The Great Santini by Pat Conroy; 1989; 536 pages; Old New York Book Shop Press, Atlanta, GA; 0-937036-00-5; 9/1-9/6

This is a book that I first remember reading sometime in the late ’70′s.  I remember going to see the movie in Burnaby, BC with Joanne Gripp and Rick Lindholm.  I have read this book at least six or seven times, but I haven’t read it for at least five years since I started this blog.

This book somewhat parallels my life in that I too was the son of a man who I think for awhile succumbed to the mythology of the military and thought that he could raise kids the same way he directed sailors.  We moved every two years, sometimes living in two different houses in two years.  I attended 10 schools in 12 years in 4 different states, so I can relate to many of the emotions and experiences in the book.

The Great Santini is the non de plume of Wilbur “Bull” Meacham, a  man who knows better how to relate to his airplane and his fellow Marines than he does to his wife and family.  Back in the early sixties, if a man supported his family and projected a good image, not too many people cared what went on behind closed doors.  Bull was a great Marine, a valued part of the community, an alcoholic, who took out his rage on his family.  Bull knew how to do everything except how to relate to his family and let them know how much he loved them.  Throughout the book, Ben and his sister Mary Ann, try and figure how out to navigate through the streams of their fathers every changing moods.  They are helped somewhat by  Lillian, the southern Belle who married the Yankee Marine, but sometimes her moods are as hard to decipher as Bulls’.  Both of the older kids have come up with different strategies to deal with the  Great Santini, but sometimes the team up.  This story resonates with me and continues to.  RRRR

Is there a book that has resonated with you?  Is there a book that you have read this many times?