Beach Music

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Summary: You can lose yourself in this book!
Review: Pat Conroy takes the reader around the world, from Rome to Auschwitz to the coast of South Carolina, in a beautifully written story about love, sorrow, loyalty, and self-discovery. You'll laugh and you'll cry. I'm reading it for the second time, after visiting Italy myself, and Conroy describes the country perfectly. And as a native South Carolinian, I can say his portrayal of life in the South is shockingly on target. He is an excellent story-teller. Please read this book...it is so inspiring!

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Summary: A book that interwines a wild mix of lives in a graceful way
Review: Every page takes you to another time, era, and story of someones life and yet they are all intertwined and related somehow. One page is about the civil war the next, the holocaust followed by surfing on the Atlantic and brothers acting halarious. You cannot explain this book you must simply read it.

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Summary: Conroy is a master storyteller
Review: I enjoyed this book so thoroughly that I have recommended it to several friends and they all claimed to feel the same. It was a little hard to get into, untill after Chapter 3, then I was intrigued. I loved the way Conroy dove back into the past. I truly recommend this book!

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Summary: authors writing style kept me reading, but plot weak
Review: This book was captivating and interesting to read but I kept on wondering where he was going. I kept on thinking...get to the point already. I think the book was too long at 800 pages and would have been a better read at 400 pages (-400 pages of dead wood).

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Summary: Beach Music is a symphony! Pat Conroy is brilliant.
Review: No other southern writer understands "twisted family drama" more crisply than Pat Conroy. If you want a great yarn to read on vacation or any time, this is the one. Do not go to the beach without it.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book!
Review: I almost put this book down when the first chapter became too descriptive but fortunately I did not! I laughed, I cried and I became totally immersed in the character's lives. I was sorry when the book came to an end and I look forward to the next Pat Conroy novel.

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Summary: Pat Conroy - master of the English Language
Review: Hat's off to Pat Conroy! It's so refreshing to read a bestseller that isn't about a serial killer or political intrigue. Pat Conroy takes chances and isn't afraid to delve into the emotions of his characters. All of his books are celebrations of the English language. I immensely enjoy the way he puts words together. Those who complain about his "flowery prose" miss the point altogther - that is what those who love his work love most about it. He brings the reader into a time and place like no other modern popular American author that I am aware of. I still rank "The Lords of Discipline" as my favorite, but I'm sure that "Beach Music" will bring me years and years of pleasure as I read and re-read it again and again.

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Summary: Actually deserves negative stars
Review: I find it hard to believe that anyone intelligent enough to log on to the internet would find anything good to say about this terrible novel. Please someone figure out how truly horrible this book actually is.

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Summary: 799 pages of condescending drivel
Review: I struggled through every line of this book hoping something would jump out to make my time and money spent on the book worth it. It didn't happen. It is a most unbelievable plot with unlikeable and uninteresting characters.

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Summary: I'm going to be ill
Review: Pat Conroy's Beach Music would be a lot shorter if he cut out all of the adjectives and ridiculous similes. With the exception of the descriptions of the Holocaust, I found the story and characters to be unbelievable, over the top, insipid, melodramatic. The book certainly provoked an emotional response - I kept wanting to throw it across the room. Conroy must make himself sick writing all that saccharine prose. BLECH!