The Lords of Discipline

Product Description A novel you will never forget... Thispowerful and breathtaking novel is the story offour cadets who have become bloodbrothers. Togetherthey will encounter the hell of hazing and therabid, raunchy and dangerously secretive atmosphereof an arrogant and proud military institute. Theywill experience the violence. The passion. Therage. The friendship. The loyalty. The betrayal.Together, they will brace themselves for the brutaltransition to manhood... and one will notsurvive. With all the dramatic brilliance hebrought to The Great Santini, PatConroy sweeps you into the turbulent world ofthese four friends and draws you deep into theheart of his rebellious hero, Will McLean, anoutsider forging his personal code of honor, who fallsin love with a whimsical beauty... and whoundergoes a transition more remarkable then he everimagined possible. Review Gripping,grueling... superb. Playboy A work of enormous power, passion,humor, and wisdom. It sweeps the reader along on agreat tide of honest, throbbing emotion. It isthe work of a writer with a large, brave heart. Jonathan Yardley, WashingtonStar God preserve Pat Conroy. Boston Globe Seldom have I encountered an author who puts wordstogether so well reading Conroy is likewatching Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel. Sam Fletcher, Houston Post From the Inside Flap will never forget... Thispowerful and breathtaking novel is the story offour cadets who have become bloodbrothers. Togetherthey will encounter the hell of hazing and therabid, raunchy and dangerously secretive atmosphereof an arrogant and proud military institute. Theywill experience the violence. The passion. Therage. The friendship. The loyalty. The betrayal.Together, they will brace themselves for the brutaltransition to manhood... and one will notsurvive. With all the dramatic brilliance hebrought to The Great Santini, PatConroy sweeps you into the turbulent world ofthese four friends and draws you deep into theheart of his rebellious hero, Will McLean, anoutsider forging his personal code of honor, who fallsin love with a whimsical beauty... and whounde From the Back Cover Gripping, grueling... superb. Playboy A work of enormous power, passion, humor, and wisdom. It sweeps the reader along on a great tide of honest, throbbing emotion. It is the work of a writer with a large, brave heart. Jonathan Yardley, Washington Star God preserve Pat Conroy. Boston Globe Seldom have I encountered an author who puts words together so well reading Conroy is like watching Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel. Sam Fletcher, Houston Post Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter OneWhen I crossed the Ashley River my senior year in my gray 1959 Chevrolet, I was returning with confidence and even joy. I m a senior now, I thought, looking to my right and seeing the restrained chaste skyline of Charleston again. The gentleness and purity of that skyline had always pleased me. A fleet of small sailboats struggled toward a buoy in the windless river, trapped like pale months in the clear amber of late afternoon. Then I looked to my left and saw, upriver, the white battlements and parapets of Carolina Military Institute, as stolid and immovable in reality as in memory. The view to the left no longer caused me to shudder involuntarily as it had the first year. No longer was I returning to the cold, inimical eyes of the cadre. Now the cold eyes were mine and those of my classmates, and I felt only the approaching freedom that would come when I graduated in June. After a long childhood with an unbenign father and four years at the Institute, I was looking forward to that day of release when I would no longer be subject to the fixed, irresistible tenets of martial law, that hour when I would be presented with my discharge pap