Walter Edgar's Journal
Walter Edgar's Journal
South Carolina Public Radio
WEJ at 21: Growing up with The Great Santini
1 hour 10 minutes Posted Oct 25, 2021 at 9:30 am.
0:00
1:10:52
Download MP3
Show notes
FILE - Pat Conroy
FILE - Pat Conroy(Robert C. Clark / Wikimedia Commons)

In celebration of Walter Edgar’s Journal at 21, this week's episode is an encore from 2014 with world-renowned author, the late Pat Conroy in conversation with 4 of his 5 siblings.

In his 2013 memoir, The Death of Santini (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday) author Pat Conroy admits that his father, Don, is the basis of abusive fighter pilot he created for the title role of his novel, The Great Santini, and that his mother, Peg, and his brothers and sisters have all served as models for characters in The Prince of Tides and his other novels. Now, for the first time, Pat gathers with four of his surviving siblings, Kathy, Tim, Mike, and Jim, to talk about the intersection of “real life” and Pat’s fiction, and what it was like to grow up with “The Great Santini” as a father.

- Originally broadcast 04/18/14 -