Oh, how I loved this story. It has to rate in my Top Ten. (Although, to be fair, there are probably a good 25+ books that I will list in my "Top Ten" when they come up...hehe.) I loved the epicness of it. I am a "need to know more" kind of person. I really loved that, if at any point during this story you wonder something about any of the characters or happenings, you can almost be certain that at some point during the story the author will answer that question for you. So fulfilling not to be left wondering!
The story touches on everything from the horrors of the holocaust to the antiwar movement in the 60's, as well as the experience of an American living in Rome, and life in the south, in general. In fact, I very much felt like the south was a character in the book, and I loved that. In many ways, the book is all over the place and somewhat hard to follow, for some, as a result of that. (That being determined by the feedback given by some of the members of my book club when I selected it for us to read.) Personally though, I loved having all of that back story and rich detail. There weren't many blanks in this story that weren't eventually filled in. It is a long one, at over 800 pages. Interestingly, I read that the author's original submission was twice that length. I find myself wondering what was cut, and wishing I could get my hands on it...hehe.
There are certain elements of this story that rang slightly hollow to me. Jack's parenting, for one, seemed very unrealistic at times. It was hard to believe that Leah wouldn't be a spoiled rotten brat if he'd really raised her from birth in the way it was depicted in the story, instead of the way-too-mature, insightful and thoughtful 11 or 12 year old she was written as. And the whole screenplay storyline seemed a bit too contrived and just crammed in as an easy way to tie everything up with a bow in the end. That having been said, my love for the story was in no way diminished by those slight details.
I loved Lucy. I loved the relationship and love between Lucy and Jude. I loved the interactions between the brothers. I was horrified by both George and Ruth's Holocaust stories. George's, in particular, really made me think. I always think of Holocaust victims as, well, as devout I guess. I believe he described his family as sort of barely practicing Jews. The equivalent of only going to church on Easter and Christmas, for instance. No matter what his experiences would have been horrifying, but to be targeted because of his religion yet not have his faith to fall back on seemed to raise it to an even higher level of horror to me. Which, I suppose, might have some small part to play in how emotionally broken he was by it.
Anyway, I can't say enough how much I loved this book and how highly I recommend it to any and all. To date, this is the only of Pat Conroy's books I've read, but I have definitely placed the rest on my "to-read" list as a result of how much enjoyment I got out of this story both times I read it!
On a related note, I find Pat Conroy to be pretty interesting himself, especially after reading that parts of this book were somewhat autobiographical. I think this is a pretty short and concise bio of him, for anyone else who might be interested. This one doesn't mention that parts of Beach Music are autobiographical, but I did read that elsewhere. It's kind of obvious, once you are familiar with his story. Anyway, for what it's worth... :)
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