South of Broad

If you have ever read my profile, you will see Pat Conroy is listed as one of my favorite authors. That would probably be an understatement. He is my favorite author. I am reading his newest novel, South of Broad. It is the story of eight friends who find each other their senior year in high school. It's a typical Conroy story that is almost poetic in it's narrative. His characters are an unlikely group of outsiders and insiders that shape who they are and what they will become during their senior year.

Many teenagers who are still insecure, shy, evolving, awkward, socially inept, who are essentially clueless, often compare themselves with those who mature sooner. The "In" crowd is hard to take if your child consider themselves "out". We try to reassure our often insecure children- "Some people are late bloomers" "You have beautiful bone structure." "No, that does not make you look fat." "Why don't you just call some people and get a group to go to the dance?"

The following passage by Conroy captures all the angst of being a teenager. He beautifully illustrates what every boy and every girl experience as they move from childhood to adulthood. Some are lucky enough to move effortlessly through the teen years, most find the passage more difficult to maneuver.

Being a failed teenager is not a crime, but a predicament and a secret crucible. It is a fun-house mirror where distortion and mystification led to the bitter reflection that sometimes ripens into self knowledge. Time is the only ally of the humiliated teenager, who eventually discovers the golden boy of the senior class is a bloated, bald drunk at the twentieth reunion, and that the homecoming queen married a wife-beater and philanderer and died in a drug rehabilitation center before she was thirty. The prince of acne rallied in college and is now head of neurology, and the homeliest girl blossoms in her twenties, marries the chief financial officer of a national bank, and attends her reunion as president of the Junior League. But since a teenager is denied a crystal ball that will predict the future, there is a forced march quality to this unspeakable rite of passage. It is an unforgivable crime for teenagers not to be able to absolve themselves for being ridiculous creatures at the most hazardous time of their lives.
(South of Broad, Pat Conroy; Random House-2009)

The book is available everywhere and is a good read. In another life, Pat Conroy and I will sit at a table somewhere in the south and he will talk, and I will listen. He puts words together like no contemporary author today. Happy Fall. chrissie