Beach Music (Audio Book)
   Pat Conroy, Narrated by Frank Muller
  1995 Recorded Books, NY USA
   ISBN: 0553472704


Jack McCall lives in Italy with his young daughter, trying to heal from his wife's suicide. He has created a niche for himself, writing about travel & food & tries to get as far away from his South Carolina roots as he can. One day in Rome Jack realizes he's being followed, then he's being wooed back by a school friend & when he gets word that his beloved mother is dying, suddenly he must return home. Once there it seems everyone needs his help.

Spanning decades from the turn of the century in both Russia & the American Coastal South to yesterday in Italy; from the back hills of Tennessee to Concentration Camps during WWII; from a family of rambunctious brothers, their parents' wild courtship & marriage. Winging from the shtetls of the Pale of Russia to the beach houses of Waterford, South Carolina, Jim McCall recalls clashes of cultures as the Viet Nam war heats up & his college campus goes berserk; still remembers the betrayals & secrets between students.

This is a fascinating saga in the truest sense. Memories of wartime tragedies & epiphanies; domestic violence & passion; childhood worship & teenage adventures on the high seas all intermingle in the life of a vulnerable & very real hero.

Frank Muller's narration was a joy to return to as the spring rains washed down outside & my quilts of many colors blossomed. I found myself gleefully laughing at the brothers' antics, shaken by the passionate prose of Pat Conroy, so fluently read.

Beach Music is a grand read from saving sea turtles to waiting as a mother dies; from watching people come to terms with their part in the puzzle of their lives to learning to love again; from remembering old betrayals & stepping forward into honor.

There are at least two themes to this epic: the love & sacrifice of families: of mothers & sons, fathers & daughters. The other is McCall's own memories: of his high school best friends & their adventures & betrayals. As the memories unfold & the stories told, a gradual reconciliation comes about & a mystery begun during his student years is finally, dramatically resolved.

Eminently readable, full of rich satisfying scenes, emotional interplays, funny moments & epiphanies.

Very well done!

Also by Pat Conroy: The Boo; The Water is Wide; The Great Santini; The Lords of Discipline & The Prince of Tides.
(06/18/00)

Rebecca