The Great Santini

The Great Santini (1976) by Pat Conroy. Meet Lieutenant Colonel Bull Meecham, USMC, a fighter pilot and father to four children. The book is told half from Meecham's point of view, half from his son Ben's, and it's one of the most compulsively readable novels I've ever read. I almost literally could not put it down. As father-son relationships go, the Bull-Ben matchup is perhaps typical, but it is also unique, and I identified with it intensely, being the son of a Navy fighter pilot myself. The book rings true from start to finish, and everything in it seems believable and authentic -- as if the author had actually lived it himself. Which in a sense he did, since Conroy himself was also the son of a military man. This book was later made into a motion picture, starring Robert Duvall. A great book. Grade: A