South of Broad
Pat Conroy, 2009
★ 3.88 from 52.2k ratings on Goodreads
Historical fiction Literary fiction
An extravagant, funny, wounded voice recalls Charleston in 1969 and the friends who became his family. A warm, talky, nostalgic ramble through Charleston, with a wounded, funny narrator and a leisurely, lyrical pace.
Feels like tenderness, nostalgia and unease. About home, friendship and family.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy friendship sagas, strong sense of place, and emotional family stories told in an ornate Southern voice. Be warned: many readers find the dialogue contrived and the plotting implausible, and some give up on it.
Why read it
It offers a big, affectionate portrait of Charleston and a chosen family, with enough humor and sorrow to make its melodrama feel personal.
A page from the book
What it's like to be born already in love with a place.
PrologueThe Mansion on the RiverIt was my father who called the city the Mansion on the River. He was talking about Charleston, South Carolina, and he was a native son, peacock proud of a town so pretty it makes your eyes ache with pleasure just to walk down its spellbinding, narrow streets. Charleston was my father’s ministry, his hobbyhorse, his quiet obsession, and the great love of his life. His bloodstream lit up my own with a passion for the city that I’ve never lost nor ever will. I’m Charleston-born, and bred. The city’s two rivers, the Ashley and the Cooper, have flooded and shaped all the days of my life on this storied peninsula. I carry the delicate porcelain beauty of Charleston like the hinged shell of some soft-tissued mollusk. My soul is peninsula-shaped and sun-hardened and river-swollen. What readers say
Readers are sharply divided: many find the dialogue contrived, the plotting implausible, and the characters caricatured, while others are moved by the Charleston setting, friendship saga, and emotional sweep. Some abandon it in frustration; some admire the writing despite the melodrama.
Pat Conroy.Conroy's larger-than-life father, Marine Corps colonel Donald Conroy, became the model for the title character of The Great Santini.
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Questions readers ask
- Is South of Broad for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy friendship sagas, strong sense of place, and emotional family stories told in an ornate Southern voice. Be warned: many readers find the dialogue contrived and the plotting implausible, and some give up on it.
- What is South of Broad like?
- A warm, talky, nostalgic ramble through Charleston, with a wounded, funny narrator and a leisurely, lyrical pace. Feels like tenderness, nostalgia and unease. About home, friendship and family.
- What should I read after South of Broad?
- If you liked South of Broad, try The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame), Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Lisa See) and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares).
A taste of the feed
Look at how texture and fabric become extensions of physical grace.
The pants clung to Lena’s waist and followed the line of her hips. They held close to the shape of her thighs and fell exactly to the tops of her feet. When she took two steps forward, they appeared to hug each of her muscles as they shifted and moved. Carmen gazed in wonder at how different was their effect from Lena’s bland uniform of J. Crew khakis.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants · Ann Brashares
What it costs to walk back into a house love has left.
Sometimes it’s exhausting for me to simply walk into the house. I try and calm myself, remember that I’ve lived alone before. Sleeping by myself didn’t kill me then and will not kill me now. But this what loss has taught me of love. Our house isn’t simply empty, our home has been emptied. Love makes a place in your life, it makes a place for itself in your bed. Invisibly, it makes a place in your body, rerouting all your blood vessels, throbbing right alongside your heart. When it’s gone, nothing is whole again.
An American Marriage · Tayari Jones
The child who keeps the whole family from tipping over, and knows it.
Leni was afraid to stay and afraid to leave. It was strange—stupid, even—but she often felt like the only adult in her family, as if she were the ballast that kept the creaky Allbright boat on an even keel. Mama was engaged in a continual quest to “find” herself. In the past few years, she’d tried EST and the human potential movement, spiritual training, Unitarianism. Even Buddhism. She’d cycled through them all, cherry-picked pieces and bits. Mostly, Leni thought, Mama had come away with T-shirts and sayings. Things like, What is, is, and what isn’t, isn’t. None of it seemed to amount to much.
The Great Alone · Kristin Hannah
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