"The Prince of Tides" rocketed to the top of the bestseller lists in 1986 and stayed there for almost a year, selling over 350,000 hardcover copies (per The New York Times). Eventually, more than 5 million copies were sold, according to The Guardian). Readers were moved by this tale of a southern man exploring his psychological trauma — his twin sister's suicide attempt, his brother's absence, his wife's affair, his own job loss — with a psychiatrist.
Publishers Weekly described the novel as "a seductive narrative, told with bravado flourishes, portentous foreshadowing, sardonic humor and eloquent turns of phrase." It predicted readers would "be swept along by Conroy's felicitous, often poetic prose, his ironic comments on the nature of man and society, his passion for the marshland country of the South and his skill with narrative."
Others, however, panned the book as bloated, heavy-handed, and melodramatic, including legendary book reviewer Richard Eder. "Inside this fat book, a thin book is struggling to get out," he wrote in the Los Angeles Times. "Inflation is the order of the day. The characters do too much, feel too much, suffer too much, eat too much, signify too much and above all, talk too much."
"The Prince of Tides" became a movie starring Nick Nolte and Barbra Streisand. Conroy received an Academy Award nomination for adapting the story for the screen, and the film scooped up six other Oscar nods, including for best picture.
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