South of Broad |  | Author: Pat Conroy
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $12.00
as of 11/24/2009 07:12 CST details
You Save: $17.95 (60%)
New (72) Used (33) Collectible (16) from $10.89
Seller: lelvis
Rating:  561 reviews
Sales Rank: 120
Format: Deckle Edge
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 528
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.5
ISBN: 038541305X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780385413053
ASIN: 038541305X
Publication Date: August 11, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The publishing event of the season: The one and only Pat Conroy returns, with a big, sprawling novel that is at once a love letter to Charleston and to lifelong friendship.
Against the sumptuous backdrop of Charleston, South Carolina, South of Broad gathers a unique cast of sinners and saints. Leopold Bloom King, our narrator, is the son of an amiable, loving father who teaches science at the local high school. His mother, an ex-nun, is the high school principal and a well-known Joyce scholar. After Leo's older brother commits suicide at the age of thirteen, the family struggles with the shattering effects of his death, and Leo, lonely and isolated, searches for something to sustain him. Eventually, he finds his answer when he becomes part of a tightly knit group of high school seniors that includes friends Sheba and Trevor Poe, glamorous twins with an alcoholic mother and a prison-escapee father; hardscrabble mountain runaways Niles and Starla Whitehead; socialite Molly Huger and her boyfriend, Chadworth Rutledge X; and an ever-widening circle whose liaisons will ripple across two decades-from 1960s counterculture through the dawn of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
The ties among them endure for years, surviving marriages happy and troubled, unrequited loves and unspoken longings, hard-won successes and devastating breakdowns, and Charleston's dark legacy of racism and class divisions. But the final test of friendship that brings them to San Francisco is something no one is prepared for. South of Broad is Pat Conroy at his finest; a long-awaited work from a great American writer whose passion for life and language knows no bounds.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 561
 A worthwhile read. November 23, 2009
John E. Hooker
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've always been a fan of Pat Conroy and have read his best work. South of Broad may not rank as the absolute best, but if you enjoy his sense of humor, his wit, his love of language and metaphor, and the violence of his characters' emotions, you will enjoy South of Broad. Some might find his vocabulary too extensive, or a few metaphors overwrought, but for me it's all gravy, even if I have to reach for the dictionary more often than I usually do or reread a sentence or two to capture the vagaries of his imagination.
Pat Conroy always makes his novels accessible and in so doing he lays his soul bare for all to see. He's not an esoteric writer. He's one hundred percent emotion. This takes guts and deserves respect. Ever since I read My losing Season, which was an autobiographical work, I can't help but wonder how much of his fiction is based on reality. As a result, I will always be moved by this writer and grateful for his willingness to share his travails, whether fictional or not. I feel as if he's a dear friend.
A worthwhile read.
 South of Broad November 23, 2009
C. Taylor (Boulder, CO United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Dear Pat Conroy,
Thank you for writing South of Broad. As a southerner in self-imposed exile from the South, I found South of Broad wonderfully rich in the language of epic story-telling. Yes, characters larger than life; yes, characters who stretch credulity; yes, moments of HIGH DRAMA. All that said, you nailed it spot on. I commute from Boulder / Denver daily, so it was through the Book on CD version that I got to know Leo and his friends. It made me laugh and cry. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
True Conroy November 23, 2009
E. Clay (Mississippi)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This novel is written in true Conroy style, exposing both the endearing and the evil that lurks in all our natures. There is of course a deep connection with anyone who was reared in the Deep South, but you don't have to be Southern to relate. Thanks again for another wonderful few days of reading.
JAMMED PACKED! November 22, 2009
Debbie (Maryland)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Couldnt wait to read. Pat Conroy is my favorite. This book had alittle bit of everything. Can so see it becoming a movie. Quick read. Long live "the Toad".
Best Since Gone with The Wind November 21, 2009
Lisa Dulaney (Katy, TX)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have to say "South of Broad" was the best book I've read since "Gone with the Wind". Took me a couple of tries to get into it but once I did, it was great - especially if you are from the South. Your characters were so real and true. Thanks, I loved it.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 561
|
|
|
|
