When I first saw The Prince of Tides on display at a local bookstore, I assumed it was a new release. I read the dust jacket and it sounded intriguing, so when I got home, I put it on hold at the public library (I wasn’t yet ready to commit to buying it, never having read any of Pat Conroy’s work).
Now I want to consume everything Pat Conroy has ever written.
The Prince of Tides (published in 1986, it turns out, by Houghton Mifflin) is the heart-wrenching story of growing up in the south. Told from the perspective of Tom, now grown, who temporarily escapes from his own failing marriage to help his suicidal sister in New York City, we learn the complete story of Tom and his siblings’ childhood in Colleton, South Carolina (as told to his sister Savannah’s therapist).
It is the story of parents trying to do the best they can to raise their children, failing miserably the entire time.
It is the story of growing up with domestic violence in a home that seems to attract the worst sorts of tragedies.
And it is the story of being taught to hold it all inside and the way in which this forced denial is manifested in each of the three children as they grow into adulthood.
There are parts of this novel that are difficult to read, and there were times when I needed a break because the depth of the sorrow was too much to take in at one time, but I can honestly say this is one of those books that will stay with me forever.
(And it’s now on my list of books to buy.)
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