I have just finished one of the truly outstanding novels of the late 20th Century: Beach Music by Pat Conroy. I picked up the 800-page novel because of a rave review of it on a messageboard. It appeared that it would have been a story to which I would not be able to totally relate, as it dealt with the great American South - a world away from my own. However, the story of Jack McCall and the numerous characters that are intricately entwined with his past is a glorious one full of heart-wrenching flashbacks. The stories of woe, of the atrocities of war, abuse, human suffering, cover a wide expanse of the 20th Century: the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, the turbulent 60s.
Pat Conroy's style of writing is extreme in its meticulous descriptiveness. When I first started reading the novel, the overly-ambitious descriptions of every scene were almost overwhelming. As I continued reading, I came to appreciate the deftness with which Conroy used words to create such vivid images. He is simply masterful. I believe that he has succeeded in crafting a story of epic proportions, and, as a result, has penned one of the best novels that I have ever had the pleasure to read.
I have always found it strange, but delightful, how the human mind can conjure up entire worlds based on mere words on a page. It is so interesting to come up with the look of a character, whether entirely imaginary or based on a real person, and watching them in the mind's eye interacting with all the other characters. Reading a novel is like being the director of a film, creating a vision of how one wants a scene to look, feel, sound, smell, and taste. To envelope oneself in the faraway world of a great story is to allow oneself, however briefly, to escape the drudgery of everyday existence.
Onto the next great novel! (I have already put my name on the list for the August 2009 release of Pat Conroy's first novel in 14 years. Let's hope that he has not lost his masterful touch.)
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Pat Conroy's style of writing is extreme in its meticulous descriptiveness. When I first started reading the novel, the overly-ambitious descriptions of every scene were almost overwhelming. As I continued reading, I came to appreciate the deftness with which Conroy used words to create such vivid images. He is simply masterful. I believe that he has succeeded in crafting a story of epic proportions, and, as a result, has penned one of the best novels that I have ever had the pleasure to read.
I have always found it strange, but delightful, how the human mind can conjure up entire worlds based on mere words on a page. It is so interesting to come up with the look of a character, whether entirely imaginary or based on a real person, and watching them in the mind's eye interacting with all the other characters. Reading a novel is like being the director of a film, creating a vision of how one wants a scene to look, feel, sound, smell, and taste. To envelope oneself in the faraway world of a great story is to allow oneself, however briefly, to escape the drudgery of everyday existence.
Onto the next great novel! (I have already put my name on the list for the August 2009 release of Pat Conroy's first novel in 14 years. Let's hope that he has not lost his masterful touch.)
