This weekend, the Enoch Pratt Free Library will give Pat Conroy -- "The Great Santini," "The Prince of Tides" -- a lifetime achievement award. The Baltimore Sun's Michael Sragow talked to Conroy about his development as a writer and his love of literature, the theme of the author's latest book, "My Reading Life."
Here's an excerpt from the article, which ran in Sunday's editions: Wolfe's book ["Look Homeward, Angel"] was more than therapy for Conroy; it was an aesthetic milestone. "It still has that power over me," Conroy said last week. He has remained loyal to it, though generations of critics and scholars have denigrated its capacious, charged and sometimes overly abstract or poetic prose. Early on, his teachers tried to restrain his Wolfean impulse by handing him copies of Hemingway.
But, he said, "I was never going to be a part of any minimalist trend." He saw in Wolfe's lyrical outpourings a struggle for exactness as well as amplitude. "My own overripe, pretentious prose style has been with me since the beginning. That is my personality. I cannot change these things," he said. ...
Conroy's approach to literature is sensual and instinctive. The act of writing is a physical pleasure for him: He continues to compose his books with fountain pens on legal pads. He's currently working on a nonfiction book about the man his father became after the publication of "The Great Santini." When his mother sued for divorce, she contended, "It's all there," as she handed the judge a copy of the novel. "But by the time my father died," Conroy said, "he was a greatly loved man. I loved him unflinchingly. I think Dad deserved my looking at this change."