Helpful Score: 15
First Line: It was my father who called the city the Mansion on the River.
It is said that Pat Conroy has a remarkable command of the language of the heart. For me over the years, this has been very true. Where some may see sentimentality, melodrama, and florid prose, I have always seen the mists of memory and the abiding power of friendship to transform and to strengthen. Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder.
When I learned that, at long last, a new Conroy novel was about to be published, I was happy. When I discovered that the title of the novel was South of Broad I think my smile stretched from ear to ear. To me, "south of Broad" can only mean Charleston, South Carolina, and it is in the beautiful city of Charleston that Conroy places his disparate band of friends.
In 1969, Leo "Toad" King was about to embark on his final year of high school. It's never been particularly easy for Toad. When he was a child, he found the body of his beloved older brother Steve in a blood-filled bathtub-- a suicide. No one knew what on earth could've made this golden teenager take his own life, and in his horror and denial Leo rapidly became a misfit. It is remarkable that, in this final year of high school, he is able to become a part of a very interesting mix of friends: Ike Jefferson, the son of the first black high school football coach in Charleston; two orphans Niles and Starla Whitehead; Molly, Chad and Fraser, members of Charleston aristocracy; and the twins Sheba and Trevor Poe who, along with their alcoholic mother, are on the run from their psychotic father.
The story alternates between these friends' senior year in 1969 and 1989 when Sheba-- now a Hollywood star-- comes back to Charleston to ask her friends to help her find her HIV-positive brother in AIDS ravaged San Francisco. Conroy touches upon some major themes in South of Broad: racism, homosexuality, classism, and religion. Most of all the book is a love letter to Charleston and to the power of friendship.
Leo usually speaks in rather awed tones of his friends. No matter how old he becomes, he will always be "Toad", always the misfit, always the one who doesn't quite measure up to the glamor, style and success of his friends, no matter how nice he genuinely is or how hard he tries. He speaks to all those who have ever felt themselves to be outsiders.
If there is any part of this novel that I had a problem with, it was the plot element concerning Sheba and Trevor's psychotic father. This character was a one-dimensional bogey man that I had a difficult time believing. For the most part, I was carried away on the tide of Leo's memories and of my own of a magical day I spent wandering the streets of Charleston four months before Hurricane Hugo hit. Conroy made me remember a very special city, and he made me remember and give thanks that there are people in the world who truly know how to be friends.
It is said that Pat Conroy has a remarkable command of the language of the heart. For me over the years, this has been very true. Where some may see sentimentality, melodrama, and florid prose, I have always seen the mists of memory and the abiding power of friendship to transform and to strengthen. Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder.
When I learned that, at long last, a new Conroy novel was about to be published, I was happy. When I discovered that the title of the novel was South of Broad I think my smile stretched from ear to ear. To me, "south of Broad" can only mean Charleston, South Carolina, and it is in the beautiful city of Charleston that Conroy places his disparate band of friends.
In 1969, Leo "Toad" King was about to embark on his final year of high school. It's never been particularly easy for Toad. When he was a child, he found the body of his beloved older brother Steve in a blood-filled bathtub-- a suicide. No one knew what on earth could've made this golden teenager take his own life, and in his horror and denial Leo rapidly became a misfit. It is remarkable that, in this final year of high school, he is able to become a part of a very interesting mix of friends: Ike Jefferson, the son of the first black high school football coach in Charleston; two orphans Niles and Starla Whitehead; Molly, Chad and Fraser, members of Charleston aristocracy; and the twins Sheba and Trevor Poe who, along with their alcoholic mother, are on the run from their psychotic father.
The story alternates between these friends' senior year in 1969 and 1989 when Sheba-- now a Hollywood star-- comes back to Charleston to ask her friends to help her find her HIV-positive brother in AIDS ravaged San Francisco. Conroy touches upon some major themes in South of Broad: racism, homosexuality, classism, and religion. Most of all the book is a love letter to Charleston and to the power of friendship.
Leo usually speaks in rather awed tones of his friends. No matter how old he becomes, he will always be "Toad", always the misfit, always the one who doesn't quite measure up to the glamor, style and success of his friends, no matter how nice he genuinely is or how hard he tries. He speaks to all those who have ever felt themselves to be outsiders.
If there is any part of this novel that I had a problem with, it was the plot element concerning Sheba and Trevor's psychotic father. This character was a one-dimensional bogey man that I had a difficult time believing. For the most part, I was carried away on the tide of Leo's memories and of my own of a magical day I spent wandering the streets of Charleston four months before Hurricane Hugo hit. Conroy made me remember a very special city, and he made me remember and give thanks that there are people in the world who truly know how to be friends.
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