by Pat Conroy
First published 2013
Pat Conroy opens his family story with a confession. He hated his father Donald Patrick Conroy long before he had words for that feeling. The Marine Corps fighter pilot dragged his wife Peg and seven children from base to base across the South, leaving bruises and terror in his wake. Pat watched his father's cruelty destroy his siblings and nearly break his mother, who became his only connection to books and hope. Writing became Pat's escape route, but success brought new problems. When The Great Santini made Pat famous, it tore his already fractured family apart. His father felt betrayed by his son's public portrayal. Years of silence followed. Then something unexpected happened. As Donald Conroy aged, he began defending the son he had once terrorized. The man who had beaten his family started protecting Pat's reputation instead. This memoir chronicles their unlikely reconciliation and asks whether love can truly soften the cruelest hearts.
Genres: american-fiction, abuse, 20th-century, memoir, biography-memoir, family-drama
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, redemption
Period: 20th-Century
352 pages · Hardcover · Nan A. Talese
Content warnings: abuse, domestic-violence, physical-abuse