Pat Conroy

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"I cursed God's name for allowing people to become hopeless before graciously allowing them to die."

A buddy of mine turned me on to an author that he liked. Being a writer, I get asked a lot about who I like to read. My standard answer is always Steinbeck and then I go from there. I like John Irving and Stephen King. I hate James Patterson and Dan Brown. Steinbeck is still number one though. East of Eden is the greatest book ever written, in my humble opinion.

I read everything in between. Autobiographies of famous people are cool because then I feel like I know the guy. Steve Martin's, George Carlin's, Michael J. Fox and Keith Richards immediately come to mind.

Lately I have been reading books from Pat Conroy. I'm currently reading Beach Music after having finished The Water is Wide and South of Broad.

All great books. I feel as if my buddy gave me a gift, so that's why I bring it up. I handed my sister South of Broad, telling her it was in my top 5 ever, and she thought I was joking. She texted me the other night to say 'Thanks.'

Anyway, I bring all of this up because of the above quote from Beach Music. One of those sentences that you re-read a couple of times because it's just 16 words strung together that can be read a million different ways and really pounds home a point.

I've been thinking about it a lot ever since I put the following words in one of my character's mouths while writing the new book.

"Why is life so hard?"

I love doing that sort of writing.

If you were hanging with a friend and you heard him say such a thing wouldn't it make you further investigate the subject.

"What's wrong?" You might ask.

"What happened?"

Something along those lines.

I guess I'm just fascinated about the writer behind the written sentence. Sometimes I write something for a character looking for an answer to such a question.

"Why is life so hard?"

I asked the question through one character to see if another character in my made-up world could answer it for me.

Isn't that weird.

I'll let you know if I come up with the answer.

In the meantime, do yourself a favor. Grab a book by Pat Conroy. I don't even care which one. They are all filled with thoughtful questions and perfect words strung together.

That's my little gift to you today.

By the way, Conroy and I won the same honor at the New England Book Festival. Unfortunately we were a year apart and I didn't get to meet him.

I would have loved to know what made him write the line:

"I cursed God's name for allowing people to become hopeless before graciously allowing them to die."

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