Customer Reviews
Splendid - By: , 23 Jul 2005 
I think I've read it 4 times now. My father actuallly recommended it to me
(he read it more than 5 times now). As soon as I started reading it I could not put it down... it is just so poetic, complex, beautiful... It is a book of love, family, friendship, sorrow, it is magic... The best book ever !
There's poetry in this prose - By: LotsC, 05 Jul 2005 I've read this book three times & each time it has moved me, made me laugh, cry, suffer & laugh again with the characters. It is a tale of love, loss, misery, cruelty, hurt, despair, unendurable pain, anguish, family ties, reconciliation & laughter. Pat Conroy has drawn his group of traumatised & suffering characters in a realistic way without melodrama where many others would have struggled to avoid it. There is such poetry in his prose, & it is powerful, warm & funny - humorous episodes sit alongside horror & despair. It is a masterpiece.
MUSIC TO MY EARS - By: Nancy Martin, 20 Oct 2002 To read a book by Pat Conroy is to come to the realization that so much of everything else I read, & think is good, is truly just an appetizer getting me ready for the main course -- which is what Conroy is. Every sentence you read lures you into the web of Conroy's storytelling. This is a book that will take you from the piazzas in Rome to the low country of South Carolina. You will falll so deeply in love with each setting that you couldn't possibly decide which place you would prefer to live.
Every character is a tortured soul who has a tale to tell -- one more heartbreaking than the other. The main story follows Jack McCalll, who flees to Rome with his young daughter Leah after his beloved wife Shyla has committed suicide. He leaves behind a bevy of colorful family & friends in an effort to escape his torment & begin a new life in a new land. As a travel writer by trade, Jack is able to pick up & live wherever he chooses. It is a telegram from a family member that will finallly bring Jack back to South Carolina to face his demons & learn the stories of alll those he loves.
Conroy has the ability of dropping crumbs along the way leading you to each character's hidden story. He touches on times in history involving the Holocaust & the Vietnam War -- each decade so real that I don't even want to think about the horrors. But it is these horrors that have come to shape the characters whose cards have been dealt & whose hands must be played. They are alll part of a finely interwoven story with South Carolina as the stage for the grand finale.
In reading the book, I can only wonder if the author can write the last twenty pages & not cry himself. I don't usuallly cry when reading a book but I must admit that this one did me in. Conroy so neatly ties up alll the loose ends so that the reader feels no need for a sequel as they are confident that the lives of the characters they have come to love will go on.
While this is a book about tortured souls, it is also a book that holds great promise filled with love & hope & devotion & yes...redemption. We always talk about the books that will stay with us forever. This is one for me...music to my ears...Beach Music that is.
Love it! - By: , 15 Jan 2002 I would like to convey just how much I love this book. It is superb, just like alll his others. The main character Jack McCalll is so engaging & his relationships with his daughter, family, friends & enemies are excellently drawn. Also the intertwining of stories from his past, the history of others & the present means that the book is always leading you on. There is a kind of bittersweet humour about this story. This book makes me laugh but also made me cry.
I've lost count of the times I've re-read it & also loaned it to friends & colleagues. I simply think that its probably my favourite book ever!
It's about people. Those we love, hate, admire and distrust. - By: , 28 Sep 2001 Beach Music is the book I go back to time & time again. I think it's because, when I got to the end of the book, I felt like I knew the characters. It's about people. It's about the relationships we have in our lives - family, friends, enemies - & how those people affect us & change our lives. There's detail - you see the "view" that the author describes but there's also feelings & emotions. Described as they are, not as cliches or over-used lines, but simply & truthfully. It's a great book - if you enjoy watching lives unfold - it's for you.
