Every so often a favorite author disappoints. Such was the case for me on reading Pat Conroy’s South of Broad. It isn’t merely the errors in chronology and detail (more on these in a minute) that disappoint. It’s the story itself.

Conroy sets his story in his beloved Charleston, South Carolina. He trots out the usual dysfunctional families, the abusive father, and downtrodden mother. His setup intrigues until one reads what caused the brother of the protagonist to kill himself, and one thinks, “Oh, not that cliché. Please.”

The unique bond among the main characters pulled me through the story. There were clever moments. The writing was lyrical, beautifully done in the best Conroy fashion. But, there were things that disturbed me as a reader and a writer.

Conroy begins with a prologue that is a five-page love poem to Charleston. Never mind that literary agents are telling new authors that prologues are passé. More to the point, nothing of interest happens in the prologue. It shows the main character, Leo, as a boy on his paper route. This gives the author his vehicle for providing back story and expounding on the loveliness of Charleston. There’s not more to it than that.

Agents tell new authors, too, that a novel’s action must begin immediately. The reader, they say, has to be grabbed and held from the first sentence. South of Broad’s first forty-five pages are filled with nothing but descriptions and back story. It is not until page forty-six that the real action begins.

New authors are also told to keep characters to a minimum. Evidently, the poor reader cannot grasp more than a few characters at a time. This is a “rule” I’ve never liked. I thank Conroy for flouting it and introducing a fistful of characters in the first chapters of his book.

Sadly, there are several errors in South of Broad. I say sadly because with an author of Conroy’s stature and an editor, Nan Talese, who has won awards for excellence in editing one just wouldn’t expect to see these kinds of mistakes:
--In the first pages of the book, an adult tells Leo he would be attractive save for his horrible glasses. Throughout the story, Leo is called “Toad.” At the story’s end, a priest tells Leo he is just too ugly.
--Early on in the book, Leo says he is doing something “just after three.” Six pages later, on the same day, he is going somewhere at the “noonday hour.”
--In one chapter Leo meets someone on a San Francisco cable car. A few chapters later, Leo recalls meeting the individual in an alley in San Francisco.

To some readers these are minor mistakes. But they are enough to throw a reader out of the story. And sloppy editing isn’t something I’d associate with the Conroy-Talese team. All around, between the usual dysfunctional characters--many so over-the-top one has trouble believing in them--and the sloppy editing it’s hard to recommend South of Broad.