Crowds packed the Township Auditorium Thursday night as One Book, One Columbia, a month-long city reading initiative, culminated in its signature event, a lecture by South Carolina author Pat Conroy about his life and writing motivations. His book, “My Reading Life,” was selected as the initiative’s official title.
The majority of his talk, which was moderated by historian Walter Edgar, focused on his upbringing and life experiences in a lighter way, with his humorous comments often leaving the crowd gasping for air.
“One of the things that really confused me for a long time was when my sister first came out to my mother as a lesbian,” Conroy said. “All my mother could respond, and she must have repeated this 200 times, is ‘You can’t be! You’ve never been to Beirut!’ It was two years before I realized that she had thought my sister was talking about being Lebanese.”
Conroy is known for having written “The Great Santini,” a book based on his upbringing that details the tumult of a family raised by a military-obsessed father and Southern mother.
Conroy said that the book’s publication in 1976 led to a period of traumatic family issues; his mother cited abuse by his father as a cause for divorce, and Conroy said she presented a copy of the book as evidence in divorce proceedings.
“The Great Santini” was later adapted into a movie in 1979, with actor Robert Duvall starring as Lt. Col. Wilbur Meecham, a successful fighter pilot who struggles as a father. The title is derived from Meecham’s penchant for calling himself “The Great Santini” for his military successes.
Conroy said that he has also written about his job teaching underprivileged children on Daufuskie Island, an experience that inspired his work “The Water is Wide,” published in 1972.
“Reading is still the one place you go to be alone in a very loud and noisy America,” Conroy said.