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 teenage son and "Great Santini," this search for balance dominates the themes of Conroy's fiction and nonfiction.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Conroy was, as he writes in The Water Is Wide (1972), "sired by a gruff-talking Marine from Chicago and a grits-and-gravy honey from Rome, Georgia." He is the oldest son of seven children of Donald Conroy and Frances "Peggy" Peck Conroy Egan. His early years were spent as a military "brat" living short tours in "some of the more notable swamplands of the East Coast" and attending various Catholic schools. While his father was on overseas duty, the family returned to the Peck family home in Atlanta.

Conroy's was a conservative upbringing: "Mom's of people hailed originally...