Author Pat Conroy will be your tour guide in Charleston, S.C.

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Author Pat Conroy will be your tour guide in Charleston, S.C.
March 29, 2010
By Laura Bly
canada.com

HARLESTON, S.C. - Pat Conroy lives on a barrier island about two hours south of Charleston, S.C., and the city has been a character in his autobiographical novels for four decades.

With his latest best seller, "South of Broad," out in paperback May 4, the literary lion of South Carolina’s Lowcountry shares some of the things he loves best about a setting he says is "enchanting enough to charm cobras out of baskets."

CHARLESTON’S SOPHISTICATED DINING SCENE: "It used to be hard to get a really good meal. Now, it’s hard to get a bad one. There’s a ‘Murderer’s Row’ on East Bay (Street) that just won’t quit. There’s Slightly North of Broad, which has been excellent since it opened and may have been one that started this whole thing. High Cotton is down there, that’s terrific. I’ve got to try FIG, because I keep hearing such wonderful things. The Charleston Inn is excellent, and (39) Rue de Jean, I love. And I almost always go to Hyman’s to get a dozen oysters on the half shell when I walk by. It’s crowded as hell, but you can sit at the bar."

THE BATTERY: "You look toward the Cooper River and then look right and see some of the most beautiful mansions in America. Because it takes you up high, you get a view of Charleston, and of what makes South of Broad special."

FULL-DRESS PARADES AT THE CITADEL: Conroy is a graduate of the famed military college, which he wrote about in his novel "The Lords of Discipline." "It’s a glorious thing to see when you come to Charleston, (and) there’s something that’s been added to the experience in this day and age. I went very soon after Sept. 11, and suddenly that parade had extraordinary new meaning and new passion behind it. I knew many of those young men and women would go from that parade to that graduation to that diploma to the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan."

PERFORMANCES AT THE DOCK STREET THEATER: Built on the site of one of the nation’s oldest playhouses, it reopened this month after a three-year, $19 million renovation. "I was an usher here (while at the Citadel). My dream was to write a play for this theater one day, (and) it’s so wonderful seeing this place refreshed and gorgeous."

SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA: The performing-arts event held in town since 1977 has "had an extraordinary impact on the arts and changed the city forever. I meet kids now who become novelists, poets, write for the theater and movies, who were simply inspired by what they saw during the Spoleto Festival."

THE 18TH-CENTURY MIDDLETON PLACE PLANTATION NEAR CHARLESTON: "They emphasize things like the life of the slaves, the African-Americans who worked it. And the grounds (along the Ashley River) are simply spectacular."

BERLIN’S CLOTHING STORE, A CIVIC INSTITUTION SINCE 1883: "I’ve shopped at Berlin’s for 40 years, but Henry (Berlin, the third-generation owner) always tells me, ‘You wear my clothes so badly, you’ll ruin my reputation if people find out I dress you.’ "

BLUE BICYCLE BOOKS: The independent used-book store on Upper King Street is "in a part of Charleston which is coming back to great and vigorous life, (and) it’s one of the most pleasant places to just go and browse."