A Lowcountry Heart: Reflections on a Writing Life

a denouement for an immensely loved writer

If you enjoy a good read, and you are captivated by poetic prose that stimulates an emotional response, then you have probably already read Pat Conroy. The sad reality is that the world has lost this creative writing genius, a man who has reach the level of paragon of the literary universe. Pat has endeared readers with his flowing and succinct prose, uniquely Conroy imbued, replete with the flavors of harsh reality but also with the beauty and the love for the lowcountry of South Carolina where Pat called home. This collection of assorted essays, speeches, articles, quotations and stories brings the avid Conroy reader closer to his beating heart, revealing the content of his character and the generosity of his spirit. He touched countless lives, read countless books himself--some multiple times--and seems to recall every facet of his experience in vivid detail. In my humble opinion, I truly think that Pat Conroy is the nonpareiled form of a great writer. He will never be equaled and will stand the test of time as a remarkably talented and effusive writer of human experiences, from their flawed pitfalls to their most elevated acts of kindness and love. I love the man, and I've never met him. I should have made the attempt to meet him at one of his famed book signings, where he eschewed the restrictive demands of the organizers of limiting one book per person with his open-hearted invitation to "bring all the books you want", and often stayed into the wee hours of the morning to insure that he got the chance to meet everyone who made the effort to attend the event, often languishing with readers and eliciting stories from their personal archives, and if he liked a story he heard he would quip that "You'd better write that story down somewhere fast because I may just use it in an upcoming novel!" Writers are often cast as an unapproachable group, perhaps disdaining the need for intermingling with their adoring fans, but not Pat Conroy. The often grueling experience...