About the Author

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.

Reviews

For the listener who can persevere beyond the barrage of crude language used by most of the male characters in author Conroy's humane look at life inside a Southern military academy, the producer offers a stunning audio version of a popular work of modern American fiction (published first in 1980). The star of this production is narrator Tom Stechschulte, who provides an amazing array of nuanced voices, even making each of the several native Charleston characters distinctive by his intonation. By turns, Conroy holds up military ideals and savages the often brutal treatment of military school recruits. At once starkly realistic and lyrical, Conroy's diffuse prose ultimately lulls the listener into the rhythms of its episodic tide of plot devices. The sound quality of this unabridged audio book is supurb, as is the pacing and cover design. Highly recommended.‘Mark Pumphrey, Polk Cty. P.L., Columbus, N.C.

As Conroy's tale of military college secrets reaches its 30th anniversary, Dan John Miller brings a new audio edition to life with passion and attention to detail, and the author himself offers an insightful introduction. Miller brings complexity and nuance to his portrayal of the mysterious St. Croix family, the old-money Charleston blue bloods who provide a home away from home for protagonist Will McLean. Miller recreates the mix of Lowcountry and upstate Carolina dialects on campus and also skillfully adds the voices of Will's Italian-American roommates Dante "Pig" Pignetti and Mark Santoro into the mix. The hazing sessions, where a vicious secret society of cadets use multiple forms of torture to preserve the racial purity of their school, have never sounded more harrowing, nor has the author's point-that there is exists a very dark side to obedience-been clearer. A Dial paperback. (May) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.

"If you are reading another book when you begin The Lords of Discipline, prepare to set it aside."--The Denver Post

"Reading Pat Conroy is like watching Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel."--Houston Chronicle "The Lords Of Discipline is, simply, an American classic."--Larry King "A work of enormous power, passion, humor, and wisdom [that] sweeps the reader along on a great tide of honest, throbbing emotion."--The Washington Star

"Few novelists write as well, and none as beautifully."--Lexington Herald-Leader