The Great Santini...

[birdguy 3,943]

One of my favorite movies.  I'm a big fan of Pat Conroy's writings and the movies made from them.  Another favorite is Conrack.

Since I do not have a copy of The Great Santini in my Nook collection I decided to add it.  But on the way there I came across The Death Of Santini, Pat Conroy's latest book.

The 20 page preface is chilling.  I never realized that The Great Santini was a true story.  It is.  But it pulls a lot of punches.  As Conroy says in the preface it was a sanitized version of life in the Beaufort house because when he wrote it he didn't think anyone would believe the truth.

Don Conroy was the ultimate warrior, both in the cockpit and at home.  He was a wife and child beater.  A hero to his pilot buddies but a terrorist to his family who all bore the scars including a daughter who almost went insane and a younger son who committed suicide by leaping off the roof of a 14 story building in Columbia South Carolina.

The last paragraph of the preface really tells why Conroy is writing this book.

Mom and Dad, I need to go back there once again.  I've got to try to make sense of it one last time, a final circling of the block, a reckoning, another dive into the coral reef where the morays wait in ambush, one more flight into the immortal darkness to study that house of pain a final time.  Then I'll be finished with you, Mom and Dad.  I'll leave you in peace and not bother you again.  And I'll pray that your stormy spirits find peace in the house of the Lord.  But I must examine the wreckage one last time.  

There is a hint of all this at the end of the movie after LtCol Bull Meacham dies in the crash of his F-4.  Pat is sitting with his mother and tells her, "Often when he is flying at night I wish he would crash.  Maybe tonight he ran into one of those wishes."

I don't really know if I want to read it or not now.  But I know I will because I want to know more about Pat Conroy and, perhaps, why he became such a prolific and entertaining writer.  

Pat Conroy began the book just after he turned 65.  He said that at the starting line of old age he's was ready.

Noel

 

Edited January 23, 2021 by birdguy

[n4gix 4,947]

I remember watching "The Great Santini" many years ago, but had to read the synopsis at Amazon to recall any of the plotline. 

[Penzoil3 480]

This is all your fault Noel. Just bought both of them. I'll read the great, first.

 Sue

[birdguy 3,943]

I like your new picture Sue.  Very nice.

I had read the book before I saw the movie 30 or so years ago.  I have the bound book but I can't read small type on the printed page anymore so I ordered them both too.

I'm going to read 'death' first and then go back and read 'great'.  I'll be reading it in a different light knowing what the family was really about.

Noel

[Penzoil3 480]

22 hours ago, birdguy said:

I can't read small type on the printed page anymore

Glad it's not just me...

LOL

 Sue

[birdguy 3,943]

Yeah Sue.  It makes Kindle and Nook godsends for people like us.

Noel

[W2DR 1,860]

Put me in the club too. I can still read the "fine print"...some. But after a few minutes it all turns a "little fuzzy". I ,also, love my Kindle...........Doug

[n4gix 4,947]

10 hours ago, W2DR said:

Put me in the club too. I can still read the "fine print"...some. But after a few minutes it all turns a "little fuzzy". I ,also, love my Kindle...........Doug

I like my Kindle as well, but I keep trying to "turn the page..." It's going to take a long time to break that habit.

On the other hand, I still have a stack of dead-tree books and occasionally find myself using my right thumb to tap the right margin to 'flip the page!'