See the hottest books publishing this Summer

Read advance reader review of South of Broad by Pat Conroy, page 4 of 4

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reading Guide |  Reviews |  Beyond the book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

South of Broad by Pat Conroy

South of Broad

by Pat Conroy
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (8):
  • Readers' Rating (29):
  • First Published:
  • Aug 11, 2009, 528 pages
  • Paperback:
  • May 2010, 544 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Reviews


Page 4 of 4
There are currently 23 member reviews
for South of Broad
Order Reviews by:
  • Brooke (CA)
    Hoping for Better
    I have been a fan of Pat Conroy’s writing since 1987, when I read the The Prince of Tides. I appreciated the beauty of the images and depth of the truths his words and sentences evoked in me. Since then, I have read all of his books. I noticed a shift in his writing in his last novel, Beach Music. I felt he was caving in to the pressures of popular fiction by adding superfluous intrigue into the story. Sadly, for me, South of Broad is more of the same. The novel is overwritten and has a contrived and predictable plot. I found a few beautifully crafted sentences, but not enough to recommend the book.
  • Jane (Plantation, FL)
    Disappointing
    I was really looking forward to reading this book. I loved The Great Santini, Lords of Discipline and Prince of Tides is my all-time favorite book. But South of Broad was very disappointing. In parts the writing is beautiful - classic Pat Conroy, but the dialogue particularly is awful and the rest is just ordinary.

    The plot is cliched and predictable, except for the ending, which did take me by surprise, but it wasn't worth slogging through the trite plot. The misfit, unpopular boy somehow in the summer before his senior year in high school make friends with a racially and socially disparate group of friends and ends up being the social conscience of the class. .... The group of friends has a gay guy, three orphans, two blacks, three socially elite kids and the leader of the group, the misfit Leo, and practically overnight in 1969 in the South, they all manage to form friendships that last a lifetime. It's a plot Danielle Steele would be proud of.

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    Lies and Weddings
    by Kevin Kwan
    A forbidden affair erupts at a lavish Hawaiian wedding in this wild comedy from the author of Crazy Rich Asians.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Erased
    by Anna Malaika Tubbs

    In Erased, Anna Malaika Tubbs recovers all that American patriarchy has tried to destroy.

  • Book Jacket

    Songs of Summer
    by Jane L. Rosen

    A young woman crashes a Fire Island wedding to find her birth mother—and gets more than she bargained for.

Who Said...

Be sincere, be brief, be seated

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

B a L

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.