![]() ![]() ![]() The story is built around the life of Charleston resident Leopold Bloom King, named by his Joyce-worshiping mother and damned by circumstances. That, and a gay character’s infection with the virus that causes AIDS, leaves “South of Broad” feeling like a leftover from the ‘90s. But Hugo, which hit in 1989, has been supplanted by Katrina as our collective notion of what calamity is, and what it can do to a city. Hurricane Hugo blasts into the novel near the end as a cataclysmic event, unleashing a storm surge that is both devastating and cleansing, at least for plot purposes. Part of the problem is the pacing of the story itself. They just click over like another mile on the odometer. The net effect is the surprises, even when not telegraphed, don’t surprise. Tragic twists just appear, lacking the kind of buildup that makes them work. You don’t get caught up in his narrative so much as you commit to it. At his best, as in the opening chapter of “Beach Music,” Conroy sweeps you up in a whirlwind of language and propels you through time and place so persuasively that you take in stride highly improbable plot twists (the appearance of a tiger at an opportune plot turn in “The Prince of Tides” comes to mind).īut with “South of Broad,” Conroy’s muscle has gone lax. ![]() Conroy built his reputation using a lyrical and powerful narrative voice to spin stories often from events in his own life and that of his combative family. ![]()
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