South of Broad by Pat Conroy - CONT.

I just finished South of Broad and as with all Pat Conroy books, I can't decide whether to laugh, cry or wax poetically about life.

If even possible, I think my imagination has managed to grow since I was a child and I can vividly picture each gruesome image and event that is portrayed, in rich detail, in the book so that was a major difficulty in reading it. It makes it a)hard for me to put down until there is a "happy" place to stop and b)make me physically ill to think about dead bodies, men wracked with HIV/AIDS, incest, etc.

He took the unease all the way to the end too, there was almost no respite. In the book - there were moments where the characters either discussed a happy memory or were happy, but as the reader I kept waiting for the ax to fall...and it feel close to where I expected it to sadly enough.

As I mentioned in my previous post, there are many common themes/archetypes, etc that Conroy recycles through his other books. One is his love/hate relationship with the Catholic Church. Both Jack (Beach Music) and Leo (South of Broad) appreciate the beauty and sanctity of the church that was a staple in their early lives but both grow to distrust it and even seem to hate it as they grow older but still are unable to escape their early devotion to it. I've read several interviews with Conroy and found a quote that I think he sums it up well with:

"PC – I’m a bad Catholic. Being a Catholic is unwashable, there’s nothing you can do about it, it’s like being Jewish, its like being Black, its like being Korean, you can’t do anything but swing with it. I was utterly taken by that church and shaken around and they will not let you go. It’s one of those things I have gotten used to it — I’m going to be a Catholic the rest of my life, and I can yell about it, I can scream about it, I can not go to church, whatever I do."

Another thing I have found odd about his books is that they all focus on a 20 year time spread - from the '60s-'80s - not sure why he focuses so much on those years unless he considers them his most formidable and once again, pulling from his own life stories and experiences. Although, in an interview I just found he says "Its autobiographical elements are "more hidden," he says. "The relatives have less to worry and complain about."