father, the Colonel.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Byron
- 11-19-13
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!
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sandra
- 11-07-13
Santini should have stayed dead
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
In the Great Santini,, Bull dies. In the Death of Santini he rises from the dead and I wish he had not. Listening to this book was like watching sausage being made. I didn't want to hear about the many frailties of Pat Conroy. He came across as whiny. I couldn't understand how he could have his hated father on book signing tours.
What do you think your next listen will be?
Haven't seen this month's selection.
How did the narrator detract from the book?
Yes but I don't know that anyone could have elevated it.
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
Not really
Any additional comments?
I think Pat Conroy has mined this "dysfunctional family" about as much as possible. Move on Pat.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Georgia Lawyer
- 12-17-13
Could not get past the narrator.
What disappointed you about The Death of Santini?
I would have enjoyed having the option to listen to this book. I simply could not tolerate the narration. The narrator has a horrible style.
How did the narrator detract from the book?
Yes, he destroyed the book.
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
It's a Pat Conroy work. I had to purchase the book and read it. I only wish I could get a refund for the Audible version.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Martha S. Davis
- 07-23-20
Understanding The Great Santini
After listening to Pat Conroy read the prologue, I wasn’t sure I could endure the entire book. His words mirrored my own childhood experiences of being raised by an abusive father. I decided to forge ahead and am pleased that Pat was able to come to some understanding of and grant forgiveness to his father. I know from experience that the children of such men are only able to live in peace by letting go of the emotional humiliation and physical abuse unfairly inflicted upon them. “The Death of Santini” is a story that needed to be told as only the eldest son could tell it. It brought me a better sense of the man behind the beloved author Pat Conroy. I can’t wait to re-read every one of his books with an empathy and compassion that wasn’t there 25 years ago.
Oh, how I love knowing that Pat Conroy was shaped by the sins of the father as was I. One can only understand the dark prose when they have lived under the tyranny of a complex man like The Great Santini.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mary
- 02-19-14
Pat Conroy Settles Scores
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
Yes. I am a big fan of Pat Conroy's novels and this memoir, though self-serving, gives additional depth to his novels. Having said that, he's not a very likable person.
What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
It was extremely interesting to me that while he has spent a lifetime attacking his own abuser (his father), he supported and excused his sister's abuser (their mother). No wonder she hated him--I would have, too.
What about Dick Hill’s performance did you like?
I can't say I loved it. Maybe because I have always imagined Pat Conroy's voice to be more like Nick Nolte's in Prince of Tides. It took me a while to get used to it.
Could you see The Death of Santini being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?
I can see it, but I don't it should be made into a movie. He's hurt his family enough. This memoir is supposed to be the one that puts his relationship with his father to rest. Making a movie of it would make a lie of the premise of the book.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jean
- 01-24-14
Bad book, VERY bad narration
This was possibly the poorest narration job I've experienced in many years of listening to books. It was overwrought, melodramatic, and made Conroy sound like a whining, self-absorbed humorless scold. I kept trying to imagine how a line of narrative would read in book form, without the narrator getting in the way. Reading this book would have been better. But not by much. Horrible childhood, I get it. It's an ugly tale of self-aggrandizement and score settling and trashing family members and others for a variety of sins against Pat Conroy. It sort of damages my opinion of him and his books. I wish I could get my credit back.
3 people found this helpful