South of Broad --- Book Review

South of Broad
Pat Conroy
2009
528 pgs.

When you first open the pages of "South of Broad," there's little doubt that the author behind the pen is southern novelist Pat Conroy. The book is the embodiment of the southern author. It is an engrossing page-turner. It is lyrical and passionate. Conroy's florid prose enables the reader to see, smell and feel Charleston in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and to empathize with the characters he develops so convincingly.

In this book, there is a central cast of characters all of whom have the narrator, Leopold Bloom King, as their touchstone. King is a goofy kid in the early 1960s with little confidence, a strict mother (who is a former nun and James Joyce scholar), a kind father and affable older brother.

The story's foundation is King's bout with depression following the suicide of his brother and his own subsequent arrest for possession of cocaine. The opening pages were reminiscent of Judith Guest's 1970s bestseller "Ordinary People."

Friendless, rehabilitated and ready to start his senior year in high school, King accepts a challenge from his mother - also the principal of the public school he attends - to befriend a mixed bag of newcomers to the school. This potpourri includes a trio of mountain country orphan's, the son of the first black football coach at the high school, a boyfriend and girlfriend from the best families in the city who find themselves expelled from the private school and the two beauties - twins Sheba and Trevor. Both are incredibly attractive and talented. Both like the boys. And both are being hunted by their father.

Like Conroy's earlier novels - this is his first in 14 years - the readers are immersed in his love of the tidal country of South Carolina as well as his love of the Citadel and his ambivalence with Catholicism. Classism, racism, destructive family relationships, rape and damaged children run deep in this novel.

And, like many of his books, Conroy offers the dark foreshadowing. And this would probably be my biggest disappointment in this book. Early on - and I won't be a spoiler by telling you on what page - there was an observation by the protagonist that struck me like a thunderbolt. I knew right then what zinger I would find at the end of the book. And, I was right. I felt a little cheated.

In fact, I felt a little cheated with Conroy's entire denouement. The novel builds and builds for 525 pages and 20 years and then he wraps it up in a few words. I felt empty.

But, those 525 pages - including a glimpse at the lives of a rich and famous movie star, an aids-stricken musician, a police chief and his partner, a successful lawyer, a loyal housewife, a paranoid schizophrenic and, of course a journalist, were wonderful and spellbinding.

Not quite as satisfying as "Prince of Tides" and "The Great Santini," but a filling literary treat indeed.