Book Review - The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy

The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy was written in 1972 and it’s a timely read. My book club suggested it and the late Pat Conroy never disappointed. His humor and smooth talking Southern voice drawls from the pages as you turn them. He’s a sharp writer and deft with descriptions and the human narrative. I dare you to read this book and not be touched by his true story.

Cover blurb: The island is nearly deserted, haunting, beautiful. Across a slip of ocean lies South Carolina. But for the handful of families on Yamacraw Island, America is a world away.

Currently, their school has no teacher and looks to the mainland for “volunteers” to give a year of life to live on the island and try to teach these “heathen black kids”. Pat Conroy chooses his calling and climbs aboard the small boat that ferries him to the island. Here’s this white man who’s consciously moved from southern prejudice to teach black kids the ABCs. He’s appalled at what they don’t know. He’s appalled that the members of the school board have given up on these kids. He’s especially appalled at the one black woman who looks down her nose the most at these poor youth.

Oh, it’s a struggle and you will laugh out loud at how he describes some situations. He’s dealing with a lot of traditions, a lot of fears, and he learns quickly who he needs to get on his side (an elder grandmother holds the key). With some acceptance, he can arrange a field trip to the mainland for the kids to experience Halloween. This is a whole new world and requires shoes for some kids.

The poverty is immense. The lack of proper learning is a huge gap. The Water is Wide indeed. But by the end of the book, it looks like Pat Conroy has learned the most, and  gained the respect and touched the lives of kids. Neither party will ever be the same. It’s quite an eye opening education and book to read.

2011: Reading Life and the Goon Squad

Time is the Goon Squad and you can't escape. It's inexorable movement forward is captured by Jennifer Egan with excellent writing, humor, and a variety of styles including a Power Point chapter presentation. Each chapter's little stories ultimately link characters, places, and life itself. The main backdrop is the music industry, and in it Bennie Salazar fights to remain valid. Sasha, his young assistant, journeys through the book stealing possessions and our hearts. From New York to San Francisco, Naples, and Africa, characters interlock, live, love, and manage to survive. A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan enthralled me.

From The Great Santini to Prince of Tides to Beach Music, Pat Conroy's lyrical prose with a southern lilt made me a fan. Now with My Reading Life, he shares his love of books, reading, libraries, and words. Whether it's Gone With the Wind or Charles Dickens, Conroy's passion for books and his enthusiasm for other writers is infectious. His anecdotes are humorous and touching, as his skill as a writer kept me turning the pages. I received this book as a Christmas gift, and cherish it as such.

P.127 "I selected all my books for the possibility of some flare of candles along the road toward illumination or enchantment."

P.140 in regards to a beloved bookstore (now sadly closed): "It was once a home of thirty thousand books, a village of lost souls who once held citizenship in a princely city of ideas where the bright glimmer of the English language formed a great wall before the assembled forces of chaos."

p. 304 "Good writing is the hardest form of thinking. It involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid forms, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear."

Pat Conroy's thinking appears effortless on the page.

Begin 2011 with these two book recommendations and you are on the road to discovery. Time is the goon squad. Use it wisely.