After being so blown away by South of Broad (which I'm surprised to see is not as loved by long time Conroy fans according to Amazon reviews), I decided to buy Prince of Tides with my 40% off coupon from Borders (I love my Borders Reward Card, if by chance some of you don't have one, get one! It's free and they have awesome coupons they will email to you) and took a leisurely read through it.

Tom Wingo has been called up to New York City to help save his twin sister Savannah after yet another suicide attempt. This one appears to be far worse than the previous attempts though and Savannah's psychiatrist Dr. Lowenstein has asked for Tom's help in finding out the key to helping Savannah come to terms with her issues. The night before he leaves for New York City, he is told by his wife Sallie that she is contemplating leaving him and has been having an affair with a colleague of hers and is in love with him. She tells him that he's been lost to her for so long, and he seems to have just given up on life as it was, and she doesn't know what to do, or if she can do it anymore.

With that fond farewell, Tom heads to New York for an indefinite stay and begins to share the Wingo history with Dr. Lowenstein. At first, he tells only the surface stories which are bad enough, however as time lapses, he opens up telling truly horrific stories, stories which Savannah has repressed and has no memory of. The stories culminate into two horrific events which could turn out to be the nails in Savannah's coffin of mental health.

This novel was long at almost 700 pages, and I had to put it aside to read Before It Ends about 100 pages in, but I was already drawn into the book. I decided to take my time with it so that I wouldn't be perturbed when I finished it too quickly. A week later, I'm done and highly recommend this book. Again the prose was a bit florid, and at times felt a bit like it was bordering on extraneous for me, but I don't think I would have enjoyed it so much if the excess wasn't there. This one didn't have me on the edge of my seat from the beginning as much as South of Broad did, but I ended up devouring about 200 pages last night alone, staying up until past 1 AM taking in what I could because Conroy had indeed pulled me to the edge of my seat. Again, I was not disappointed. As I sat at lunch reading the final chapter and the epilogue, I started tearing up a bit. While not necessarily a happy ending in many ways, the love that bound two people together, in addition to their mutual suffering at the hands of their losses and their childhood showed signs of being the threads that could help heal them again. I would highly recommend this book, and searched high and low (okay, not really that strenuously, but Best Buy, Amazon and even Borders and Barnes and Noble didn't have it) for the movie The Prince of Tides before finding it at FYE of all places, and tonight I will be watching that and comparing to the novel. If there is a rant tomorrow regarding the loss of symbolism in the translation from pen and page to silver screen, well I apologize.

Now for the avid Conroy fans, I need an opinion please. I'm torn between finding The Water is Wide, The Great Santini, and Lords of Discipline next. I've ordered My Losing Season from bookcloseouts and am anxiously awaiting, because I was told that he puts so much of his own life in his novels that a memoir has to be fascinating right? Anyway, which of the above three would you recommend most?

Thanks for the correction MJ! :)