"The Great Santini" is a 1976 novel by Pat Conroy. It focuses around the life and times of Bull Meechem, a Marine fighter pilot, husband, and father, and his son, Ben, an an athlete. Ben struggles to please his father, and to stand up to him throughout the novel. Conroy greatly portrays the family struggle of father and son.
Pat Conroy's writing is marked by an obsessive interest in the love/hate relationship and its ensuing tensions. Whether between Citadel cadet and "The Boo," young teacher and school superintendent, or...
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"In every one of . . . [novelist Pat] Conroy's big, story-driven Southern books, there has been a father, a son and a holy ghost in the form of an ineffable secret," wrote Tracy Coch...
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The So-So Santini
Bull Meechum may be called "The Great Santini" in battle and when flying his jet, but he is, as Maryanne said, more like "Godzilla" to his family. Not knowing how to be a fat...
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Donald Pat(rick) Conroy
Pat Conroy
