Pat Conroy: A Critical Companion

(Hardback)

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Description

No one who has read Pat Conroy's novels of family wounds and healing can fail to be moved by their emotional appeal. But Conroy is also a major contemporary American novelist who follows in the tradition of Southern fiction established by William Faulkner and Thomas Wolfe. This companion is the first book-length study of his work. It explores the recurring motifs in his fiction and his special writing talents as a prose stylist of uncommon distinction. A separate chapter for The Boo and The Water is Wide and each novel The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides, and his most recent, Beach Musicprovides a detailed analysis of the books and the common threads that unite all the novels. A biographical chapter draws connections between Conroy's life and the autobiographical nature of his fiction. A chapter on genre traces Conroy's roots in southern fiction and shows how all the novels fall into the rite-of-passage genre. Each novel is analyzed for plot structure, characterization, thematic elements, and Conroy's increasingly elaborate style and development as a master of the art of the novel. In addition, Burns defines and applies a variety of alternative approaches to the novels to widen the reader's perspective. A complete bibliography of Conroy's fiction as well as selected reviews and criticism complete the work. Because of Pat Conroy's popularity among adults and teenagers, this first critical work of a major contemporary American writer is a necessary purchase by public and secondary school libraries.

Reviews

A model of its kind, this student aid is recommended for general and undergraduate collections.-Choice
Biographical information and critical analysis of this best-selling author are painstakingly presented. Conroy's dysfunctional family is well described in the first chapter...His coming-of-age themes and how his novels fit into the "Southern genre" are extensively discussed in the critical analysis of his work...Burns has done a fine job of delving into the writer's life and works...this is a much-needed resource.-School Library Journal
"A model of its kind, this student aid is recommended for general and undergraduate collections."-Choice
"Biographical information and critical analysis of this best-selling author are painstakingly presented. Conroy's dysfunctional family is well described in the first chapter...His coming-of-age themes and how his novels fit into the "Southern genre" are extensively discussed in the critical analysis of his work...Burns has done a fine job of delving into the writer's life and works...this is a much-needed resource."-School Library Journal

Author Bio

LANDON C. BURNS is Professor Emeritus of English at The Pennsylvania State University. He maintains an active interest in the short story, mystery and detective fiction, and the popular novel. His paper on the mystery novelist Robert Bernard was presented at the Popular Culture Association Conference in March 1996.