The Water is Wide | Pat Conroy | A beautiful story from a master storyteller....

The Water is Wide | Pat Conroy | Great story! My first Pat Conroy book, but not my last.

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The Water is Wide

	The Water is Wide Pat Conroy Dial Press Trade Paperback, 2002 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 57 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The island is nearly deserted, haunting, beautiful. Across a slip of ocean lies South Carolina. But for the handful of families on Yamacraw island, America is a world away. For years the people here lived proudly from the sea, but now its waters are not safe. Waste from industry threatens their very existence?unless, somehow, they can learn a new life. But they will learn nothing without someone to teach them, and their school has no teacher.

Here is PAT CONROY?S extraordinary drama based on his own experience?the true story of a man who gave a year of his life to an island and the new life its people gave him.

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A beautiful story from a master storyteller....

This is an early example of the promise of Pat Conroy. Everything I have read of his has been extraordinarily beautifully written. There are pages I have to reread just for the joy of the wording, the descriptions, the expressions of thoughts.

As a teacher he must have been a treasure. It is an indictment of the school system in which he worked that he was not fostered and encouraged. America's children are the losers in the situation. I know the people of "Yamacraw" felt the loss when he was not allowed to return to the school there.

America's readers have reaped the benefits of Conroy's education and experience and his exemplary use of the language.

Enjoy!

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Great story! My first Pat Conroy book, but not my last.

This is my first Pat Conroy book. All of his books have great reviews on Amazon, so I wasn't sure which one to start with; I just picked this one. I think I made a very good choice by reading 'The Water Is Wide' first. It's an early book, and I got a lot of insight into who Pat Conroy is, his humor, his goodwill, the kinds of people he surrounds himself with, etc.

I just started reading 'Beach Music' and I really feel an affinity for this author after reading 'The Water is Wide.' I appreciate his ability to write and articulate ideas.

'The Water is Wide' is about the time period in the south in which many people grew up with racial prejudices as a way of life. As children, it's "just the way it is" and they don't know any better. As Mr. Conroy became a man, more educated and involved in the very things he had been taught to dislike as a child, he underwent a huge personal change and touched so many people along the way. I like his kick-*** attitude and how candidly he wrote about everything.

This story moved me on many different levels. This is a book about a man helping others, inspiring others, and overcoming the false beliefs about race that stemmed from his upbringing and culture. It's also about someone who was courageous enough to stand up to authority. It's a wonderful story. If it were fiction, it would be a good story. But the fact that it is based on the author's experience just makes it even better. Can't wait to read the rest of his books!

I looked up Daufuskie (aka Yamacraw) Island on Google and it seems to be a big resort island with golf courses and hotels now; probably nothing like the Yamacraw Mr. Conroy experienced many years ago. Must visit some day anyway.

I searched for the movie 'Conrack' on Amazon, but they seem to only have VHS version sold by a different seller, but not available on DVD. Conrack wasn't on Netflix either. Let's hope it gets re-released on DVD.

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Great book

Bought the book after seeing the movie. The movie was very close to the book and was called Conrack. It's a true story of the author Pat Conroy and I highly recommend both.

Gullah Opinion

After having read the book, we had an opportunity to tour Daufuskie Island (Yamacraw Island in the book). After the tour we stopped at the General Store and noticed that The Water Is Wide was not offered for sale. We asked about this. We were told the Gullahs thought the book put them down and they did not want the book available on the island. ..... Interesting.

Novel, or Nonfiction?

Based on the author's experiences on Daufuskie Island as the new white school teacher of a black school, it is interesting to read Conroy's youthful understanding (published in 1972) of his even more youthful idealistic fervor.

Even more interesting, however, is to follow this book with a collection of personal memories from the region: Remembering the Way it Was at Hilton Head, Bluffton and Daufuskie (http://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Hilton-Head-Bluffton-Daufuskie/dp/1596290617)

A number of the real people featured in this book are clearly models for characters in The Water is Wide: Iris Glover = Frances Jones; Henry Piedmont = Henry McCracken (some sources claim that Ezra Bennington = Henry McCracken); Ted and Lou Stone = Lance and Billie Burn. It is fascinating to read the different perspectives of these people. McCracken is shown in a very different light. For example, Queenie Jenkins describes how McCracken helped her (black) son Theodore go to college. This is where one readers can go, for a more thorough epilogue about some of the characters and the region.

On local message boards of the region and in the reviews here at Amazon some claim that Conroy chose to teach in Daufuskie as a way to accumulate material for a book. The Water is Wide does not read this way. He draws a fairly convincing picture of a naive, self-righetous young adult tilting at educational windmills - and coming out of the experience a bit more sober.

In Writing Educational Biography: Explorations in Qualitative Research p.214-217 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0815322968) Craig Kridel describes trying to figure out which parts of Conroy's book are fact and fiction. He comes to the conclusion that Conroy's dispute with the school board is portrayed fairly accurately, while the personalities he assigned to some of the major characters (such as Ruth Brown = Julia Johnson) are not.

Regardless, whether you believe everything in the book as nonfiction or not, it is a compelling read.

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