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    The Great Santini
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    The Great Santini
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    The Great Santini
    Audiobook19 hours

    The Great Santini

    Written by Pat Conroy

    Narrated by Dick Hill

    4.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

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    About this audiobook

    Meet Bull Meecham...

    Step into the powerhouse life of Bull Meecham. He's all Marine-fighter pilot, king of the clouds, and absolute ruler of his family. Lillian is his wife-beautiful, southern-bred, with a core of velvet steel. Without her cool head, her kids would be in real trouble. Ben is the oldest, a born athlete whose best never satisfies the big man. Ben's got to stand up, even fight back, against a father who doesn't give in-not to his men, not to his wife, and certainly not to his son. Bull Meecham is undoubtedly Pat Conroy's most explosive character-a man you should hate, but a man you will love.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJan 10, 2010
    ISBN9781441814838
    Author

    Pat Conroy

    Pat Conroy (1945–2016) was the author of The Boo, The Water Is Wide, The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides, Beach Music, The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life, My Losing Season, South of Broad, My Reading Life, and The Death of Santini.

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    Reviews for The Great Santini

    4.5/5

    17 ratings11 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I love everything Conroy has written and this was excellent. The relationships within the family are so real. A story that really pulls you in.
    • 5/5
      The Great Santini is-in my opinion-Conroy's best work to date. Maybe I can relate because I also had a military dad who demanded respect from his family, but I truly found myself engrossed in the story of a father and son who are so different from one another but not.Mild-mannered Ben is uprooted (along with wiseass sister Maryanne, their two younger siblings and their mother) when Bull Meechem (aka the Great Santini) returns home and is relocated by the marines. Through the course of the book, we get to see a year in Ben's life, and all the trials and tribulations he must deal with-and how they are so normal for him after years and years of moving. The ending of the book is extremely moving and we see the family come full circle. I didn't think I would be so moved by this particular book, yet I was. It was also interesting because the reader gets a glimpse of Southern life and individuals in the 1960s, and some of the attitudes that prevailed then.If you want a book you can't put down, choose The Great Santini. I guarantee you won't be disappointed, sportsfans.
    • 5/5
      Since I am such a fan of Pat Conroy, I can't imagine why it has taken me so long to read this book! It is a mastepiece! While this is a disturbing story, and what Conroy book does not have some disturbing aspects, it is a great story. Not only do i think this is a masterpiece, it is one of my husbands favorites.
    • 4/5
      Bull Meecham is a Marine fighter pilot. He likes things in order, including his squadron and his family. He knows when to be tough with his troops and when to be lenient. He hasn't quite gotten it straight with his family. There are times he's fun-loving and times when he's abusive.Ben, his oldest, has no desire to follow in his father's footsteps. Bull shows his love by yelling and screaming at Ben, beating him on occasion and telling him that he WILL join the Marines. MaryAnne is tolerated by Bull. Intelligent but with a bad self image, MaryAnne wants to be a writer, is sarcastic and taunts Bull all the time. She cannot live up to the vision of a Southern woman put forth by Lillian, Bull's wife of 19 years.The Great Santini describes their year in Ravenel, SC. It points out the bigotry of the area, the comraderie of the Marines, Bull's manic/depressive states and the families fear of him. While Conroy's characterizations are wonderful, I didn't love the book as a whole as much as I loved South of Broad and Prince of Tides. His writing wasn't as lyrical. The plot wasn't as absorbing. Conroy is a great writer. I just didn't think this was one of his best.
    • 5/5
      What an emotional ride I had with this book. Conroy captures the essence of growing up in a military family. As the daughter of an Army colonel, I have experienced the same feelings on moving day. "If the birds of the North are born with migratory instinct fused into the albumen of eggs, then the military families of America develop the same instinct out of necessity. They pack, move, unpack, burrow in, and nervously await their next orders." (Pg. 30) He is dead on with his descriptions of how difficult it is to fit into a new school and community every few years knowing that friendships will be shortlived and that another moving day is in the near future.This is a story of an extremely challenging and complex father/son relationship. Bull Meecham is a Marine through and through who treats his family with the same callousness as he would new recruits. The language is quite crude at times, and the book is saturated with dark humor centering around the demonic mean streak and unpredictability of the "Great Santini."Conroy writes with such beauty and honesty that I am grateful he became a writer instead of a Marine fighter pilot. I read this on a trip to Charleston and Beaufort so I can report that he does an outstanding job of depicting the SC low country. One can tell that he has a real affinity for this region, so much so that he has chosen one of the islands for his permanent home.I can't say I "loved" Bull Meecham as the back cover blurb promises, but I do understand that he loves his family deeply in his own warped way. This may be hard for some people to relate to, but as a military brat I totally get it. If Bull Meecham were around today, he would certainly tell everyone to "read this book, sportsfans!" and I concur.
    • 5/5
      Couldn't put this book down - fabulous!
    • 4/5
      This book is about a family who is run by an abusive father who is a Marine fighter pilot. The son is a basketball player who does not like his father. I liked this book because it takes place in South Carolina and because I can relate to the character, Ben, sometimes.
    • 5/5
      Great movie and great book. Robert Duvall was perfect in the role. I saw the movie before reading the book - and feel both were excellent, which is often not the case for a movie/book comparison. Conroy does an excellent job of portraying the career military life, the relationship of father and son, the grittiness of the military world. There are moments between father and son that are painfully palpable and difficult to experience - kind of like real life at times. From my perspective, the best book Conroy has written.
    • 3/5
      There are a few facts that should go up front in this review. 1) It took me upwards of 2 months to read a 440 page book when I wasn't pressed for time. 2) Whoever at Bantam decided that the type should be itty-bitty and the spacing should be tight is not a friend of mine. 3) I liked the story quite a bit.That being said, the synopsis promised that I would find Bull Meecham dispicable and want to hate him but not be able to. That he was one of Conroy's most horrifying characters. To that I say "Have they met Henry Wingo?" Bull was abusive and hard nose, yes. But so was Wingo. And in my opinion much more so. Bull is an ass, but he is an ass who we can understand since we see more of his life than we can hear about from his family. and as a side note i found MaryAnne to be the least likeable character, not Bull.Did Santini make me want to dive into another COnroy work like Prince of Tides did. No. Am I glad I stuck through it. Absolutely.
    • 4/5
      I think this is Conroy's greatest book to date. The poignancy of the plainly-autobiographical interaction of the characters is simply masterful.
    • 5/5
      An all-time favorite book about a family dealing with a father's abusive behavior.