Reviews
Honest in its portrayal of both Conroy and Schein's own conflicted feelings toward the novelist, the lucid narrative deftly explores the complexities of a lifelong friendship. A thoughtful, poignant, and candid memoir perfect for Conroy fans. -Kirkus Reviews The friendship between Bernie Schein and Pat Conroy was long, deep, and all-encompassing. Bernie tells of it with fierce love, great particularity, and often the outrageous wit that makes him Bernie and no one else. Viva Bernie Schein for giving us his Pat Conroy. -Anne Rivers Siddons No one is more uniquely qualified to write about his friendship with my late husband, Pat Conroy, than his oldest and closest friend, Bernie Schein. Because they shared the same irreverent humor, biting intellect, and big-hearted personalities, their bond was powerful enough to survive the many turmoils and betrayals that came their way. Bernie's portrayal of his decades-long relationship with Pat is intimate, honest, heartbreaking, and highly readable. This book is an ode to a rare, complex, and loving friendship. -Cassandra King Conroy, author of Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy and The Sunday Wife A remarkably intimate look into the soul, adventures, and misadventures of the great writer Pat Conroy, written by his longtime best friend, Bernie Schein. The eulogy and post mortem conversation with the son of the Great Santini toward the close are as touching as the book is riotously funny. Pat and Bernie were teachers, writers, and civil rights pioneers. . . . A very moving, fifty-year-long story of friendship and love. -Joseph L. Galloway, war correspondent and co-author of We Were Soldiers Once and Young and We Are Soldiers Still Troubled family relationships were perfectly captured and explored by Pat Conroy in book after book. All wonderful. What was not known was the depth of resolve and dependence Conroy had with his closest friend, Bernie Schein. Fractious? At times, certainly. Loving? Definitely. Intimate? Yes, and for that very reason far from easy. Here, then, is the real story of that friendship. -Maria Riva, bestselling author of Marlene Dietrich; The Life No one on earth has the experience, the humor, and the heart to write about friendship with Pat Conroy with more authority than his best friend (and occasional enemy) Bernie Schein. Anyone who knew Pat heard so many Bernie stories that they wondered if he was an actual person or a figment of the ever-fertile Conroy imagination. As it turns out, he was both. Their childhood friendship, which began in a small Southern town in the Cold War, spanned wars, marriages, fame, and infamy and too many books to name. You can't really say you're a Pat Conroy reader if you haven't read the story from Bernie's profane and profound, and deeply loving perspective. -Janis Owens, author of American Ghost In a story artfully unwound, Bernie Schein reveals Pat's unspoken words, his fury and bravado, the human intricacies of friendship, laughter, teaching, writing, and unknotted love. -Tim Conroy, poet and educator Bernie Schein's Pat Conroy is full of the quirky characters and stirring stories you might expect from the life of Pat Conroy. The most important, surprising, and touching story of all, though, comes from Schein's intimate portrait of what a deeply loving friendship between two men, with all its adventure, humor, heartbreak, and reconciliation looks like. That's a story all too rare and untold in the modern world, and well worth reading. -Kerry Egan, author of On Living Bernie Schein is the funniest man alive, or so he has dogmatically maintained during the burdensome decades I have known him. . . . [He is] by turns hysterically funny, wildly neurotic, uniquely sensitive, and heartbreakingly honest. -Pat Conroy
Bernie Schein is the funniest man alive, or so he has dogmatically maintained during the burdensome decades I have known him. . . . [He is] by turns hysterically funny, wildly neurotic, uniquely sensitive, and heartbreakingly honest. -Pat Conroy The friendship between Bernie Schein and Pat Conroy was long, deep, and all-encompassing. Bernie tells of it with fierce love, great particularity, and often the outrageous wit that makes him Bernie and no one else. Viva Bernie Schein for giving us his Pat Conroy. -Anne Rivers Siddons Quotes for Famous All Over Town: Bernie Schein is the funniest man alive, or so he has dogmatically maintained during the burdensome decades I have known him. Like its author, this ambitious novel is by turns hysterically funny, wildly neurotic, uniquely sensitive, and heartbreakingly honest. Bernie has staked his claim on the literary landscape of the South with his unforgettable small town of equally unforgettable Jews, whites, blacks, marines, politicians, prostitutes, cops, killers, sell-outs, aristocrats, journalists, and rebels. He shies away from neither the best nor worse in us and, with compassion and authority, tells a story that is at once his own and that of everyone you will ever meet, each made famous all over town. -Pat Conroy Another time, another place-yet Somerset, South Carolina, is every small town anywhere in anytime. Its characters represent each of us in all of our flawed, tragicomic humanity. I know these people and you will, too. They're friends, relatives, neighbors, the people we go to church or synagogue with, the ones we wed and bed, love and hate, mourn and bury. Leaning on their backyard fences, they're already spreading the word: YOU are in this book! -Cassandra King Bernie Schein's Famous All over Town achieves what engaging storytelling is supposed to achieve-expressive characters revealing spirited stories. Covering the 60s into the 90s of conflict and change in the lowcountry of South Carolina, Schein's cast of activists rise up in triumph. . . Splendidly written, it is a reader's delight. -Terry Kay, author of To Dance with the White Dog and The Book of Marie Every South Carolina schoolboy in the '60s knew the story of the shaved-head, steely-eyed recruits who were maliciously marched into the pluff mud at Parris Island, a place we all feared, for good reason. Within these pages, Bernie Schein transports us deep into that psychologically loaded place and time where religion and racism serve as barometric bookends to a tragedy that touched the lives of an entire town and resonated with the whole nation. -Ken Burger, author of Swallow Savannah, Sister Santee, and Salkehatchie Soup Famous All over Town captures the heart and essence of imperfect, lovable, infuriating, and admirable southern characters in a story full of vivid images and intersecting story lines from the '60s through the '90s. With a soft heart and a calloused hand, Bernie Schein introduces us to a South we might not ever know without him, and it's a place I'd like to settle in for good. -Patti Callahan Henry, author of The Stories We Tell, And Then I Found You, and others Since you can't sing Dixie, We Shall Overcome, and My Yiddishe Momme all at once, you must read this splendid novel, a vision of the small-town South, past and present, that will rattle your funny bone and rend your heart. -Peter Golden, author of Comeback Love No one is more uniquely qualified to write about his friendship with my late husband, Pat Conroy, than his oldest and closest friend, Bernie Schein. Because they shared the same irreverent humor, biting intellect, and big-hearted personalities, their bond was powerful enough to survive the many turmoils and betrayals that came their way. Bernie's portrayal of his decades-long relationship with Pat is intimate, honest, heartbreaking, and highly readable. This book is an ode to a rare, complex, and loving friendship. -Cassandra King Conroy, author of The Sunday Wife The friendship between Bernie Schein and Pat Conroy was long, deep, and all-encompassing. Bernie tells of it with fierce love, great particularity, and often the outrageous wit that makes him Bernie and no one else. Viva Bernie Schein for giving us his Pat Conroy. -Anne Rivers Siddons No one is more uniquely qualified to write about his friendship with my late husband, Pat Conroy, than his oldest and closest friend, Bernie Schein. Because they shared the same irreverent humor, biting intellect, and big-hearted personalities, their bond was powerful enough to survive the many turmoils and betrayals that came their way. Bernie's portrayal of his decades-long relationship with Pat is intimate, honest, heartbreaking, and highly readable. This book is an ode to a rare, complex, and loving friendship. -Cassandra King Conroy, author of Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy and The Sunday Wife No one on earth has the experience, the humor, and the heart to write about friendship with Pat Conroy with more authority than his best friend (and occasional enemy) Bernie Schein. Anyone who knew Pat heard so many Bernie stories that they wondered if he was an actual person or a figment of the ever-fertile Conroy imagination. As it turns out, he was both. Their childhood friendship, which began in a small Southern town in the Cold War, spanned wars, marriages, fame, and infamy and too many books to name. You can't really say you're a Pat Conroy reader if you haven't read the story from Bernie's profane and profound, and deeply loving perspective. -Janis Owens, author of American Ghost Troubled family relationships were perfectly captured and explored by Pat Conroy in book after book. All wonderful. What was not known was the depth of resolve and dependence Conroy had with his closest friend, Bernie Schein. Fractious? At times, certainly. Loving? Definitely. Intimate? Yes, and for that very reason far from easy. Here, then, is the real story of that friendship. -Maria Riva, bestselling author of Marlene Dietrich; The Life Bernie Schein is the funniest man alive, or so he has dogmatically maintained during the burdensome decades I have known him. . . . [He is] by turns hysterically funny, wildly neurotic, uniquely sensitive, and heartbreakingly honest. -Pat Conroy
Bernie Schein is the funniest man alive, or so he has dogmatically maintained during the burdensome decades I have known him. . . . [He is] by turns hysterically funny, wildly neurotic, uniquely sensitive, and heartbreakingly honest. -Pat Conroy The friendship between Bernie Schein and Pat Conroy was long, deep, and all-encompassing. Bernie tells of it with fierce love, great particularity, and often the outrageous wit that makes him Bernie and no one else. Viva Bernie Schein for giving us his Pat Conroy. -Anne Rivers Siddons Quotes for Famous All Over Town: Bernie Schein is the funniest man alive, or so he has dogmatically maintained during the burdensome decades I have known him. Like its author, this ambitious novel is by turns hysterically funny, wildly neurotic, uniquely sensitive, and heartbreakingly honest. Bernie has staked his claim on the literary landscape of the South with his unforgettable small town of equally unforgettable Jews, whites, blacks, marines, politicians, prostitutes, cops, killers, sell-outs, aristocrats, journalists, and rebels. He shies away from neither the best nor worse in us and, with compassion and authority, tells a story that is at once his own and that of everyone you will ever meet, each made famous all over town. -Pat Conroy Another time, another place-yet Somerset, South Carolina, is every small town anywhere in anytime. Its characters represent each of us in all of our flawed, tragicomic humanity. I know these people and you will, too. They're friends, relatives, neighbors, the people we go to church or synagogue with, the ones we wed and bed, love and hate, mourn and bury. Leaning on their backyard fences, they're already spreading the word: YOU are in this book! -Cassandra King Bernie Schein's Famous All over Town achieves what engaging storytelling is supposed to achieve-expressive characters revealing spirited stories. Covering the 60s into the 90s of conflict and change in the lowcountry of South Carolina, Schein's cast of activists rise up in triumph. . . Splendidly written, it is a reader's delight. -Terry Kay, author of To Dance with the White Dog and The Book of Marie Every South Carolina schoolboy in the '60s knew the story of the shaved-head, steely-eyed recruits who were maliciously marched into the pluff mud at Parris Island, a place we all feared, for good reason. Within these pages, Bernie Schein transports us deep into that psychologically loaded place and time where religion and racism serve as barometric bookends to a tragedy that touched the lives of an entire town and resonated with the whole nation. -Ken Burger, author of Swallow Savannah, Sister Santee, and Salkehatchie Soup Famous All over Town captures the heart and essence of imperfect, lovable, infuriating, and admirable southern characters in a story full of vivid images and intersecting story lines from the '60s through the '90s. With a soft heart and a calloused hand, Bernie Schein introduces us to a South we might not ever know without him, and it's a place I'd like to settle in for good. -Patti Callahan Henry, author of The Stories We Tell, And Then I Found You, and others Since you can't sing Dixie, We Shall Overcome, and My Yiddishe Momme all at once, you must read this splendid novel, a vision of the small-town South, past and present, that will rattle your funny bone and rend your heart. -Peter Golden, author of Comeback Love No one is more uniquely qualified to write about his friendship with my late husband, Pat Conroy, than his oldest and closest friend, Bernie Schein. Because they shared the same irreverent humor, biting intellect, and big-hearted personalities, their bond was powerful enough to survive the many turmoils and betrayals that came their way. Bernie's portrayal of his decades-long relationship with Pat is intimate, honest, heartbreaking, and highly readable. This book is an ode to a rare, complex, and loving friendship. -Cassandra King Conroy, author of The Sunday Wife Bernie Schein is the funniest man alive, or so he has dogmatically maintained during the burdensome decades I have known him. . . . [He is] by turns hysterically funny, wildly neurotic, uniquely sensitive, and heartbreakingly honest. -Pat Conroy The friendship between Bernie Schein and Pat Conroy was long, deep, and all-encompassing. Bernie tells of it with fierce love, great particularity, and often the outrageous wit that makes him Bernie and no one else. Viva Bernie Schein for giving us his Pat Conroy. -Anne Rivers Siddons Quotes for Famous All Over Town: Bernie Schein is the funniest man alive, or so he has dogmatically maintained during the burdensome decades I have known him. Like its author, this ambitious novel is by turns hysterically funny, wildly neurotic, uniquely sensitive, and heartbreakingly honest. Bernie has staked his claim on the literary landscape of the South with his unforgettable small town of equally unforgettable Jews, whites, blacks, marines, politicians, prostitutes, cops, killers, sell-outs, aristocrats, journalists, and rebels. He shies away from neither the best nor worse in us and, with compassion and authority, tells a story that is at once his own and that of everyone you will ever meet, each made famous all over town. -Pat Conroy Another time, another place-yet Somerset, South Carolina, is every small town anywhere in anytime. Its characters represent each of us in all of our flawed, tragicomic humanity. I know these people and you will, too. They're friends, relatives, neighbors, the people we go to church or synagogue with, the ones we wed and bed, love and hate, mourn and bury. Leaning on their backyard fences, they're already spreading the word: YOU are in this book! -Cassandra King Bernie Schein's Famous All over Town achieves what engaging storytelling is supposed to achieve-expressive characters revealing spirited stories. Covering the 60s into the 90s of conflict and change in the lowcountry of South Carolina, Schein's cast of activists rise up in triumph. . . Splendidly written, it is a reader's delight. -Terry Kay, author of To Dance with the White Dog and The Book of Marie Every South Carolina schoolboy in the '60s knew the story of the shaved-head, steely-eyed recruits who were maliciously marched into the pluff mud at Parris Island, a place we all feared, for good reason. Within these pages, Bernie Schein transports us deep into that psychologically loaded place and time where religion and racism serve as barometric bookends to a tragedy that touched the lives of an entire town and resonated with the whole nation. -Ken Burger, author of Swallow Savannah, Sister Santee, and Salkehatchie Soup Famous All over Town captures the heart and essence of imperfect, lovable, infuriating, and admirable southern characters in a story full of vivid images and intersecting story lines from the '60s through the '90s. With a soft heart and a calloused hand, Bernie Schein introduces us to a South we might not ever know without him, and it's a place I'd like to settle in for good. -Patti Callahan Henry, author of The Stories We Tell, And Then I Found You, and others Since you can't sing Dixie, We Shall Overcome, and My Yiddishe Momme all at once, you must read this splendid novel, a vision of the small-town South, past and present, that will rattle your funny bone and rend your heart. -Peter Golden, author of Comeback Love No one is more uniquely qualified to write about his friendship with my late husband, Pat Conroy, than his oldest and closest friend, Bernie Schein. Because they shared the same irreverent humor, biting intellect, and big-hearted personalities, their bond was powerful enough to survive the many turmoils and betrayals that came their way. Bernie's portrayal of his decades-long relationship with Pat is intimate, honest, heartbreaking, and highly readable. This book is an ode to a rare, complex, and loving friendship. -Cassandra King Conroy, author of The Sunday Wife
