By Pat Conroy Beach Music (New edition) [Paperback] Paperback – 16 Sep 1996

I've loved other books by Pat Conroy but not this. It went off at a tangent far too many times and was like three books in one. Shyla's back story: boring. Jack's family and being a sole parent: boring. Jack and Jordan growing up... Ah, finally, interesting. Found I skipped whole chapters, especially when Jack's brothers took centre stage. Talk about longwinded and wordy. I'm sure some would find Shyla's back story interesting, but it just went on and on. Hate to say it but this has put me off picking up another book by this author because this just didn't come up to scratch. And how anyone can say they were moved to tears ... It was far too contrived and dramatic to be a tearjerker in my opinion. I see some reviewers say they read it more than once ... how? Once was enough, and only then because I skipped chapters. Very disappointed.

The reason for the lower rating is that this is a horrible 4 x 7 edition of the book, typeset right up to the edge of the pages so that I had to break the spine to read it and scattered with typos. It doesn't have a copyright page and, honestly, I have to wonder if it is a legal copy. Good, but nowhere near as good as The Prince of Tides. If you are a newcomer to Pat Conroy's work, I would suggest TPoT. It has all of the same themes, and then some.

I love this story & I’ve read it several times, so I was excited to buy it for a friend’s birthday present. When it arrived, I was disappointed to find it was a cheap-looking copy - flimsy, with minuscule text & a cover that looks like a scan of a better edition. This has made me wary of purchasing books from Amazon!

Again Pat Conroy takes us on a tour from Italy back to the deep south with this tragic tale and woven with comedy, food and all in his beautiful southern prose that you can hear as you read.

I love this book. Pat Conroy is a superb writer and pulls you right in to the story and you feel you are there with the characters.

Pat Conroy speaks of a horrendous childhood but always manages to bring forgiveness to the fore. I love this writer.

It's not often that I feel the need to write a review but this book is so exceptional I feel that I must. I have just re-read this having read it for the first time about 5 or 6 years ago. It is, quite simply, one of the best books I have ever read. Ever. It's up there with Thornbirds for being a marvellous, epic story. The writing is so evocative and lyrical, funny in places, hearbreaking in others. It made me laugh, made me cry, and made me want to move to South Carolina. Read it. Enjoy it. You really won't be disappointed.

I'm reading this wonderful 📚 for the second time.This time I'm taking it slowly..so I can savour prose.Read it..you won't be disappointed !

Great book, fast delivery

What a wonderful book, every sentence is a pleasure to read. The first Pat Conroy I had ever read and all of his book are excellent.

Far too much information about completely irrelevant aspects of the tale. Five pages to say why Jack reminded George of Germans -well really!!!!

My all time favourite book

The book was well written and very gripping.

good

An excellent read - as good as his others.