The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son

Written by Pat Conroy

Narrated by Dick Hill

In this powerful and intimate memoir, the beloved best-selling author of The Prince of Tides and his father, the inspiration for The Great Santini, find some common ground at long last.

Pat Conroy's father, Donald Patrick Conroy, was a towering figure in his son's life. The Marine Corps fighter pilot was often brutal, cruel, and violent; as Pat says, "I hated my father long before I knew there was an English word for 'hate.'" As the oldest of seven children who were dragged from military base to military base across the South, Pat bore witness to the toll his father's behavior took on his siblings, and especially on his mother, Peg. She was Pat's lifeline to a better world - that of books and culture. But eventually, despite repeated confrontations with his father, Pat managed to claw his way toward a life he could have only imagined as a child.

Pat's great success as a writer has always been intimately linked with the exploration of his family history. While the publication of The Great Santini brought Pat much acclaim, the rift it caused with his father brought even more attention. Their long-simmering conflict burst into the open, fracturing an already battered family. But as Pat tenderly chronicles here, even the oldest of wounds can heal. In the final years of Don Conroy's life, he and his son reached a rapprochement of sorts. Quite unexpectedly, the Santini who had freely doled out physical abuse to his wife and children refocused his ire on those who had turned on Pat over the years. He defended his son's honor.

The Death of Santini is at once a heart-wrenching account of personal and family struggle and a poignant lesson in how the ties of blood can both strangle and offer succor. It is an act of reckoning, an exorcism of demons, but one whose ultimate conclusion is that love can soften even the meanest of men, lending significance to one of the most-often quoted lines from Pat's best-selling novel The Prince of Tides: "In families there are no crimes beyond forgiveness."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio
• Release date: Oct 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9780307989833

Pat Conroy

Pat Conroy (1945–2016) was the author of The Boo, The Water Is Wide, The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides, Beach Music, The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life, My Losing Season, South of Broad, My Reading Life, and The Death of Santini.

Reviews for The Death of Santini

[buffalogr · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I’ve heard this book described as a sequel to The Great Santini but it is more apt to call it the real story behind The Great Santini. The level of dysfunction gets tedious after a while. Conroy's tone starts to sound like whining--I thought that the book was complete after two hours...imagine my surprise to find out it goes on for another ten or so. My first Conroy book--maybe, I'll do another--maybe just watch the movie?

[gkiggins-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I loved the Prince of Tides (book NOT movie) and enjoyed Conroy's skill with character development. His other books became repeats and what appeared to be attempts at authoring. The Death...was filled with contradictions, unbelievable events and ultimately seemed that Conroy sold out his family just to make a dime. So very, very glad he is not my brother.

[verdie-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Death of Santini by Pat Conroy is a most touching story. Conroy spills his heart out in telling this story of his life, of his family, and, most of all, of his father, the Great Santini. We all come from families that are abnormal in some respect, however Conroy has told us about each of the 7 children and parents to such an extent that by the end you seem to know them. Through his detailed descriptions of the different places of where they lived as a military family and the various ups and downs in the daily lives, the reader becomes part of the story. I now want to read his prior novel, The Great Santini, which tells more about his dad. I totally recommend this book to everyone.

[nodressrehersal · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

For years, I was a fan of Pat Conroy books. The Great Santini is a favorite, but I enjoyed all of them until his last novel, South of Broad, which I thought was a hot mess. The Death of Santini was interesting, but I've begun to doubt Conroy's memory of events. There are conversations he wasn't present for that he relates in great detail, and other, more significant events that he glosses over as though they have no effect on the story. He eludes to multiple breakdowns and suicide attempts, but never really tells us anything about that. One minute his sister Carol is spewing venom and giving him the evil eye, and the next minute, she's not. He spends a LOT of time painting her as the "crazy" one, yet also uses a lot of words to sing her praises as a poet. His phrasing was, quite often, forced and amateurish - trying too hard to write like a "writer". I think I'm officially done with Conroy.

[unkletom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Pat Conroy’s classic southern novel The Great Santini is, in the words of the author, the story of his own family growing up as the children of a Marine Corps colonel and a sharecropper’s granddaughter. In his penultimate book, The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son, Conroy describes his actual life with his family and his father, Marine fighter pilot Col. Don Conroy, the original Great Santini. This nickname even appears on his military gravestone at the National Cemetery in Beaufort, South Carolina.I’ve heard this book described as a sequel to The Great Santini but it is more apt to call it the real story behind The Great Santini. One does, of course need to take such statements with a grain of salt, especially when dealing with published authors. I learned a lot about Pat Conroy from reading both books, this one especially, but I believe I learned as much by reading between the lines as I did reading Pat’s stories. It was obvious that everyone in the Conroy family became masters in the art of domestic survival and other forms of passive aggressive behavior. Every interaction they had with anyone was, first and foremost, a defensive maneuver. No statement was ever taken at face value. Everything said was carefully examined for subtext that could conceal a verbal attack. It’s no wonder that most of the Conroy kids considered suicide and Tom, the youngest son, unfortunately did. I was particularly interested to read about how the family got on after Santini was published. While Col. Conroy was at first enraged by the book he soon realized that it was his ticket to fame and he embraced the roll, getting a custom license plate reading SANTINI and attending book signings with his son and gloating when his autograph line was longer than Pat’s. I usually read two books at one time, one text and one audio and often make sure the books are of different genres so that I don’t mix them up in my head. This time, though, I read The Great Santini while listening to the audio version of The Death of Santini. The experience was a bit confusing but overall it was fascinating. It reminded me of “Ghosts of History” a website where images of soldiers from past wars are superimposed over recent photograph of the same location. It also showed me how actual people from Pat’s life became characters in his novels. Bernie Schein, Conroy’s best friend from high school can be none other than Sammy Wertzberger in Santini.Bottom line: Having read both books I feel like I have an almost three-dimensional view of the Conroy family and of Pat Conroy in particular. He was a magnificent writer who took to heart more than anyone else Ernest Hemingway's statement that “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”

[timbazzett · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A disappointment. That's my reaction to THE DEATH OF SANTINI. And I was looking forward to reading it because I was a great fan of Pat Conroy's fiction. In fact I very much liked THE WATER IS WIDE, THE GREAT SANTINI, LORDS OF DISCIPLINE and PRINCE OF TIDES, all books written thirty or more years ago. Then, sometime in the 90s, I tried to read BEACH MUSIC. I don't think I made it even halfway through before I gave up on it. I found it to be bloated and overblown with purple prose that often slowed things down and ... well, I simply didn't like it well enough to keep going. That was probably almost twenty years ago now.Pat Conroy died last month, sparking a brief flurry of renewed interest in his life and work. So I thought I would read this memoir, his last work. My reaction to it was similar to the disconnect I felt with BEACH MUSIC. The language is simply over the top with exaggerations and reaching for I'm not sure what. Here's a sample, trying to describe his sister's poetry -"... her poems form as slowly as Ming vases in her cunning hands. Her light-infused poems are webs of silk and gossamer. She condenses the Conroy freight down to a cell of light and a pearl of black sorrow." I mean, Huh? And this is the sister he can't stand, that he's been estranged from for over twenty years. And there are so many passages like this here that I found myself scanning quickly over them.DEATH is confessional lit at its worst. Conroy seems to be trying to expiate all his devils and guilt with the purplest prose he has in him, and some of it is simply tedious and dreadful. The book begins by describing what an abusive wife-and-child-beating brute his father was, and then ends by seeming to tell what a great dad his father really was. I mean, again, Huh? Maybe he thinks he explains this stew of confused and conflicting feelings by telling about his own long spells of suicidal despondency and depression throughout his writing life and how he got help from a marvelous therapist. Or by confessing what a lousy and perfidious husband he was to his first two wives. No wait, it was just the first one. The second one was the "bad wife." I can't believe I actually finished reading this book. Almost wish I hadn't. Aah, I really don't want to say any more about this really rather bad book, written, sadly, by a guy who was once a very good writer. And besides, you're not supposed to speak ill of the dead. So, let me say this. Read the THE GREAT SANTINI. Don't read this one. It's too depressing and you'll end up not liking the author very much. But those first four books? Thank you for those, Pat, and R.I.P. This one? Nope. Not recommended.

[hobbitprincess · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have read much of Conroy's writing, but I found this one to be the hardest to get through. I had to put the book down for a few weeks before I finished it,, in fact. I appreciate the writing, and I'm sure it was very difficult to write, but there were a couple of things that disturbed me. First, as far as prose stype is concerned, I had a difficult time in places following what was going on. There was a lot of jumping around from time frame to time frame. I understand that he approached the book topically, but I wonder if chronologically would have been better. Second, I was disturbed over and over again by the abuse that was simply accepted and seemingly forgiven, over and over again. Conroy writes as if his father was his best friend in his later years, but how is this reconciled with the man presented in the book elsewhere? I cannot imagine allowing someone that cruel to continue to have a part of my life. I felt like I was missing something. Perhaps Conroy has a greater ability to forgive than I possess.

[vashonjim · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The non-fiction Santini is every bit the persona that his fictional counterpart was. How Conroy not only survived but prospered is beyond me.

[schmerguls · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

So, the book is plainly labeled fiction, and has all the trappings of biography of the author's family, including family pictures, details as to the actual happenings (including the author's three marriages, an exemplar of the author's own dysfunctional family so far as his kids are concerned) and a soaring eulogy which I presume he actually read at his father's funeral in May, 1998, at St Peter's Catholic Church ion Lady's Island, S.C. So what is true and what is fiction? It is annoying not to know. Much of the book is irritating, as he tape-recorder-like spews the fitlhy language supposedly spouted by family members including his priest uncle and his nun aunt. If that is fictional it is not fun to read. If fact is is deplorable . But the closing chapters did induce me to appreciate the book more than I did some times as I was reading.

[dandiercks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This might be the last Pat Conroy book I have to read. Although I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them because of the beautiful writing, I have to admit, the Conroy family, at least through Pat’s stories, has worn me out. If you look up the word “dysfunctional” in the dictionary, you will see a family picture of the Conroys. I taught high school English for 40 years; Pat lasted a mere three, as I remember, and that’s a shame because as good a writer as he was, he would have been a marvelous teacher. I’m sorry that I’m out of Pat Conroy books to read. There’s only one thing left to do: start reading them again.

[librarymary09 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The Great Santini was one of my favorite books in my twenties. I'd always been curious about Conroy's life growing up. Was hoping for a straightforward memoir, but this is way too disorganized for me. Plus, I'm sorry to say, Conroy comes off as kind of a blowhard. I abandoned ship about 40 pages in. There're too many other books out there for me to slog thru this one.

[foof2you · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book tells the story of Pat Conroy"s dad, the man behind The Great Santini. It is a compelling true story about a family that as many issues. The book gives insights on many of the stories used in his other books.

[bakersfieldbarbara · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A typical Conroy book, the telling of his dysfunctional family, but one that is a story also of forgiveness. I don't know how he , the author Pat Conroy, could remember all that happened, but possibly for the telling of his life, he added some words. Not that this isn't true; it just amazed me of his recollections of his and his family's abuse by the dad. Once I gave that intrigue up, I was able to follow his tale, knowing this was what he remembered, not always the way the others remembered. I was in an abusive home and my siblings remember some abuse differently, so this is a natural phenomenon, I think. Mr.Conroy is candid, even to his own flaws and this makes for a great redemption story as his father is dying. A good read, and one that all Conroy followers will want in their library. I recommend it not only for the tales told, but for a great example of forgiveness under the most horrid of conditions. And as usual with perpetrators, the father never admits to the abuse and even jokes about it at the end.

[etxgardener · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Pat Conroy has mad a lucrative career fictionalizing his dysfunctional family. In The Death of Santini he deals with his family using their real names and describing the actual incidences of their lives.Conroy's always baroque prose reaches new heights in this book. For example, (picked from a page at random):Within us, love grew as slowly as stalactites in a cave, formed by calcite drips of water, on drop at a time.Does this man have an editor?The book is subtitled "The Story of a Father and His Son" but we go pages and pages without mention of the Great Santini as we meander through the gothic Southern lives of his mother, grandmother and assorted knuckle-dragging, snake handling Southern cousins. When he does get to his father, his portrait, after the first third of the book, is of a man who in no way resembles the brutish ogre of his fiction, leaving the reader to wonder if, indeed, his early portrayal of his father isn't highly embellished.Throughout the book Conroy portrays himself as separate from his siblings, referring to them as "the kids." Perhaps this is because he is so much older than a lot of them, but it comes off as sanctimonious and pretentious. One can see how his siblings, especially the younger ones, find him hard to tolerate.This book sorely needed an editor to tighten up the story and restrain Conroy's flights into purple prose. At the end he says that he's finished with writing about his family. After several novels and this memoir, let's hope so.

[dianekeenoy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've always loved every word written by Pat Conroy. While this isn't a novel, but a memoir of his family and his father, I did enjoy reading it. Unless you've read his other books I don't think this should be the first book you should read by him. It is my fervent wish that he will write more novels.

[kara.shamy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have never read the original memoir, The Great Santini, to which this is a follow up; this is the first I've read of Pat Conroy's writing. Still, in no way was my lack of experience with the author a bar to my enjoyment of The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son.

I found this book to be very mature and very stimulating; as someone who has lost both parents, I found it very personally resonant. There were some things I didn't find relatable personally, and to some extent that hindered my enjoyment of the book. It was also longer than I would have liked, but it's hard to exclude things when one is dealing with such personal matters.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who finds it productive to think about how our families make us who we are. I think you'll be touched by Pat Conroy's journey.

Please be advised I got a free advance reader's copy through Goodreads Giveaways.

[66usma · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First of all let me disclose that Pat Conroy is my wife's favorite author and she has stood on line on one occasion for several hours to get his work autographed. She extols the wordmanship of Mr. Conroy. I, on the other hand, have seen several of Mr. Conroy's works on the big screen, but have never read one of his books in toto. For most fans of Pat Conroy the first 80% of the The Death Of Santini is probably a regurgitation of facts and incidences that have been described in previous works in a thinly, veiled autobiographical way. However, most of the family characters and relationships were new to me. The overwhelming descriptive prose and the keen sense of humor were omnipresent and were the only reasons that I was able to get through the first 4/5 of the work. . However, the last part won me over as the Great Santini meets his demise. It was noteworthy to see the transformation of the Great Santini in the mind of the son/ author, from an abusing parent to an indulgent grandfather revered in death. " Time becomes a trickster and a necromancer whenever it gets serious about the job of killing your parents. Then time speaks only to taunt you with the inevitable, with the hard knowledge that there is nothing to do but prepare for the remorseless day when the hurt for your parent reaches it's grand finale"

[drapple_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Only Pat Conroy's beautiful writing could get me through this heart-breaking story of the Conroy family. Unfortunately, there's very little fun in dysfunctional for this group.

[librarian1204 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Pat Conroy always writes a beautiful book. I love his depth, his atmosphere, his stories. This is Pat Conroy on Pat, his dad Don Conroy, and the rest of the Conroy family. The book chronicles the Conroy family relationships with their father and mother and each other. This is the backdrop to the books Pat Conroy has written. In the process the reader learns more about the author's lifelong struggle to come to terms with his father and the ways his father shaped him. If you have read all the books, then reading this feels like you are filling in the blanks.

[khiemstra631 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In this book, author Pat Conroy writes of his family and upbringing with the main character being his father, who he immortalized in the fiction work, The Great Santini. How he and his dad rebuilt their relationship after the publication of Santini is a fascinating story as the reaction of Conroy's siblings to the tale. His father greatly enjoyed the celebrity that his literary fame brought to him. Most of Conroy's siblings have suffered problems of one sort or another brought on by their father's abuse in the formative stages of their lives. The last illnesses of both of his parents is explored in detail. This is a great memoir. Conroy has stated that he is done writing about his family in his fiction. It will be interesting to see where his muse leads him from here.

[thelostentwife · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was interesting timing, because I picked up The Death of Santini by Pat Conroy immediately after reading Ann Patchett's newest memoir. The difference could not have been more night and day. Pat Conroy does not pull punches, laying bare the very foundations of his childhood in a brutal way that manages to keep the self-pity at a minimum and, instead, tells a story of learning to live with the hand life deals you and moving forward to become a better person.Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on Nov. 10, 2013.

[libsue · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Should have been about Santini - less about Pat Conroy. Tiresome after a while.

[kraaivrouw · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've always been fond of Pat Conroy. I like the way he loves words and rolls them about the senses in the way an oenophile savors a glass of great wine. At his best he makes my heart ache for time, place, and story. I've read just about all of his books, but will also admit that Prince of Tides and The Lords of Discipline remain my favorite of them all. He manages in these books, particularly in the latter, to gentle his way through his very personal stories and to allow his love of language to serve the telling of the story.The Death of Santini is Mr. Conroy's memoir of the relationship that he developed with his father after the publication of The Great Santini and a number of other books that revealed his father to be an abusive man whose primary gift to his children seems to have been fear and loathing. Perhaps lancing the boil allows the pus and anger to run out so that healing can begin, but whatever the cause the two came to a more nuanced friendship as the years progress - the son learning that the father loved him, the father learning to express his love. There is no great denouement, no breakdown and admission, no tears of apology and regret, but rather a sort of rapprochement between the two men. The story is a reminder of the powers of time and exposure and reconciliation to heal even the most unforgivable.

[judithdcollins · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Death of Santini, a memoir was a difficult book to read at times, as Pat was a victim of a scarred childhood carried though to his adult life – his anger, failed marriages his own demons, dark secrets, breakdowns, the suicide of his youngest brother, Tom, (5 of the children attempted suicide), the death of his mother.

When he published his novel “The Great Santini”, was a fictionalized version of his father which caused great controversy; and this one was the nonfictional account of his life with his abusive father. The book opened up his father and they began a journey to help make peace with the past. This book is about second chances of dysfunctional families and wars waged within and forgiveness – Thought provoking, powerful, emotional, tragic, yet moving and written from the heart.

Don Conroy expected total obedience from his children and ruled the house with a military discipline. The background of both Pat and Don, led to their extreme expectations of all sorts of behavior. However, during all the turmoil, there was something almost heroic about the way the family rallied during the most difficult times, which could prove they loved one another in their own way.

This book is a more honest account of family versus the prior book and heartbreaking. Pat Conroy opens up his raw feelings of abuse based on real events- Highly recommend for southern Pat Conroy fans, opening his personal connections, his life, and his writing. As usual, he interjects humor and expressive way of telling the story, making it easier to read with all the sadness.

[santhony_35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I saw the movie The Great Santini many years ago, but I’ve never read any of Pat Conroy’s other work. In retrospect, perhaps I would have been better served to have done so prior to reading this largely autobiographical work which looks at Conroy’s incredibly dysfunctional childhood and family. Much of Conroy’s fiction is thinly disguised experiences of the author from the Great Santini to Lords of Discipline to Prince of Tides. Nevertheless, I will likely go on to read these books and perhaps enjoy and appreciate them all the more for having read this non-fiction work first.Dysfunctional doesn’t begin to fully describe Conroy’s family. From physically abusive family on his Chicago Irish father’s side to backwoods, snake handling crackers on his mother’s side, Conroy and his siblings seem to have gotten the very worst that each side had to offer. If you have seen The Great Santini, you get a taste of what it was like to grow up in the Conroy household. Strangely, while siblings in abusive families many times grow very close in opposition to a shared “enemy”, from all accounts the Conroy children don’t just dislike each other, they HATE each other with the heat of a thousand suns.According to Conroy, of the seven siblings, five have attempted suicide and one succeeded. The author himself suffers from clinical depression and has had numerous breakdowns throughout his life. However, as is supposed to be the case, time heals all wounds, and while most of the siblings make peace with their reformed, fighter pilot father in the later years of his life, their hatred for each other burns all the brighter.This is a pretty depressing book, but I would recommend it to anyone that has suffered through family issues (who hasn’t?). If nothing else, it will make your problems seem minor in comparison.

[thewanderingjew_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The book would be overwhelmingly depressing were it not for the vast amount of good humor Conroy injects into this memoir. His gift of glib dialogue makes the reader smile, when often the reader would really be more inclined to gasp. Near the end of the book, Conroy writes that his parents taught their children how to die, with dignity, but perhaps, after reading it, the reader will surmise that they didn’t teach their children how to live…five of the seven tried to end their own lives; only one was ultimately successful. Blatant sibling rivalry was encouraged by Don and Peg Conroy. Favoritism was conspicuous. It is hard to understand the respect ultimately bestowed on two such flawed parents by very flawed children, yet defying common sense, Pat Conroy writes of a family that is truly loyal and, in the end, cares deeply for each other and each other’s well being. Pat Conroy carried his emotional and mentally scarred baggage throughout his life, as did his siblings, and yet, coupled with the dysfunction that the family dynamic encouraged, there was a devotion to each other, albeit infused with what seemed like hate at times, that almost, defies description.Pat’s devotion to his mother sometimes seemed unnatural, over the top, in ways that seemed to lead him to his many mental breakdowns. His dislike for his father’s character, which he often saw in himself, had to also contribute enormously to his fragile state of mind. All of the siblings were damaged in some way or other. Tom committed suicide after suffering the demons in his mind until almost half way through his third decade of life. Carol Anne tortured her family with her narcissistic character in which she believed she suffered the most, was able to love more completely and could hate with ferocious intensity. Peg Conroy was a narcissist who demanded total fealty from her son Pat, expecting him to be her savior in all things. Don Conroy expected total obedience from his children and ruled the house with a military discipline. The background of both Pat and Don, led to their extreme expectations of all sorts of behavior. Peg was a poor child from the south, surrounded by evangelicals, abandoned by her mother, as were all her siblings. She made up stories about her background, and Pat Conroy was complicit in helping her to create a false past. Her mother was like Auntie Mame to all who knew her. Don’s background was from poor Irish folk who turned a blind eye to the abuse his family suffered at his hand. They had their own peculiar idiosyncrasies as well. Don Conroy was decorated with many medals, as a marine, he was a war hero, but his children did not know about his medals for much of their lives. With all of the oddities of the families, it is not surprising that there were many challenges for the Conroy children to face. What is surprising is that they all grew up committed to each other and their parents and that any survived the traumas of their childhood.The book is repetitive and tedious, at times, with far too many details repeated in chapter after chapter, as odd events are related from the points of view of different characters, and Pat’s emotional experiences with his siblings are retold again and again. He was held responsible for the well-being of his family by both mother and father; he could really forge no life of his own, and indeed, until the death of both parents, when he married again, he did not find peace. Conroy’s book opens a cracked and scarred window onto his childhood and the imperfect family that peopled his world and his worldview. They were self-absorbed above all else. Conroy’s humorous and expressive way of telling the story makes it easier to take than if he would have chosen to express it in a maudlin manner. It makes the intolerable tolerable, if that can ever be so. It makes the incomprehensible, comprehensible. He exposes the southern prejudices and bias dressed in a posture of arrogance and false strength. In the south, that posturing and stretching of the truth was an acceptable way of life. No two family members told the exact same story in the exact same way. Usually the details changed to favor the speaker rather than the truth. The beginning of the book is more engaging than the second half. Once it becomes embroiled in family member’s histories, it becomes repetitive of necessity, as some stories intertwine with others, but there are simply too many words. The story becomes disjointed at times as Conroy retells facts again and again from different points of view in and out of the timeline. However, the book sure does lend truth to the saying that the sins of the father are revisited upon the sons, and it could also be said of daughters when it comes to the Conroy family.

[toobusyreading · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First of all, Mr. Conroy writes beautifully. He has proven this with his novels as well as his non-fiction works. Even though his father, The Great Santini, considered him a hack for the masses, not as good or noble as his sister Carol Ann, a writer of poetry. (I'm not sure how Carol Ann spells her name – I listened to an unabridged audio version.)The book was painful to read, or in my case, painful to hear. I am grateful that there is no writer in my family who exposes all our dirty laundry, even though there is nothing interesting to expose. Mr. Conroy and his siblings did have a terrible childhood, one of abuse and without much love, and it destroyed some of them, left scars on all.In his novels, Mr. Conroy writes of his extremely dysfunctional family, but it is covered with a veneer of fiction. In this nonfiction account, all the warts are exposed, and if I were part of this family, I would not be happy about it. Mr. Conroy made me love his mother when I read about her in My Reading Life. This story made me lose much respect for her. While her life was undoubtedly hard, she added to the grief her children suffered.Sister Carol Ann, her bizarre behavior, her public meltdown, are written about in great detail. Pat Conroy mentions his own shortcomings and breakdowns, but does not go into them in the detail he does hers. Somehow, it just doesn't seem entirely fair to me.The narrator, Dick Hill, didn't seem right for this book. His reading was very slow, so slow that I listened to most of the book at double speed, something possible without sounding like chipmunk-voice on my player. At times the words sounded stilted.And this is definitely a nit, but at one point, Mr. Conroy writes, “...told Tim and I...” Come on, now. With such normally beautiful writing, don't jar me out of the story with basic mistakes like that.So...this was most definitely an interesting book, and I'm sorry that anyone has to live as these children did, but I felt like it was taking too close a look at someone's dirty laundry without their permission.

[nodressrehearsal · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

For years, I was a fan of Pat Conroy books. The Great Santini is a favorite, but I enjoyed all of them until his last novel, South of Broad, which I thought was a hot mess. The Death of Santini was interesting, but I've begun to doubt Conroy's memory of events. There are conversations he wasn't present for that he relates in great detail, and other, more significant events that he glosses over as though they have no effect on the story. He eludes to multiple breakdowns and suicide attempts, but never really tells us anything about that. One minute his sister Carol is spewing venom and giving him the evil eye, and the next minute, she's not. He spends a LOT of time painting her as the "crazy" one, yet also uses a lot of words to sing her praises as a poet. His phrasing was, quite often, forced and amateurish - trying too hard to write like a "writer". I think I'm officially done with Conroy.

[edgoldberg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Gosh, what to say about The Death of Santini by Pat Conroy. I could and will say that if you read The Great Santini, you’ve read some of this Conroy biography, but certainly not all of it. I could say I liked the book but it’s not a book you ‘like’, it’s a book you get sucked into because there’s so much raw emotion going on…love, hate, racism, abuse, family, sorrow, joy. When I first started reading The Death of Santini, I was appalled at Don Conroy’s treatment of his wife and children and no one would have faulted me for putting the book down. But on I went, to the very last page.GreatSantiniThe Death of Santini is a raw book, not filled with flowery language. It is the factual recounting of Pat Conroy’s life as the son of Don and Peg Conroy, the union of an Irish Catholic from Chicago and a poor southern girl from the Appalachian mountains whose mother abandoned her family at the height of the depression, leaving them with nothing. Pat and his six siblings moved around a lot, the life of a Marine family, were the recipients of beatings from an abusive father and the fallout from this was everlasting and widespread and powerful.I’m not sure why Conroy felt compelled to write this book since it’s predecessor, though fiction, pretty well recounted many incidents in the current book. It felt like he had to purge himself of his demons, his guilt at standing idly by while siblings were abused, his hatred, or more accurately love-hate emotion towards his father, his adoration of his beautiful but surely imperfect mother, his dives into the depths of depression, his distance from his sister.But as you read, you see Conroy’s problem. Children love their parents, typically, yet both his parents, to some extent, were abusive. What is a boy and then a man supposed to feel? Two of his siblings were spiraling towards mental illness, yet his parents refused to acknowledge it and Pat was powerless.As Conroy introduces you to his northern and southern relatives you learn so many things: (1) abuse, while maybe not genetically transferred, certainly runs in families and is transferred to following generations, nor is it limited to liberally or conservatively thinking people, (2) racism is not only a Southern emotion, (3) the impact of dysfunctional families is widespread and deep.I’ll conclude by telling you, as I did in the beginning, I’m not sure I ‘liked” The Death of Santini. I’m glad I read it and will highly recommend it to others, but did I like it? Hmmmm. No. If you’re looking for a literary masterpiece with flowery language, I suggest you look elsewhere. The Death of Santini is, at times, disjointed (as is this review) and repetitious within itself. However, it has a cast of interesting, unimaginable characters that some of the most able fiction writers could never conceive. It didn’t make me laugh. It didn’t make me cry. Coming from a ‘relatively’ normal family, I think it made me sit there in disbelief.