What readers think of South of Broad, plus links to write your own review.

Pat Conroy has done it again. I was completely immersed in the book. The characters were described so well, I felt as if I knew each one. His love of Charleston is strongly sensed by the reader.

How wonderful for a group of friends to be so strongly bonded. An excellent book.

Mr Conroy's new book South of Broad was worth the wait. Making use of the magic of language ,he tells the story of a time,a group of friends and a city. These themes are woven together in a seamless interdependent manner. This book will appeal to a broad reader base.

With characters as lush and vibrant as a Charleston garden, Pat Conroy weaves a story about life-long friendship and human connection that cannot be broken by time, distance, nor violence. Conroy's writing is tragic, with even more Southern drawl and flair for the dramatic than his previous novels. A must-read for all fans in search of the Great American Novel.

With South of Broad, an ode to the beauty of Charleston and the joys and sorrows of friendship, Pat Conroy pulled me into his imagined world from page one. It's not the first time this has happened and I hope it won't be the last. The most vivid complex character is the city itself. He captures the smells, sights, sounds and spirit of this beautiful, fragile place.

I was so pleased to have the opportunity to read and review this book. I have read all of Mr. Conroy's fiction and enjoyed the books in varying degrees.

I found the descriptions of Charleston so vivid that I felt I was there. The story itself seemed to bog down in the middle, but by the end of the book I was totally immersed in the world of Leo King and his friends.

All in all, a pleasure to read.

South of Broad is a novel by one of my favorite authors (Pat Conroy) about one of my favorite cities (Charleston). I was prepared to love it, and I did. Conroy's lyrical descriptions of Charleston (and also San Francisco) are magnificent. There are elements of chick-lit here - all of the women are beautiful and sexy, the men are all accomplished - but the beauty of the writing compensate for this. There were scenes which I found entirely unbelievable, but I did love the plot lines and especially liked the character of Leo. I thought that the San Francisco section dragged on a bit. But the ending of the book was exceptionally strong. I love Conroy's sense of humor. Here's hoping that we don't have to wait so long for his next work. He is a real treasure. I will certainly recommend this book to friends and to my book club.

Pat Conroy is one of my favorite authors and he did not let me down with his latest novel, South of Broad. It is a wonderfully written account of a white middle class teenage boy growing up in the south during the tumultuous 60s. He is the anchor of a racially, socially and economically diverse group of teens, all of whom are facing the challenges of coexisting in a newly segregated world. Conroy does an excellent job of recreating this time period in American history through the widely varying viewpoints of his well defined teen characters.

Many reviews say that the novel is cheesy and laughable fictional. The plot takes so many twists that it's difficult to keep up or even believe there story line. I feel that this is not the main concept or purpose of the book, but the ideas that people are "catapulted into lives they were never meant to lead" is the essence of the novel. Drawing parallels between convoys other novels, he kills off favorite characters and builds their lives up to tragedy. I truly believe he does this (as angering as it may be) because there truly is nothing left for those characters, nowhere left for them to go, their only sanctuary is death. I find myself unable to tear myself away from these books. And as for the language that some view as insulting or dry, I find humorous and painfully truthful. Conroe has a way with his words that can be eloquent and harsh at the same time as it reflects in his characters. I loved this book as it made me insane reading it obsessively.