The Water is Wide

The Water is Wide, Pat Conroy's memoir of a year teaching in a sea islands school off the coast of South Carolina circa 1969, is a fascinating glimpse into the lives and conditions of the people on little Yamacraw Island (the fictional name of Daufuskie Island).

Conroy is young and more than a little idealistic when he arrives on Yamacraw/Daufuskie to teach the island's children, virtually all of whom are black, poor, descended directly from the slaves who worked the island's plantations, and have never journeyed farther than Savannah, some 13 miles away. Though Conroy is teaching the upper grades (5-8), he discovers within the first week that a plurality of his students can neither read nor write, and some are unable to recite the alphabet or add 1+1.

Conroy quickly adapts his teaching methods, working to gain the trust of the children and their families, while incurring the ire of the other teacher, Mrs. Brown, who is most distressed at his refusal to employ corporal punishment. Throughout the year Conroy butts head repeatedly with both Brown and the district heads on mainland South Carolina; this combined with his total racial tolerance and outright support of school integration, ultimately dooms his cause and the district fires him after the first year.

The Water is Wide is inspiring and depressing in equal measures, and makes Tony Danza's year in Philadelphia look like a walk in the park. Conroy brings to life not only his students but the ways of the Gullah people and a tiny forgotten corner of the country. In that way, I was regularly reminded of Chesapeake Requiem, another island whose way of life is quickly being upended.

Five stars.