Beach Music » (Reprint)

Pat Conroy's novels are populated with domineering fathers, Southern belles of steel, and inexorable tragedy; all are elements the author is familiar with from his own life, and he has drawn on them to create unforgettable books. He is sometimes accused of florid prose, but he never fails to draw attention -- and readers -- with his passionate stories.

The author of The Prince of Tides deliveres a new novel of sweeping, lyrical intensity. Jack McCall, living in Rome with his daughter in hopes of finding peace after the suicide of his wife, is surprised by a visit from his sister-in-law. She draws him into a search for the one haunting secret in his family's past that can heal his anguished heart.

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

Mr. Conroy is verbosely eloquent, imaginatively violent and a superior yarn spinner, sometimes to a fault....What betrays Mr. Conroy too often are his flights of lyrical prose. True, now and then he catches the lightning instead of the lightning bug....Most damaging of all, "Beach Music" builds to a disappointing climax that is quite literally staged and rings as false as Eugene O'Neill at his most wooden....When all is said and overdone in "Beach Music," Mr. Conroy leaves you begging for less. -- New York Times