The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

Genre: Fiction
Format: EBook

Tom Wingo is the son of a dysfunctional family from the South Carolina low country. His father is abusive and his mother lays the guilt heavily over her three children. Things aren’t looking good for Tom as he loses his school coaching job and his wife informs him she is in love with another man. Life takes another horrible turn as his mother arrives and tells him his beloved twin sister, Savannah, has been institutionalized in New York City for attempting suicide.

Tom rushes to his sister’s side, but her psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein, refuses to allow Tom to see Savannah. Dr. Lowenstein fears his presence will make Savannah retreat even further into despair. So Tom gives the doctor a full history behind the Wingo family in the hopes that it will explain what lies behind Savannah’s mental illness.

It doesn’t take long for Tom and Susan to grow close and fall in love, but Tom is still attached to his wife and daughters. It’s not an easy bond to break.

I loved the first half of this book. The characters were well-developed and they were all people I could either love or hate. They all came to life quite vividly. I found myself wondering what happened to make the Wingo family what they became. My one problem with the book is that I thought it was too long. I prefer more dialogue and less description in my books. This was the opposite. I felt as if the book could have been a couple of hundred pages shorter and work beautifully. Still, this was a good read and I’d be interested in reading more by this author.