What readers think of South of Broad, plus links to write your own review.

I have been a fan of Pat Conroy’s writing since 1987, when I read the The Prince of Tides. I appreciated the beauty of the images and depth of the truths his words and sentences evoked in me. Since then, I have read all of his books. I noticed a shift in his writing in his last novel, Beach Music. I felt he was caving in to the pressures of popular fiction by adding superfluous intrigue into the story. Sadly, for me, South of Broad is more of the same. The novel is overwritten and has a contrived and predictable plot. I found a few beautifully crafted sentences, but not enough to recommend the book.

I have been an ardent fan of Mr. Conroy and waited impatiently these last 14 years for another novel, after reading Beach Music. I was ecstatic to see that South of Broad was 500 plus pages and looked forward to his unique command of language and his ability to spin a story that captures a reader's attention from the first sentence.

The 14 year lapse did nothing to diminish his wonderful way with words, drawing the reader into a world of words that are pure pleasure to reread over and over. I can not say the same for the plot or the character development. I found the plot to be predictable and boring. The novel seems to be overburden with too many characters that lack character development and a reason to continue in their varied relationships. The novel is disjointed in the 20 year transition from childhood in 1969 Charleston to Part Two where the only thing that changes is the year,1989.
I had no doubts that my 14 year wait would be rewarded with another Conroy masterpiece ...sadly, I was wrong.

I was really looking forward to reading this book. I loved The Great Santini, Lords of Discipline and Prince of Tides is my all-time favorite book. But South of Broad was very disappointing. In parts the writing is beautiful - classic Pat Conroy, but the dialogue particularly is awful and the rest is just ordinary.

The plot is cliched and predictable, except for the ending, which did take me by surprise, but it wasn't worth slogging through the trite plot. The misfit, unpopular boy somehow in the summer before his senior year in high school make friends with a racially and socially disparate group of friends and ends up being the social conscience of the class. .... The group of friends has a gay guy, three orphans, two blacks, three socially elite kids and the leader of the group, the misfit Leo, and practically overnight in 1969 in the South, they all manage to form friendships that last a lifetime. It's a plot Danielle Steele would be proud of.

I found the book to be cheesy, and the story to be ridiculous. I found the language (southern inflection) and depiction of the people of the south to be demeaning. As I read I write words that fit the book. along with cheesy I wrote Cliché,
Juvenile, obvious and artless. The story line was very close to the Big Chill with more stuff thrown in.

Yikes! What was I thinking? Bought this book at Borders as the 3rd book from one of their "Buy 2-get the 3rd Free" sale. A big disappointment, but I kept reading the book(why, I don't know).

The biggest complaint I have is that most of the story and the characters were not very believable. Maybe that can be explained because it is truly a book of "fiction."

Maybe the next time I am trying to decide what book to buy as the "free" book I will choose more wisely and not get "burned" again.