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Editorial Review Book Description
A novel you will never forget...
This  powerful and breathtaking novel is the story of  four cadets who have become bloodbrothers. Together  they will encounter the hell of hazing and the  rabid, raunchy and dangerously secretive atmosphere  of an arrogant and proud military institute. They  will experience the violence. The passion. The  rage. The friendship. The loyalty. The betrayal.  Together, they will brace themselves for the brutal  transition to manhood... and one will not  survive.
With all the dramatic brilliance he  brought to The Great Santini, Pat  Conroy sweeps you into the turbulent world of  these four friends -- and draws you deep into the  heart of his rebellious hero, Will McLean, an  outsider forging his personal code of honor, who falls  in love with a whimsical beauty... and who  undergoes a transition more remarkable then he ever  imagined possible.Download Description
A coming of age story in a Southern military academy for boys ... Read more Customer Reviews (167) 
Lords of Discipline
About half way thru this book and had to set it aside.I'll return to it later as it is a little too intense and the language is shocking.
I thought his books Beach Music and The Prince of Tides were much better.I could not put Beach Music down.
One of Conroy's Best
This is a great military/coming of age novel by Pat Conroy that I would put slightly behind The Great Santini (one of my favorite books of all time) in his catalogue. In this story, Conroy follows a young cadet at the fictional Carolina Military Institute (modeled partly on Conroy's time at The Citadel) as he endures his plebe year and then comes to grip with the fact that the school fosters a great deal of hate, racism and cruelty to accomplish its mission of developing the Complete Man. Conroy's writing always moves quickly with engaging dialogue, humor and entertaining story lines and this book is no exception. It is certainly deeper than your standard pop fiction book, but it reads just as easily and quickly. I would highly recommend it to Conroy fans, people who enjoy good fiction (even my mother likes this book) or people who have interest in military schools or the South in the 50's. A very good book.
Duty, Honor, Country
The mark of a successful coming of age story is that you, the reader, can see yourself reflected in the protagonist.For me, this book worked very well.Will McLean, the main character and first-person narrator, a second generation Irish boy, son of a Marine, a mongrel outsider in the pedigreed Carolina Military Institute searches for himself, the man within the boy who is being molded by a system of discipline and honor that doesn't match his internal morality.He's an English major in a college of warriors.He's a basketball player, a finesse guard, in a school of brute force.He's fighting against systems he doesn't understand within a life choiceless in it's inequality.
Pat Conroy, himself a graduate of the model for the fictional Institute, The Citadel, weaves a compelling tension-filled story while eloquent in his setting, Charleston, South Carolina.Employing gracious proper Southern dialect filled with flowers, antiques, and tradition, he describes brutality, racism, sexism, and betrayal.The language works well because it provides within its description the biting irony of the scenes.Will McLean fights through every taboo the South has to offer in the 1960's:a black cadet in the all-white tradition of the military college, an unwed pregnant girl shunned by society for her shame while the father of her baby remains blameless, the brutal plebe system that crushes individuality while remaking young men as soulless military automatons, the classed society of high south old money and it's cruelty to those not born within the circle, and the fact that military honor doesn't equate to individual morality.
Fighting through this maze of pitfalls, McLean has only his closest and dearest friends to rely on, roommates Dante "Pig" Pignetti and Mark Santoro, two brawny, Northern boys of Italian descent and Tradd St. Croix, an "old Charlestonian" (from a very rich and respected family).His moral guide through the story is the epitomy of hard military men, Colonel "Bear" Berrineau, a vulgar battle-scarred man whose character is unimpeachable and whose idea of duty includes awful repercussions.
I loved this story and I couldn't put it down.If I had one criticism to give, it's that Conroy tried to put too much into the novel - too many problems and taboos and tried to fix hundreds of years worth of problems in one book.But, that's not really a criticism because he did it and did it well.Bravo.
CV Rick
spectacular
Gorgeously crafted, eloquent, beautiful, gripping, powerful.Simply an amazing book.All of Pat Conroy's books have common ties to his childhood, and this one is perhaps the best of them all.
probably the best book I've ever read...
I LOVE this book and have read it many times.I don't know what drew me to the book initially, but it was a powerful read - a story about growing up, military school, mystery, love story - everything rolled in one.I get something new out of it every time I read it.I had the great pleasure of meeting Mr. Conroy some years back at a book signing - just the Southern gentleman you'd expect! - he said he is always surprised when women like this book because of the military setting.It is much more than a book about a military school (and the movie version did not do it justice). I highly recommend this book.
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