Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - Beach Music

Beach Music
Beach Music
Author: Pat Conroy
Pat Conroy is without doubt America's favorite storyteller, a writer who portrays the anguished truth of the human heart and the painful secrets of families in richly lyrical prose and unforgettable narratives. Now, in Beach Music, he tells of the dark memories that haunt generations, in a story that spans South Carolina and Rome and reac...  more »
Info icon
ISBN-13: 9780385413046
ISBN-10: 0385413041
Publication Date: 6/1/1995
Pages: 640
Rating:
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 136

3.8 stars, based on 136 ratings
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Beach Music on + 2 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
I haven't read Pat Conroy before but should have because we share a common background (teachers in unusual schools). I found the book to be a good read with lots action and the characters real. It was interesting that the Halocaust and the sixties mixed together to cause so much pain to the main character, Jack McCall. The loss of his wife and his search for understanding this loss is the thread through the entire story. His mother is a hoot with great grit and determination. Jack's brothers come across as believable showing what a close knit but volatile group is like. If you're around them it's kinda duck and cover time. I enjoyed it. Hope you do too.
e4hand avatar reviewed Beach Music on + 3 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
This is the best book ever written, hands down. Every time I read a Pat Conroy book, I realize that he is the best author in the world. I have trouble describing how they make me feel but it's like every other book I've ever thought was good just paled in comparison. It's so deeply moving and thought-provoking. I don't normally cry or like to read books that move me to tears but I've read this one several times and keep coming back for more to remember the feeling. Any of his books are wonderful but this one is my personal favorite. However, it is not a light, easy read by any means and if you can't deal with some unpleasant parts and real family drama I don't recommend it. If you can get past how slowly it moves at times and how heartbreakingly depressing it can be, it will hit you when you finish it how fabulous this book truly is. I hope you like it as much as I do.
reviewed Beach Music on
Helpful Score: 4
This is my new favorite book. Prince of Tides (also by Pat Conroy) used to be, now Beach Music has moved up in the rank. Much of his text is pure poetry. If I were an English teacher I would use many of his paragraphs to exemplify how to paint a heart-felt picture.

Conroy is amazing at developing the characters and providing rich detail of their personal experiences with poverty and war. These sections make a great narrative of the realities of the Holocaust and Vietnam, and how those experiences left indellible marks on those who lived through that time. I am going to have my teenage daughters read it just to get a first-person perspective of Germany in the 1940's and America in the 1970's.

I didn't want it to end. I spent several nights lying in bed awake, thinking of who I would cast in a film adaption of Beach Music.
reviewed Beach Music on + 40 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
I read all 628 pages in such a short time. It kept my interest throughout.
Some of the many stories were incredibly brutal & hard to take.

It would be interesting to read just a pure Conroy biography -- what
makes his family relationships so dark???
Honey11682 avatar reviewed Beach Music on + 95 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
This book keeps your intrest from the first page all the way to the last page. It is well written and you get involved in every character. 800 pages and it seems like maybe a 100 pages. It reads so quickly!
Read All 70 Book Reviews of "Beach Music"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

BigGreenChair avatar reviewed Beach Music on + 461 more book reviews
Took me years to get around to reading, but this is a beautiful, very well-written book. I highly recommend it. The storyline is plausible and interesting, and the writing is top notch.
reviewed Beach Music on + 5 more book reviews
My Favorite Pat Conroy and I've read them all. Once again I feel like I was there, that I know these people and their crazy lives and once again my own family seems fairly normal!
reviewed Beach Music on
Couldnt finish it - too many lurid details that drone on and on and on.....Bleck!
chesse avatar reviewed Beach Music on + 135 more book reviews
Amazing read. Conroy was/is an American icon. Wordsmith master.
reviewed Beach Music on + 4 more book reviews
I loved it!
reviewed Beach Music on + 16 more book reviews
A quote on the back cover of my copy says "Reading Pat Conroy is like watching Michaelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel." PERFECT analogy for this novel- the writing is beautiful, and the book as a whole is a true work of art, but reading it is painstakingly slow.
doggylover avatar reviewed Beach Music on + 10 more book reviews
I actually listened to the audio version of this book at work many years ago. It's a wonderfully told story that will have you both laughing and crying, as well as disappointed when it comes to an end. It wasn't often that someone in the office would find a book that was so good, it would make its way through several departments with multiple people listening to it at the same time, but this was definitely one of them. Pat Conroy is a wonderful storyteller, and this is one that shouldn't be missed.
reviewed Beach Music on
Loved this book! VERY well written with such beautiful descriptions of virtually every encounter, person and animal in the book! The characters are lovable and some contemptible, but you get a true and accurate portrayal of all. Wholeheartedly recommend this book!
reviewed Beach Music on + 7 more book reviews
Although I found this book easy to put down, I also found it easy to pick back up. I really enjoyed the story.


Genres: