Ellyn StangaroneMs. WheelerHonors English 230 August 2009Book ReviewThe Great SantiniAfter reading this book one feels like they actually grew up in a Marine Family. The book The Great Santini, by Pat Conroy, is one of the best books I have ever read. Pat Conroy is the #1 New York Times best selling author. This book shows us the life of children growing up as military brats. The main characters are Bull the marine father, Lillian the mother, Ben the oldest child, Mary Anne the second child, Karen the third child, and Matthew is the youngest. As the story progresses one might feel extremely angry with Bull, who is an officer in the Marine Corps. The Great Santini is intended for young men but can be enjoyed by anyone. Anyone with an attraction for the south, for the military, or for humorous, sarcastic characters would enjoy this book. Pat Conroy did an amazing job writing this novel.The sense of isolation from society is shown within this novel. As the Meecham family develops the reader starts to understand how difficult it is to be a marine brat. To Bull the Marine Corps is a way of life: but to his family it feels more like a punishment. Karen, the youngest girl, shows us her misery while waiting for their father: “’ I’ll never see Belinda or Kate or Tina or even Louise again”’ (Conroy 211-14.) In this quote we come to feel for the Meecham children and their excessive moving. Even though they lived with their mother for a year in one city they still felt like outcasts. The constant moving of the family made finding a place to call home nearly impossible. The children learned never to fall in love with anything because it would always come to an end.The struggle to compete for Bull’s acceptance is tough for Ben: so he challenges’ Bull to many competitions.Ben tells Matt, “’ Today you are going to witness a beautiful sight, Matt. You are going to get a chance to watch me whip Dad one on one in basketball. And seeing Dad lose in a sport is a sight beautiful to behold. He’s the worst loser in the world. of course, he’s the worst winner in the world too”’ (Conroy 1732-35).In this quote Ben is telling us about his father and his competitive nature. In the novel Ben goes on telling us “ I have been playing basketball everyday for the last three years” (Conroy 1733-36). As the novel continues we see the determination in Ben to finally beat his father at something.Pat Conroy created this book as Southern fiction. It expresses how difficult life as a child growing up in a military family. But it shows the reader how much Bull Meecham really does care about his family and the town. Conroy shows us that everyone has a purpose, and life comes with tough decisions as we learn from the ending of this book.Pat Conroy is such a brilliant writer and he shows us this by the detailed books he writes. After reading Lords of Discipline I could not wait to read another one of his books. So far The Great Santini is my favorite but I expect great things from his other books. Conroy accomplishes his purpose with no problem in this book. This book is recommended for young men, but can be enjoyed by anyone. Conroy has written many books such as Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides, The Water is Wide, and many more great stories, which all have a different message. Conroy is #1 New York Times best selling author and has just released a new book called South of Broad released August 11, 2009. Pat Conroy is definitely one of the best writers ever.
This book made me feel so many feelings. Rage, love, sympathy, pride, annoyance, frustration, joy, sadness. And that doesn't even scratch the surface.The Great Santini, AKA Bull Meecham, is a simple man. He fiercely loves his family and the United States Marine Corps. But unfortunately he's not as successful as a husband and father as he is a fighter pilot. A brutal man, he can have legions of men obeying every order but gentler skills like listening and tenderness completely elude him. Although he's quick to defend them when they need help, his family never knows what will make his volatile temper turn on one of them. Consequently Bull lives outside his own family, both loved and despised by his wife and children.This book is the story of a year in their lives, a year where the family moves again (the fourth time in four years) to a small town in South Carolina. Bull's oldest son Ben is a gentle and shy basketball player who hopes to be nothing like his father when he grows up. Daughter Mary Anne is a troubled soul with a caustic wit. And his wife Lillian is a master at forgetting. The backdrop is the Marine Corps in all its testosterone-fueled depravity and the setting is the Deep South in the 1960s. This has all the makings of a great story.And yet the story wouldn't have been so great if it hadn't been for Conroy's masterful writing. He's able to pull feelings out of me that a normal author can't. Somehow me made me both love and hate The Great Santini, just as he himself did. Every villain and victim in the book had their own story--nothing was simple or easy.4.5 stars. The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is because I thought his books The Lords of Discipline and The Prince of Tides were even better.
What do You think about The Great Santini (1987)?
It's been decades since I saw the Robert Duvall film, but moments from it still terrorize me. I've been intending to read a Pat Conroy novel for just as long, so I grabbed this one when I finally took the plunge. What I don't remember from the film is how evocative this book is of southern culture, even if it is perhaps a southern culture that doesn't exist anymore. Conroy's book reads almost like a linked collection of short stories, as major plot events occur--Bull beats his family, Ben is a close witness to a double homicide, Bull bullies Ben into hurting another boy, the date of a friend is raped--but then curiously don't seem to have much impact on what happens in other chapters. What does, however, emerge is a picture of life in a small Southern town thirty or forty years ago, particularly for a military family.Bull Meecham, of course, is one of the greatest examples of a certain kind of archetype, the charismatic bullying father. I've known men like him, obnoxious to acquaintances, a terror to their families, but with enough magnetism to draw one in despite all the flaws. Bull is like the men I've met, but more so, a hard-to-forget, easy-to-hate, but also easy-to-admire force of nature. In the end, this book makes one understand how such a man isn't all bad for those close to him, which is a major accomplishment. I'm not sure it has much to say about the long term damage to the psyche such men cause their loved ones, which is the other side of their cosmic coin.What one might not realize from the film is that son Ben is more often the center of Conroy's novel than Bull is himself. Ben is compulsively good. At first this bothered me because I didn't find it believable that he wouldn't pick up a version of his father's awful traits, but by the end I was won over to the idea that for some kids, becoming a goody-two shoes as a kind of rebellion might be plausible. One can certainly empathize with Ben. I'm just not sure he shouldn't be a little more damaged after all the trauma he experiences in the book. And then there are the women. Mother Lillian and daughter Mary Anne are created just as vividly as the Meecham men, but Conroy just doesn't seem to have the confidence to go inside their perspectives totally. I'm fascinated by them on the surface, but when all is said and done one has to guess about what is going on inside. So A+ for capturing time and place and sketching some vivid characters, but only a C+ for then making me really know any of those characters deeply. Still a B+ or A- overall, and enough to make me try another Conroy novel some day.
—Neil
I was hooked on this one right from the start. Telling the story of The Great Santini, as Lt. Col. Bull Meecham titles himself, this is about a very dysfunctional family in 1960's South Carolina. The prose is rich, the stories varying from troubled to hilarious, and at the center of this maelstrom is the conflict between Bull and his eldest son Ben. The two of the are locked in a father son relationship marked by violence and abuse, but also loyalty and love. This brought back a lot of memories for me, both as a child growing up in the military, and of the 1960's. One of Conroy's best novels. For the longer review, please go here:http://www.bubblews.com/news/5691278-...
—Rebecca Huston
Of all the Conroys I've read so far, this is my least favorite. The book jacket describes Bull Meacham as someone you should hate but will wind up loving, anyway - but that was not my experience. I found very little loveable about"The Great Santini". The thing that amazed me was how brave his family was on those occasions when they stood up to him. While I don't doubt he loved his family, and maybe was even proud of them in a way, he was domineering and controlling and sometimes downright cruel in his dealings with them.
—Annie Myers
