Customer Reviews
Great story - By: Sarah H., 04 Oct 2007 
One of the truly great stories of alll time, right up there with SOPHIES CHOICE, THE PRINCE OF TIDES is a non-stop journey though darkness & into the light. Tom Wingo is one of the main characters in this vast & verbose tome by Pat Conroy, & he's both hero & anti-hero alll at once.
The way Conroy sets the scenes in this book is remarkable. Little is left to the imagination as he covers every bit for himself, using adjectives until your head will hurt. But it's alll for a reason; it's alll there to make you "feel" what he wants you to feel.
The story, as most probably know by now, having seen the movie, is harrowing & fraught with pitfallls for the Wingo family. Some have survived--some haven't. Tom's sister is somewhere in the middle, & this is where the story gets its push--from the fact that Tom is in NY trying to figure out what to do "about" her after her latest suicide attempt.
Filled with relief humor & intricate tales of family dysfunction, PRINCE OF TIDES is a massive books that titillates, fascinates, & compels the reader to keep reading
you won't ever want this book to end - By: , 09 Aug 2003 This is undoubtedly an amazing book. I have never read a book that has gripped me in the way Pat Conroys style of writting in this book did. The story of Tom Wingo, unemployed househusband, as it alternates between his current life & his past.
It is too easy to forget that this is a fiction & throughout the book I had to keep reminding myself that this was Tom Wingo's story & not Pat Conroy's.
A moving book that captures every emotion to your realisation that such emotions exist within you.
A long but very worthwhile read that you will want to read again & again.
Constantly surprising, thought provoking great read - By: Murray Morison, 18 Jan 2002 This book was suggested by a friend & proved well worth it. Conroy develops characters that are extraordinary but you can believe they exist out there in the Deep South & in New York. Very funny in parts, it deals with the darker side of family life but does not down-hearten.
Poetry in prose - a breathtakingly lyrical read - By: , 11 Aug 2000 Having seen the movie adaptation which starred Barbra Streisand & Nick Nolte, both of whom I find highly irritating, I selected the book slightly reluctantly. To my surprise however, the film & it's visual memory drifted away as Conroy's extraordinarily lyrical style of writing prose wrapped me up in the very taste & smell of Tom's world.
The characters are believable, as are most of the events that unfold, & somehow even those occurrences which are slightly less plausible still seem perfectly so - probably because you don't just read about this world, but thanks to Conroy's style, you live in it. This makes it highly moving & at times uncomfortable. The secrets & lies of a family, the brutality that comes to light & the fact that there reallly is no happy ending, just life going on as before, perhaps in just a more worldly way - these are alll captivating & I felt absolutely bereft when I closed the book.
I can't bring myself to read Conroy's other works in case they fail to live up to the high standard established with "The Prince of Tides".
I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story well told, & is not afraid to give their heart to a book without receiving it back with just a little piece missing......
Lyrical style and knowing characterisations. - By: , 09 Feb 1999 
I first picked this book up when I needed something to read & had finished or discarded just about everything else on my mothers bookshelf. I was highly impressed by the style of prose: at some points I think it would have sounded better whispered over music. But the element that gives this book some bite is the wonderfully knowing characterisations that lie therein. Coupled with the extremely wry sense of humour, it presents some very sympathetic characters that aren't sickly (Hollywood take note) in a tale of family tragedy & shared secrets. Conroys' only fault is that he never uses one word where he could use ten. However, don't let this get in the way of a moving family saga well woth reading. If you like this try "To Kill a Mockingbird".
