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Thursday, March 17, 2016

IN MEMORY OF PAT CONROY, OCTOBER 26, 1945 - MARCH 4, 2016

                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
                         
 
Two great Southern writers have died in the past month.  Harper Lee died on February 23, 2016 and Pat Conroy died on March 4, 2016.  Read my blog entry below, written on February 23, for more information on Harper Lee.
Pat Conroy, born Donald Patrick Conroy on October 26, died at the age of 70 of pancreatic cancer.  His father was a Marine Corps fighter pilot, and his family moved often in Pat’s childhood.  His writing is heavily influenced by his identity as a military brat and by the influence his father had on his life.  His father was physically and emotionally abusive to his children.  Conroy revealed the pain of growing up with His father in his first novel, The Great Santini, published in 1976.  The main character, Colonel Bull Meecham, is based on his father.  This revelation of his family’s dynamics caused great upheavals in his family.  The movie the Great Santini , starring Robert Duvall, was released in 1979 and won two Oscars. 
In 1986 he wrote another novel dealing with his violent past.  The Prince of Tides focuses on Tom Wingo and his twin sister, Savannah.  Savanna, a poet, has attempted suicide, and Tom goes to New York to meet with her psychiatrist and help her deal with their past.  The book was made into a movie in 1991.
Conroy wrote a memoir in October 2013, The Death of Santini, which reveals the difficult relationship he had with his father, until his father’s death in 1998.  His father did attempt to change his behavior after his faults were so publicly revealed in the Great Santini!
Conroy spent most of his adult life in South Carolina.  He graduated from Citadel, the military college in South Carolina.  In 1980, he published The Lords of Discipline, based on his experience at the Citadel.  The main character, Will McLean, like Conroy, did not want a military career, but attended the college because of a promise to his father.  Conroy describes the brutal atmosphere of the college, especially the hazing of junior cadets.   Conroy was criticized by many alumni for portraying the military college in a negative light.  The novel was made into a movie in 1983.
Conroy’s writing legacy includes novels and memoirs about being a military brat, life in the South, and growing up in an abusive family.  He summed up the connection of his family life to his writing in an interview:
“One of the greatest gifts you can get as a writer is to be born into an unhappy family,” Mr. Conroy told the writer John Berendt for a Vanity Fair profile in 1995. “I could not have been born into a better one.” He added: “I don’t have to look very far for melodrama. It’s all right there.”
Thank you, Pat Conroy, to your contribution to American, Southern literature.
                                                                  


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