The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son

by Pat Conroy,
The Portland Oregonian, January 27, 2014

At age 65, almost 40 years after he wrote his novel "The Great Santini," Pat Conroy still carries "the bruised freight" of his childhood every day. Taking pride in having written more about his father, a volatile Marine aviator; his mother, a product of "the poor and lowborn South;" and his six siblings "than any other writer in American history," he feels compelled, with "The Death of Santini," a work of nonfiction, to try, "one last time," to make sense of -- and make his peace with -- a house of pain that often made him wish he had never been born.