I really liked this book,as you can tell, I would think, from my 5 star rating. The reason that I liked it as much as I did is Conroy develops characters that you have intense feelings for. You either hate them, you love them or you are indifferent to them. Very much like regular life. Other than Charatcerization he throws in some pretty powerful plot twists that kinda made me stop and say "Whoa...... where the HELL did that come from?"

It is a book that is easy to read and not get bogged down by arbitrary info,though his points get across. It deals with alot of things that I had to go through while growning up in the South and all in all is a Great love letter to the city of Charleston, SC. But then again most of his books are. In it he highlights the kind of folks I remember knowing, the ones who would actually make cookies and bring them to a new Neighbor, or for that matter give you whatever they had if they thought you needed it more. Yeah it also has some negative things in it, like bringing up the issue of segregation, but again it is handled well. This has made me want to pick up some of the older Conroys that I may have skipped and will definately be looking forward to his next book.