South of Broad is a novel that takes place in Charleston, of course. It's main character is Leo King - a.k.a Toad - the epitome of the word survival. Leo is the son of a loving father and a formidable, ex-nun. His childhood is shadowed by the suicide of his older, 10-year old brother and his imminent breakdown. As the novel starts, he is an unpopular 18-year old who is searching for something to hold onto and finds it in the unlikeliest of friends. The group of people who come into his life during the summer before his senior year in high school will end up being the people who hold his heart and his sanity for the rest of his life. They become each others pillars of strength as life tries to beat each of them down with its little lessons. Spanning from 1969 t0 1990 Pat Conroy uses the lessons of America (desegregation, the AIDS epidemic, hurricane Hugo) and the brutality of those lessons to mirror a lasting circle of friends.
This was a most amazing book. I cried a hundred times and laughed at least that much. I'm not a southerner. I have no tie to the South but reading this book, Pat Conroy makes me long for Charleston, that soft southern accent, the smell of the ocean and even the hot humidity of a cicada filled summer's night. Man! I'm ready to read it again! WOW...this is why I love to read!
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