Tell Me A Story: My Life with Pat Conroy by Cassandra King Conroy

Tell Me A Story: My Life with Pat Conroy Reviews

• 
  Elyse Walters

  Keeping this very simple - I enjoyed this audiobook very much!! 13 hours and 2 minutes: read by Susan Bennett!
  
  HUGE thanks to my friend *Lorna* >> who wrote a beautiful review and put this book on my radar.
  
  Listening to this memoir was like soaking in soothing-warm-water ...
  
  "There is a difference between devotion and attention"....(beautiful wisdom shared about this)
  
  For those who have read this book ---- "Are you an ant?" or a "grasshopper"?
• 
  Lorna

  Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy was a beautiful memoir written by Cassandra King Conroy about her developing friendship and love affair with the iconic Pat Conroy, a big Irishman with an equally big heart and lust for life and people, a natural-born storyteller. Their first meeting was in Alabama at a literary function when Cassandra King's first book was just about to be published. After being introduced, Pat Conroy gave her an address and asked her to have her publisher send him the book and he would write a blurb for the book. It is from those beginnings that they went on to develop an enduring relationship moving to Conroy's beloved lowcountry, first on Fripp Island and later a home in Beaufort, South Carolina. One of my favorite quotes as she describes how she surprised him by hiring a master carpenter to create his own library.
  
  

  "One whole room, down the hall from his office, was dedicated to Pat's books, with library-style shelves that could be accessed from either side. When Pat walked into the room for the first time, he stared in disbelief, then his face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. From then on he spent endless hours in his library arranging and rearranging his beloved books. I've never known anyone, before or since, who loved books the way he did."

  
  
  This book is about their beautiful and loving twenty-year relationship before Pat Conroy's untimely death from pancreatic cancer in 2016. Being sent home for hospice care, a bed was set up looking out over Battery Creek and the marshes Pat loved.
  
  

  "For the man who wrote so powerfully of the place he'd claimed as his own, that scene had to be the last he would see. In his own words from 'The Prince of Tides,' the Lowcountry was his anchorage. It would be his final port of call."
  
  "I loved the majestic oaks with their low, graceful branches, but the Carolina palmettos I regarded with a grudging admiration. It's almost impossible to bring a palm tree down, no matter how strong the wind or how heavy the rain. Palmettos are made of sturdy stuff and resistant to harsh weather conditions. They withstand the ravages of wind and rain by bending, not breaking. We can learn from them."
• 
  Lisa

  A tender and triumphant tribute to a beloved Southern author.
  
  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  
  SUMMARY
  Cassandra King was leading a quiet life as a professor, divorced from a preacher, and a debut novelist when she met Pat Conroy. Their friendship evolved into a tentative long-distance relationship. Pat and Cassandra ultimately married because Pat hated the commute from coastal South Carolina to Cassandra’s native Alabama. It was a union that would last 18 years, until the beloved literary author’s death from pancreatic cancer in 2016 at seventy years old.
  
  REVIEW
  I approached this book a little skeptical, but was hooked from page one. It’s a beautiful love story of two mature broken lives that are intertwined to form a relationship that is as strong and real as the majestic South Carolina moss-draped oak trees.
  
  Fans of Pat Conroy will absolutely adore this book. Reading about his personal relationships with family and friends and his sense of humor made me want to read all of his books all over again with this new perspective. TELL ME A STORY is a tender and triumphant tribute to a beloved Southern author.
  
  CASSANDRA KING CONROY wrote from her heart and from her experiences in the Carolina Lowcountry with a man who was larger than life. Her writing was honest and direct and the book was impossible to put down. She shared with us intimate moments of her life with this funny, generous yet, wounded man. I laughed, and cried, and read pages out loud to anyone that would listen to me. In a word, the book is superb!
  
  King Ray, as Pat called her, has written six novels including Moonrise. (2013), Making Waves (2004, The Sunday Wife (2005), and The Same Sweet Girls (2007).
  
  
  Thanks to Edelweiss and William Morrow for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
  
  Publisher William Morrow
  Published October 29, 2019
  Review
  www.bluestockingreviews.com
  
  
• 
  Spectre

  In 1978-79 while stationed at Marine Corps Air Station, Beaufort, SC, I watched as Hollywood came to town to film The Great Santini. Robert Duvall played the role of Conroy's father and famous fighter pilot while Blythe Danner played the role of Pat's mother and loyal wife to 'Bull Meechum. I had just read Pat Conroy's book which Hollywood was about to make famous about his 'dysfunctional family' as he began high school in Beaufort. I became a fan of Pat Conroy having subsequently read most of his books so it was with interest that I read Cassandra King Conroy's 'biography' of her late husband hoping to learn more about the life of one of my favorite authors.
  
  Mrs. Conroy did not disappoint me as she described their relationship, families, fast paced life, writings, living on Fripp Island, etc. She claims that one of Pat Conroy's greatest traits was his 'sense of humor' for which she provides ample examples. In her first chapter, the author writes that she looked forward to meeting Pat Conroy and, through her writing, I got to know him, too. So, thanks "King-Ray" for sharing you and your husband's intimacies with his fans.
• 
  Leanne Storey

  I read this book in 3 days, I enjoyed it so much. Two of my favorite writers, married and living life in one of my favorite places South Carolina. I loved reading their story, how they fell in love, the things they encountered, how they dealt with all the things real people have to deal with. The places they traveled also kept me from putting the book down very much at all. I was transported.
• 
  Jim

  It should be a good indication of my desire for reading just about anything relating to Pat Conroy that I basically devoured this book in two days. There were a lot of snippets of new information and anecdotes that warmed and added to my knowledge about my favorite writer. It is perhaps a tad unfair that readers (myself, maybe not others) would have wanted the attention to be only on him, but what we get is a good portion of info on CKC too, a writer I haven't availed myself of yet. It is nice to know that they had a good marriage. No doubt, as there are with any memoirs, you suspect that it isn't the whole truth, but one hopes that it is as close as possible. A good companion piece to OUR PRINCE OF SCRIBES.
• 
  Sue

  Pat Conroy has been my favorite author since I read the first chapter of Prince of Tides. I was thrilled to meet him during two of his book tours and was able to meet Cassandra, his wife, at one of the tours. He gave the best talks about his books and had his readers laughing with him at some of his family stories. He also made us feel special because he talked to everyone while he was signing your book and inscribed it with something personal based on what you'd talked about. He would stay until every person in the signing line was gone and never seemed to be in a hurry when meeting his readers. When he died in 2016, the world lost a writer who had a mastery of words and experiences. His readers were sad at his passing and in this book, by his wife of 18 years, we learn more about him as a husband , father and friend.
  
  This beautiful book gives the reader a glimpse of the marriage of Cassandra and Pat Conroy. It begins when they first met and tells about the beginning of their relationship. After several failed marriages, Pat seemed to finally find joy and contentment in this marriage. He and his wife were well matched with the same sense of irreverent humor and with their love for their family and friends. I found it especially touching when she wrote about Pat's 70th birthday when Beaufort decided to hold a weekend long celebration. Many of his friends came for the weekend and none of them knew that it was probably the last time they'd see him.
  
  This book is an intimate glimpse into Pat and Cassandra's marriage and their love for each other. I cried while I read it but I'm also happy that he was able to leave behind such a wonderful legacy of stories about life in the lowcountry that he loved so much.
  
  "Cassandra reveals how the marshlands of the South Carolina Lowcountry ultimately cast their spell on her, too, and how she came to understand the convivial, generous, funny, and wounded flesh-and-blood man beneath the legend—her husband, the original Prince of Tides."
  
  
• 
  Enchanted Prose

  I was torn between giving this book 5 stars (like most Goodreads’ reviewers did) vs. 3 stars (like a few outliers did, one or two even less). The difference, at least for me, is if you’re a huge admirer of Pat Conroy – one of the great writers of Southern Literature – you can’t read enough about him. And, you can’t help but be drawn to a memoir written by his wife of 18 years, whom he loved deeply: Cassandra King, a novelist in her own right. They found each other in mid-life after divorces, so who doesn’t love a story about having another chance at happiness?
  
  The problem I had was with the prose. There’s a great deal of Pat Conroy’s dialogue quoted, often ill-matched to a legend of exquisite prose. I didn’t want to be disappointed that this larger-than-life writer and man was quite foul-mouthed. Perhaps I expected too much of the prose? Except that the last 50 pages rose to a higher emotional level and more beautiful prose, when it seemed the author’s immense grief and sorrow came pouring out of her. Regrettably, that style was not consistent throughout, or I would have blogged about it on my blog about beautiful fiction and memoirs.
  
  To be fair: there’s a lot of good things to say about Tell Me A Story. It reads like one big story of many, many stories that include how their story began: as a two-year friendship over the phone, after meeting at a literary conference in King’s then hometown, Birmingham, Alabama. Somewhere after that, which remains a “mystery” to the author, their friendship changed to something else. What stands out is how many good, genuine, loyal friendships Pat Conroy had, and then they both had. He an extrovert, she a very private person.
  
  The memoir reads easily, so you’ll find yourself finishing the nearly 400 pages quickly. Conclusion: interesting read, but the prose didn’t rise to what I’d expected.
  
  
• 
  Jo Ann

  3.5 - 4: I loved reading about one of my favorite authors, Pat Conroy, via his wife, Cassandra. Given we know so much about Pat's "challenging" (to say the least) growing up years, I expected negatives, his temper, his larger-than-life persona. The author did a good job of relating many hilarious and also embarrassing, stories associated with her husband. The fact that they loved one another intensely, and made their marriage work after others had not, is telling, in a very good way. Pat was eccentric, lovable, generous, pained, damaged...and it all shows. He was, even in death, his own man, choosing to be the only white person buried in a Beaufort SC Black Baptist cemetery. What an author...what a guy!
  
• 
  Tracy

  What a treat to be able to hear such wonderful stories of Pat and Cassandra’s life together; after knowing what his childhood was like, as well as his two failed marriages, it made me happy to know how happy he was with her.
  
  I very much appreciate her sharing these personal stories with us, especially the ones surrounding his passing. I still can’t believe we’ll never read a new Pat Conroy book again 😢
• 
  Susan Cushman

  Cassandra King Conroy's book is many things: a love story about her marriage to Pat Conroy, a deeply personal accounting of her own emotional, spiritual, and literary journey, and a call to all of us to live our best lives and become our best selves. Pat Conroy is my favorite author, but Cassandra King is right up there with him!
• 
  Bookclubcheerleader

  I laughed, I cried... The woman can spin a yarn! In an interview one time, a reporter asked her, :"What's it like to be married to a gifted and talented writer?" She answered, "My husband enjoys it very much."
  If you loved Pat Conroy; read it. If you love Southern wrting; read it. If you love a great story-telling; read it. I'm on Goodreads to find another Cassandra King Conroy book.
• 
  Kate

  This book is a love letter to her marriage with Pat Conroy, author of The Great Santini and The Prince of Tides. She is also a writer, and I always enjoy reading about the lives of writers. I also liked hearing about how they came together later in life, marrying in their fifties. The last third of the book is the best part, deeply moving.
• 
  Kathryn Taylor

  Cassandra King Conroy has given her readers an inside look at her personal life with her husband, Pat Conroy. It is a candid story of respect, admiration and undying love found later in life. It is a beautiful and profound telling and I highly recommend it to all.
• 
  Debbie Gayle

  Oh I loved this book! Beautifully written and narrated by Casandra King Conroy we are treated to amazingly intimate details of their lives together.
• 
  Gina Smith

  Really loved. Brought Pat Conroy back to life for a couple days. I will read her other books. And I discovered 3 other books about Pat to add to my list.
• 
  W

  A memoir by Pat Conroy's third wife.By the look of it,a doting wife's memoir.Wonder what his previous two wives would have to say about it.
• 
  Julie

  This was a circuitous read! I am a huge Pat Conroy fan though my fiercest fandom was for Prince of Tides and Beach Music. South of Broad blew my mind with too many things going on so I became a lapsed fan. Then I saw him at a local bookstore 10 years ago and it reignited my devotion though I only recently (last week) read his book he signed for me, My Reading Life. This past fall Cassandra King Conroy was at my library to keynote our first ever book fest. We didn’t know what we were doing and she was so gracious as we stumbled with audio problems and crowd control issues. Now I have read this book. Sort of feel like I have been doing everything back asswards. Disclaimer: I have not read Ms. King’s other books. In fact, I didn’t know she was married to Pat Conroy. For some reason I never dug into his personal life which in the days of Wikipedia and Google it is so easy to do. I think I didn’t want to know how much of Prince of Tides and Beach Music were real. They were so painful to read yet profound and lovely at the same time. The type of book where you lose yourself completely. Here are some things I am sure of. Cassandra King is a lady. She might have rough edges like she described in the book but first and foremost in public she is classy and genteel. Maybe she tried to write this book too soon after his death when she felt that she had to varnish things so people that were in their inner circle wouldn’t be hurt. How you could write this sort of memoir and entirely leave out your own children, details about Pat’s kids besides Susannah and still have that be so unanswered and confusing, dance around the infidelities, alcoholism, destructive lifestyle, and call it a memoir? She loved him. Her motivations for getting involved with him in the beginning are super fuzzy and that needed some deeper honesty. Once they were together and she was living the high life with him, it made more sense. I don’t mean to pick this apart because it was engrossing and I am glad that I read it. If she wanted to take another crack at it in a few years and cut through some of the ambiguity I’d be first in line to read it.
• 
  Barbara Nutting

  Cassandra’s love letter to Pat - what a beautiful memoir. I had just finished the biography of Pat Conroy by Katherine Clark, so many of the incidents were the same but from a different perspective. This was by far the better rendition of his life. I now know what made him tick - and write! It inspires me to reread all those book that I read so many years ago.
  
  Ya gotta love Bernie - he was a true friend indeed.
  
  Sandra is of my generation so l really laughed when she mentioned her Chantilly sterling flatware - as she indicated, we ALL had Chantilly! I still have mine, 8 place settings, my wedding gift from my grandparents! The silver has lasted longer than my marriage!!
  
  I looked up Cassandra on GOODREADS and discovered I’d read her “The Same Sweet Girls” 6 years ago. Gave it 3 stars and called it chick lit. Now that I know more about her I’ll try another one.
  
  What a wonderful literary legacy Mr Conroy left us with. RIP
• 
  Karyn Ann

  Written by Pat Conroy's third wife, this memoir chronicles their near 20 years together before his death in 2016. Between the lines reading make it clear that he was not an easy man to love or live with, but clearly they had a successful and loving relationship. I learned new things about this favorite writer including his vacation ties to NC and the fact that his requested burial site in Beaufort, St. Helena Memorial Garden, an isolated cemetery at Brick Baptist Church. The church was built by slaves in 1855 and then turned over to them during Reconstruction. A controversial choice, Pat Conroy is the only non-African American buried there.
• 
  J Gardiner

  As many Pat Conroy fans are, I am thankful that Mrs. Conroy wrote this biography for us to know him better. While sometimes the stories were about her life, I learned a great deal about Pat and the positive impact he had in so many others, like myself.
• 
  Helga Cohen

  What was it like living with the legendary writer Pat Conroy? Cassandra King Conroy elaborates on how she met Pat in Birmingham, Alabama while she was a professor of writing and divorced from a preacher. In her telling. She describes her life with this larger than life man and writes a moving tribute to him with this book. It is a poignant deeply moving memoir. She describes how Pat commuted from coastal SC to her native Alabama on a regular basis until they were married. Their marriage lasted 18 years until his death of pancreatic cancer in 2016 when he was 70 years old.
  
  We ultimately learn about Pat who bared his soul. We learn of his love for the low country, his sensitivity, humor and honesty as a man and companion. We understand more about how he wrote and the magic behind his writing of which he explained his life and how he could understand himself in his semi-autobiographical books. When he met aspiring writers, he always wanted them to “Tell me a story” to open them up and encourage their writing.
  
  We meet many of his friends, the late Anne Rivers Siddons, Richard Russo, Rick Bragg and his Citadel classmates, John Warley, Scott Graber and the humorous Bernie Schein, and Pat’s father, “The Great Santini” and his remaining family as well as Cassandras.
  
  Tell Me A Story was a touching memoir of two lives together and how Cassandra introduced us to the real Pat Conroy. It is a must read for those who want to understand Pat Conroy better. For me he is greatly missed. I was saddened by his death and how he could never finish his last book because he became so involved with being editor of the University of South Carolina Story River Press which was born out of his deep belief in the transformative power of story and mentoring authors in writing until his end. I will cherish forever the pictures I have at his many book signings in my city. He autographed all my books, including my 1st edition “The Great Santini” and always got into interesting conversations.
• 
  Josie

  I got this book based off the recommendations of a few friends.. and oh my...
  It toyed with my emotions due to some similarities between the authors life and mine... but the dynamics of this couple cracked me up.
  
  The wedding ring story....I mean really
  
  It read so quickly that I finished in in a weekend but had to stop several times during the last few chapters. Fighting back the tears!
  
  Really enjoyed : )
• 
  Sue Em

  A must read for anyone who has loved any or all of Pat Conroy's books. Knowing that so much of his books were based on nuggets of truth of his past, the story of his latter years spun by his last wife, Cassandra King, a master storyteller in her own right, is riveting and evocative.
• 
  LizH

  I was a big fan of Pat Conroy, and I loved this story of one of my favorite authors, well told by his wife. I have not read any of hers yet, but have certainly added them to my list.
• 
  Belle

  Cassandra King Conroy told her lovely story of her marriage to the late great Pat Conroy. I appreciated the honesty of the good times and the crazy times as well as the honesty of Pat’s personality and weaknesses.
  
  I leave with a great desire to read Pat’s books next.
  
  Through the whole book I was getting very strong vibes of my step dad Joe in the descriptions of Pat. Right near the end Pat’s birthday was revealed and it is the same as Joe’s. It was a true synchronistic moment for me.
  
  As always reading about marriages in all forms is one of my tropes that can’t be resisted.
  
  All of this to say this book was very real and very good.
• 
  Carol Gilbert

  As I adored Pat Conroy's writing and was fascinated by him, I eagerly read Cassandra King Conroy's book about their life together. I really enjoyed this book full of vignettes which captured Pat Conroy's personality and both his joie de vie for life and many friendships as well as his foibles. This was a telling look at their life together and both Cassandra's and Pat's personalities. I enjoyed it immensely!
  
• 
  Mark Linton

  Really enjoyed this touching book by a great author about a great author. Pat was a one of a kind person and his was a great story, his wife did a fabulous job telling about their live together. Made me want to read a lot more of books by Cassandra King Conroy.
• 
  Stephanie Lenox

  Fantastic! I really enjoyed a glimpse into the life of 2 of my favorite authors Pat Conroy and his wife Cassandra King Conroy.
• 
  Sarah Ressler Wright

  First adult book I’ve fully read in awhile-not audio-and superb! So many references to those who know Conroy’s work and such a beautiful story full of laughter and tears.