The Prince of Tides: A Novel

I have read The Prince of Tides three times, each at a different stage of my life, and each time it offered a new, profound experience. This novel of interwoven stories, narrated by Tom Wingo, about his troubled family, resonates deeply. At 22, young and idealistic, I was captivated by his brother Luke's battles against the federal government to protect their childhood hometown from demolition and the siblings' courageous stand for school integration post-Brown v. Board of Education. These stories inspired me to be strong and stand up for my beliefs. In my mid-thirties, as a married father of five, I related to Tom's struggles with adulthood and his quest to be a good father and husband. The novel's depiction of mid-life challenges and reconciling dreams with reality felt particularly poignant. At 55, I was struck by Pat Conroy's lyrical prose, appreciating the novel's beauty and depth. His writing captures the complexities of the human heart—its pain, joy, and promise. This is a novel to savor, and it is best read slowly and repeatedly, offering new insights each time.

I loved the actual writing. The sentences were long and involved and took thought even though there were many words that were new to me. Just imagine, it required a dictionary! I didn't like the length of the book. Some of the background stories of the family members were a distraction and added to the length of story. It was too much and I found myself skipping some of the chapters and events. Of course I had seen the movie years ago and as every reader knows the movies can't compare to the book. In the end I put the book in the trash. It was just too dark to pass on to anyone else to read.

This is the first ever book I read from Conroy. His used of words is like Shakespeare (I think he really had a good time playing with what words to use)--he seems to have a large stock of vocabulary that even my AP English teacher had to look into the dictionary on tons of words. Tom Wingo is a boy with a frightening, yet adventurous past that I myself want to have experienced (except for the frightening part). He grew up in an island in the town called Colleton, where he face the constant struggle of a very unstable family. His father who was converted to Catholicism, though his actions do not show signs of a Catholic, was abusive and had a short-temper--he was very unpredictable and is very closed-minded; he seems inexorable to reasons; not even the beautiful Lila (the mother) could bend his heart as the book would put it "My father had a black belt degree in turning a deaf ear to my mother." He displayed this throughout the book e.g. he did not listen to Lila that his businesses would fail, which really did fail. Her mother, a very mysterious woman as described in the prologue (though the prologue seemed a very misleading about the mother) "We children sat transfixed before that moon our mother called forth from the waters," but throughout the book was a socially-anxious being. His brother Luke was the tough guy in the family--an overprotective brother to both his younger siblings and his mother from the ill-tempered father. The twins Savannah and Tom. Tom is the narrator and Savannah her sister was a psychotic feminist/poet. Her insanity can be traced from her childhood experiences--and it is the scar left from what she endured while growing up. She is ambitious and wants to escape from the South and go to New York. Tom Wingo explains all of his life's story and escapades he shared with mostly his brother and sister. The siblings were very close to each other mainly because they had nothing in the world except themselves to look out for and to protect one another. It made me realized the beauty of being a sentimentalist and it enforced my belief that having too much sentimentality is a good thing. Pat Conroy did a really amazing job in writing and I thank him for bringing comforting memories from my past out of the shell they were hidden... --I love the book very much and hope readers that are planning to read it will love it too.

In Pat Conroy's masterpiece, The Prince of Tides, not much is going right in Tom Wingo's life. He drinks too much, has lost his teaching/coaching job, and his marriage is on the rocks. He grew up with an abusive father whose violent behavior left physical and emotional scars on all the Wingo children. His mother was more supportive, but was powerless to protect her children from her husband's wrath. She also put her social ambitions before anything else in her life. The only that has gone right in Tom's life is that he lived his entire life in the low country of Charleston, SC--one of the most beautiful and nurturing places on this earth. Things come to a head when Tom learns that his beautiful and talented twin, Savannah, has tried to commit suicide again. As she lays comatose in a New York City mental hospital, Savannah's psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein, urges Tom to travel to New York. Doctor Lowenstein realizes that the only thing that can help save Savannah is to unlock the secrets of her terrible childhood (something that all the Wingo children have long suppressed and refuse to talk about). Tom flies to New York reluctantly, and at first, presents Dr. Lowenstein with a façade made up of humor, sarcasm and even rudeness. But Dr. Lowenstein eventually is able to break down Tom's protective shell to discover the horrors that took place during the Wingo's childhood. She also realizes that in trying to save Savannah, that this might also be Tom's last chance to save himself. But it turns out that Lowenstein has erected her own protective mask to hide her own unhappiness. With a remote husband and a spoiled son, Tom is able to turn the tables and help the good doctor in promoting a little self-healing as well. The Prince of Tides is my favorite of all fiction books, and one of the most moving and emotional novels I have read. I think Conroy is one of our best living authors, and his words seem more like music than the written word. For those that know Conroy's background (including his own abusive father), it is disturbing to realize that much of this story is autobiographical in nature. I watched the movie after reading the book, and while the movie was quite good (especially the actors including Barbra Streisand, Nick Nolte and Blythe Danner), the movie can't hold a candle to the novel. Major storylines had to be left out and the plot greatly simplified. If you can only read one Conroy, make The Prince of Tides your choice.

THE PRINCE OF TIDES changed my life. I read it first when I was sixteen, back in 1992, and I didn't even know then how much the experiences and feelings developed in this magnificent story would eventually resemble my own. I read it every year and still sincerely cry because of pure identification. There is a bit of Tom Wingo in all of us, we all share that ambiguity of feelings about our family, land and life itself. Each character has their own complexity, their own ambiguity, which make them close and human more than anything else. As a reader, I can't love more a book than I love this one; it taught me things I needed to know and also things I may not have wanted to know at an age when I thought life would be easier. For these and more other reasons, I consider THE PRINCE OF TIDES as my personal guide book. Other Pat Conroy novels such us THE WATER IS WIDE, THE GREAT SANTINI, BEACH MUSIC, and, above all, THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE are also life-changing experiences in themselves. My e-mail adress is open to all those who want to share their views on this and other literary subjects. I'd love to learn so much more!