Rating: 
Summary: My Favorite Conroy Book
Review: Although both my father and sister prefer Prince of Tides, I think this is Conroy's masterpiece. It tells a compelling story of a boy at the Citadel in Charleston, SC growing up and learning about human nature. This book is full of interesting characters and surprises. I gave this to a (non-reading) friend before he attended the Air Force Academy, and he finished found it fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: well worth your time
Review: i just finished reading the Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy. This book was an assignment for my 12th grade The Novel class. although this sounds geeky especially for a teenager to say, i love to read. i really and truly enjoy reading, but that will be our secret. although i enjoy reading, in the past i haven't always enjoyed the novels i'm assigned to read in school (sorry to all you scarlet letter lovers out there, but nathaniel hawthorne didn't really do too much for me) The lords of Discipline was a much needed change of scenery. i would recommend this book to anyone who loves to read and even to people who don't consider themselves to be readers. despite your reading status, you will love this book. Pat Conroy has an awesome writing style. His use of imagery, makes one feel like he's apart of the book. Once you start this book, you won't be able to put it down. you'll even risk being called a book geek over this novel. so if you are looking for something to read that will not only make you laugh and cry but also teach you life lessons, i definatly encourage you to try The Lords of Disciple. i promise it will be well worth your time, it was worth mine!
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites...
Review: I was reluctant to read The Lords of Discipline as I'm not much interested in books with military themes. But I finally decided to read it as I love Pat Conroy and it takes place in my favorite of all cities, Charleston, SC. Wow! Not only was I blown away, but I also have a new book for my top ten list.
Aspiring novelist and basketball player, Will McLean, finds himself a college student at the Carolina Military Institute (The Citadel--thinly disguised). Will was not interested in the military, but he promises his dying father that he will attend his alma mater. Will doesn't exactly excel in military studies, but he's a decent student, an athlete, and his professors and peers recognize him for his integrity and his sense of fairness. Still, this is not an easy time to be a student in a military academy--especially in the South. The Viet Nam War was raging, the military was unpopular and desegregation was knocking on the doors of Southern schools. The Fourth Class system is brutal at best, and most cadets will look on their freshman year and Hell Night as living nightmares. There are also rumors of a powerful and clandestine group of Institute students and alumni called The Ten. While nothing has come forward to prove their existence, the possibility of such a group casts a cloud over the Corps of Cadets.
Will and his roommates have survived the trials and tribulations of their underclassmen years. But circumstances change very rapidly. The first black student enrolls at the Institute and Will is asked to be a secret mentor to Cadet Tom Pearce. It quickly becomes apparent that a group of cadets is trying to run Pearce out of the Institute. Will steps in to intervene, and he discovers a truth so horrendous that this knowledge can bring down the Institute. It also makes Will and his roommates targets. Not only is their graduation now in jeopardy, but their lives are also in danger.
Conroy is a master wordsmith, and I find myself reading his sentences over and over again. It's comparable to taking a bite of a decadent dessert, and rolling it around on your tongue to savor every forkful. His descriptions are priceless, his characters well fleshed out, and the plot will have you marathon reading to finish this 498-page book. I especially loved his observations about Charleston and the low country. Conroy also deals with timeless and universal issues. They include the struggles of a young boy growing into manhood and how difficult it is to stand up for your beliefs. Also, how those that love you can cause the worst hurt, and how those you think are loyal friends can betray you in a heartbeat. Conroy dwells on how it is possible to love and hate something at the same time (in this case, the Institute), and how the righteous don't always prevail. And while things might turn out in the end, they might not turn out the way you envision them.
The one bad thing about Pat Conroy is that he is not one of those "serial" bestsellers who produce a book every year-whether they have anything to say or not. While we often have to wait years between books, Conroy's works are definitely worth the wait. Also, after reading The Lords of Discipline, I suggest picking up his nonfiction work, My Losing Season. Detailing his senior year playing basketball for The Citadel, Conroy will reveal how much of The Lords of Discipline is autographical.
Rating:
Summary: The Lords of Discipline
Review: I was required to read this novel for an elective English class. Little did I know that it would become one of my favorite books ever.After finishing the first chapter, I was drawn into the story and imediately a fan of Pat Conroy's. He has a style of writing where he, just as most passionate writers, get caught in the moment and lyrically write from the heart. McLean's experience through military school is something that everyone should read. Even if you are not the least bit interested in the military or it's politics, one can still learn something from this novel morally based on honor, entrapment, betrayal, friendship, and life change. I reccomend this book to both men and women who want to be moved by a page turning, eye watering, and heart opening novel.Thank you,Pat Conroy for giving me the knowledge of how brutal life can be, and thank you for an experience I was able to learn about. You are a brave soul.
Rating:
Summary: A beautifully written book
Review: If there is a more elloquent writer out there, someone please point him out to me. The book is beautifully written, with a well a constructed plot, and and deep character development. I found myself constantly envious of Pat Conroy's talent as I moved through the pages. You will find yourself quickly connected to the lead character, and from that point on this book is a page turner. I would call this work a "must-read" and give it the highest possible review.
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Conroy Book
Review: Pat Conroy is a masterful writer, but he really outdid himself on this one.The story is narrated by Will McClean as he shares his experience in the Carolina Military Institute. About two or three pages into the book, you will find yourself immersed in the story. His opening description of Charleston, South Carolina is worth the price of the book -- usually long descriptions bore me, but this one was different -- I felt like I had actually been to Charleston after reading it. This story is brutal in some of its details of living and learning in a military school. I have a sneaky suspicion that they are right on target. The hazing, the competitiveness and control and betrayal practiced by cadets on other cadets is uncomfortably like the control games seen outside of military schools. I am neither male nor a graduate of a military school, but I have a feeling that Conroy's descriptions, given through the character of Will McClean, are accurate. This book has the unmistakable stamp of someone who has "been there and done that." There are many plots and subplots -- a young woman whom Will meets, Will's relationship with "The Bear" (Colonel Bearineau)and Will's duty to watch out for Cadet Pearce, the first Afro-American cadet in the Institute's history. And while there is a lot of grimness and harshness, Will stubbornly tries to keep his mind on the good as well as the bad, and he succeeds. Whether or not the book has a "good" ending will depend on the reader's definition of what a "good" ending is. It is triumphant and Will emerges a better person.
Rating: 
Summary: A military Masterpiece
Review: Pat conroy is frighteningly truthful in this must read novel about a boys experience in a tough-life military school and his transition from boyhood to being a man. Will Mclean is the narator and hero of this novel. He expresses all the horrid details, all the touching revelations, all the tear-wrenching loyalties involved in this literary work of art. The book is filled with mystery and feeling as Will Mclean, a cadet at Carolina Military Institute, overcomes challenge after challenge and watches his fellow classmen fall out of the ranks of the school. His survival is based on his instincts, his dedication, his friendship. But all of these come under jeapardy as he is torn between friends, the institute, his dreams of love, and his commitment towards the destruction of a malevolent secret force known as The Ten. One of Pat Conroy's best works. You simply cannot put this down after you open it.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful novel
Review: Pat Conroy's Lords of Discipline is a powerful, gripping and suspense-filled novel. It is a rewarding read that gives you great insight into the life of a young cadet struggling in his journey from boyhood to manhood. You are exposed to Will McLean's battles against corruption in a Southern military college and his own self-righteousness.
Will McLean arrives in Charleston as an innocent boy who is about to encounter the fight of his life in a quest to be an Institute graduate or a "whole man." Will's own self-righteousness allows him to get involved with the first black freshman during his senior year, putting himself face-to-face with years of unjust tradition and a powerful secret society known as the Ten. Will is physically assaulted, heartbroken, and betrayed in his struggle against corruption at the highest level of the Carolina Military Institute. Will makes a vow to defeat the system and never turn into the people who tortured him, therefore gaining something positive from his stay at CMI.
Once Conroy's gripping plot takes off, the fast pace continues throughout the whole book. You become totally engulfed by Will's story, reading faster and faster to see what will happen next.
The powerful novel is sure to have a strong effect on whoever reads it. I can hardly wait to read another Conroy novel.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging and well written
Review: Pat Conroy's The Lords of Discipline is on the road to becoming a contemporary classic. The book has its fair share of faults, but its so fulfilling and such a pleasure to bask in Conroy's masterful use of language that most of the novel's problems can be forgiven.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks here is that there's only ever one real character (the main character, Will) that we can identify with and like. Other characters that we have small exposure too or who are larger-than-life caricatures are easily enjoyed, but none of the other characters that really matter or that we focus on are very likeable. That is, it seems to me, a conscious decision on Conroy's part, but I think my enjoyment was slightly lessened because of it. Still, Will is such a complex and universally likeable character, and his circumstances were so well detailed and convincingly upsetting, that it can really be ignored.
The only problem in the novel that I really cannot get over is Conroy's story structure. For the first hundred pages or so, we are learning about Will in his senior year at the Institute. His relationships are being defined, he is beginning a romantic relationship with the pregnant Annie-Kate, and he is protecting the Institute's first African-American student from a secret society known as "the ten." Then, just as we get settled into this world and as our anticipation of the characters and relationships begins to really set in, we are whisked back three years to Will's first year at the Institute. All of the information in this interlude is necessary, but the placement takes us out of the novel's most important storylines. It is the awkwardness of this placement that knocks The Lords of Discipline down to four stars in my view.
Still, the novel's strengths make this a must buy for any fan of literature. Conroy's prose really is a marvel to behold; it's a shame the current best sellers like Dan Brown couldn't have some ability at creating poetic prose. Conroy also has a gift at pulling on the proper emotional strings and making us truly passionate about the events in the novel. I found my self truly enraged again and again; a rare occurrence with most modern literature.
Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining and engrossing but not great
Review: Patrick Conroy's Lords of Discipline is a good read but there are definitely some blatant flaws. Before I start criticizing though, I do want to acknowledge the excellent diction and the setting descriptions. Conroy does a nice job bringing the Southern military college to life.
However, the Lords of Discpline turns into a twisting and turning detective story with lots of puzzle and strays away what the novel's main purpose is at the the beginning of the book: charting the growth of a boy into a man. Also, these plot twists, while numerous, are somewhat predictable and not provoking to the reader.
I also think that Conroy did not proportion the development of the characters well. Only the protagonist, Will McClean, is the character whose thoughts and actions are analyzed and displayed for the reader. The other characters, while important, are more helpers in moving the plot along than dynamic personalities that readers can relate to.
These are my two biggest criticisms of Conroy's work, that is strays from the theme and only develops one character. Despite these shortcomings, it is an entertaining read and I recommend reading it because it has alot of action to keep you hooked.
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