The Death of Santini

The Death of Santini (2014) by Pat Conroy. Conroy is the beloved author of The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline and The Prince of Tides, among other books. For anyone who isn't familiar with his work, Santini is his father's nickname for himself. Conroy's father was a Marine Corps fighter pilot, and Conroy has detailed in other books how Don Conroy, the father, abused his wife and children, physically and emotionally. The Death of Santini is an elegiac portrait of their actual, dysfunctional family, and as such it is autobiographical in form. "I hated my father long before I knew there was a word for hate," Conroy says early in the book. But in the course of this book, he also learns that, against his will, he also loved his father. This book covers years in the mature life of the Conroy clan, and Pat Conroy promises that it will be the last time he rakes over the coals of his childhood and adulthood as the son of The Great Santini. I found it to be a moving account, and riveting, and I was sorry when it ended. Conroy has become a master writer and this book represents the culmination of his art. Grade: A-