Even though this was a very long book, it was perfect in helping me with my current story. In my story I am actually writing about a police woman and her psychologist who is a man. I am worried about allowing them to have an intimate relationship with each other, but I think that is where I would like it to go. I really enjoyed seeing Tom and Lowenstein's relationship grow through out the book. I think the fact that most of this book is written from their sessions together works really well too. I think Conroy gave enough of their interactions together to make their love believable for me.
Another thing I will most definitely steal from Conroy is his sense of place. His sense of place is amazing! I have never felt so grounded in a setting in a book. I think it partially helped that some of the setting was in a familiar local (Stone Mountain) however, I have never been to South Carolina and I have such a clear picture of the family island. Conroy did an extraordinary job of making the setting as important, if not more so than the characters. Conroy's descriptions and language are beautiful and add so much to the story. I hope I can find a way to make my settings as important as Conroy has.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I believe there is a difference in Tom and Susan's relationship in that Susan is not technically Tom's therapist, she is Savannah's. I'm pretty sure it would have been unethical for her to become sexually involved with Tom if he were her patient. So I guess you'd have to decide in your book how ethical or unethical you're willing to let your therapist be.
ReplyDeleteSamara - I agree with Kathleen. Especially because she is a police woman, ethics will be a key factor. Unless of course, the issue that draws her to the psychologist to begins with causes the readers to question her ethics already...hmmm.... Looking forward to hearing what direction you decide to take.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree with you about Conroy's sense of place (nicely put) and I too have yet to go to the islands in S.C. other than Hilton Head, and yet I feel like I've been there as well.
I had to tell you--I cracked up reading your blog title. I finished the sentence with "the facts of life, the facts of life." Was that intentional? It drew me in! :-)
Yes, I totally meant to do that:) I am glad you caught it.
ReplyDelete