The Prince of Tides

★ ★ - ★ ★ ★ 1/2 (I explain below)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader, as part of The United States of Books project.
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The story of the Wingos is one of humor, grotesquerie, and tragedy. Tragedy predominates.

. . .parents were put on earth for the sole purpose of making their children miserable. It's one of God's most important laws. Now listen to me. Your job is to make me and Mama believe that you're doing and thinking everything we want you to. But you're really not. You're thinking you own thoughts and going out on secret missions. Because Mama and I are screwing you up. . . I know we're screwing you up a little bit every day. If we knew how we were doing it, we'd stop. We wouldn't do it ever again because we adore you. But we're parents and we can't help it. It's our job to screw you up.

Brown vs. Board of Ed

EW

“There's a difference between life and art, Savannah,” I said as we moved out into the Charleston Harbor.
“You're wrong,” she said. “You've always been wrong about that.”

clearly

Absurd.

I will certainly never read another book by Pat Conroy, but certainly will listen to one read by Frank Muller.
The book left me disappointed. It was a gratuitous exercise in eccentricity. Instead of delving into the psychology of his main character, Conroy transforms the whole story in a circus act. The climax of the book is so ludicrous and conceited, it made me roll my eyes. The ratio by which he went seems to have been “The weirder, the better.” He also seemed to think that more was more in terms of plot, which frankly he does not have a good grip on. There are still some wonderful scenes and great dialogues here in there in the book, but they can't make up for the lack of cohesion.
In the end, I found the whole book absurd and truly unrealistic. The Addams Family seems far more true than the Wingos.