Ok, so I read this book a realllyyyy long time ago. But I still remember how I felt when I read it: I'm glad I did, Conroy is a fantastic writer, his descriptions are unrivaled. But, as many of the reviews I read had pointed out, it seemed that it tried to cram too many important historical events of the past 50 years into one story. From Civil Rights, to AIDS, to celebrity-mania, these movements did affect people's lives, but they played such a large role in the book that it became distracting.
I had the opportunity to visit Charleston just before I read this (I actually read a bit of it there), so reading the story about the city was gratifying as I recognized many sites and streets and styles. If you've never read Conroy, I would suggest reading The Prince of Tides or Beach Music before you pick this one up. Would hate for someone to get turned off from such a fabulous author by this... it's not that bad but definitely not his best.
Hope it isn't 14 more years before his next release!
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