Review: The Great Santini by Pat Conroy

Goodreads: Step into the powerhouse life of Bull Meecham. He's all Marine - fighter pilot, king of the clouds, and absolute ruler of his family. Lillian is his wife - beautiful, southern-bred, with a core of velvet steel. Without her cool head, her kids would be in real trouble. Ben is the oldest, a born athlete whose best never satisfies the big man. Ben's got to stand up, even fight back, against a father who doesn't give in - not to his men, not to his wife, and certainly not to his son.

Kritters Thoughts: A book picked out for my book club - I would have never placed this one on my read list. And even after a rousing discussion with the ladies, I am still not sure how I exactly stand with this one.

Upon beginning the book, I completely despised Bull Meecham - his presence, his attitude and basically just him. I kept telling the boy that I would NEVER live with this man, let alone have four children with him. As the book went on, my feelings for him kept moving to the dark side along with the book. Somewhere just before the end, I decided that I didn't hate the book due to the plot being acceptable - BUT I still hated him.

Then came book club. One of the ladies stands by Pat Conroy and loves everyone of his books. Intrigued, she advised us that this book was autobiographical and the overbearing father that made my feelings boil was in fact based on his own father. Crazy. It is said that because of this book, his family has disbanded and a lot of controversary was made of it.

A book that I would put into the male audience's hands much quicker than the females. A story with a family at the center, women would be intrigued, but beware the man at the center of this family is not one you will fall in love with.

Rating: enjoyable, but didn't leave me wanting more

Pages: 440