The Death of Santini - Pat Conroy (2013)

Non traduit en français (malheureusement...)

Quatrième de couverture de l'édition américaine:

Pat Conroy’s father, Donald Patrick Conroy, was a towering figure in his son’s life. The Marine Corps fighter pilot was often brutal, cruel, and violent; as Pat says, “I hated my father long before I knew there was an English word for ‘hate.’” As the oldest of seven children who were dragged from military base to military base across the South, Pat bore witness to the toll his father’s behavior took on his siblings, and especially on his mother, Peg. She was Pat’s lifeline to a better world—that of books and culture. But eventually, despite repeated confrontations with his father, Pat managed to claw his way toward a life he could have only imagined as a child.
     Pat’s great success as a writer has always been intimately linked with the exploration of his family history. While the publication of The Great Santini brought Pat much acclaim, the rift it caused with his father brought even more attention. Their long-simmering conflict burst into the open, fracturing an already battered family. But as Pat tenderly chronicles here, even the oldest of wounds can heal. In the final years of Don Conroy’s life, he and his son reached a rapprochement of sorts. Quite unexpectedly, the Santini who had freely doled out physical abuse to his wife and children refocused his ire on those who had turned on Pat over the years. He defended his son’s honor.
     The Death of Santini is at once a heart-wrenching account of personal and family struggle and a poignant lesson in how the ties of blood can both strangle and offer succor. It is an act of reckoning, an exorcism of demons, but one whose ultimate conclusion is that love can soften even the meanest of men, lending significance to one of the most-often quoted lines from Pat’s bestselling novel The Prince of Tides: “In families there are no crimes beyond forgiveness.”

Si vous êtes, comme moi, un ou une fidèle de Pat Conroy, ce livre est un must mais il vous faudra le lire en anglais. J'espère que l'éditeur français de Conroy remédiera rapidement à ce manque. Si vous avez déjà lu Conroy, vous savez que sa famille dysfonctionelle est à l'origine de ses romans et en particulier l'écrasante figure de son père, Don Conroy, pilote de combat dans les Marines, dont l'éducation a laissé des traces indélébiles sur ses sept enfants, même si certains ont fini par lui pardonner sa dureté à la fin de sa vie. Dans ces mémoires, Pat Conroy raconte la tortueuse histoire de ses relations avec son père et sa famille et c'est passionnant, surtout quand on a lu tous ses romans et que l'on apprend d'où sont venus tous ses personnages. Conroy nous rappelle combien le milieu dans lequel on grandit et l'éducation que l'on reçoit de nos parents façonnent notre vie qu'on le veuille ou non.

Si vous ne connaissez pas Conroy, alors commencez par le découvrir en lisant Le Grand Santini, Saison Noire (curieuse traduction française de The Lords of Discipline), Le Prince des Marées et surtout Beach Music. Son roman le plus récent, Charleston Sud, n'est pas son plus réussi, mais vaut quand même le détour. Vous y découvrirez un formidable auteur du Vieux Sud dont les histoires sont d'une telle puissance narrative que vous ne les oublierez jamais. Pour le découvrir, je vous conseille aussi l'épisode consacré au Vieux Sud des Carnets de Route de François Busnel. Vous y trouverez une longue interview de Conroy, chez lui, à Beaufort, Caroline du Sud.