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Article: With 'Beach Music' Pat Conroy continues to wallow in his family's dysfunctions.(Originated from Knight-Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- September 6, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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CHARLESTON, S.C. _ From life to fiction to film to shtick: That is how Pat Conroy processes his family traumas.
Remember the ``Great Santini''? The abusive father became an antihero who plunged to a fiery death. The life was transmuted into myth; the death was a fiction. And retired U.S. Marine Col. Don Conroy _ who denies that he used to beat up his family _ lives on in Atlanta, an endless source of anecdotes for his son.
Pat Conroy glories in the stories, tales riddled with both triumph and high irony. While his father inhabits his fiction, he also is shadowing the son (once again) on his latest book tour, to promote the best-selling ``Beach Music.'' Which ...