And this (‘Prince of Tides’) is more my mother’s book. He said, ‘I hear you made me a shrimper this time, son.’ I said, ‘Dad, you couldn’t catch a shrimp in a frozen pack.’ He said, ‘Yeah, any time you write the word father, it’s going to be me.’ And, you know, he was right. “It’s (‘Prince of Tides’) very autobiographical,” noted Conroy. Through Wingo, Lowenstein learns about his family history - a domineering mother (Kate Nelligan) and an abusive father –and his traumatic childhood.

Wingo and his wife (Blythe Danner) face a crumbling marriage. Streisand plays Savannah’s psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein, a sophisticated Upper West Sider. Wingo, an unemployed high school football coach from the South Carolina tidewater area, goes to New York City after his sister Savannah (Melinda Dillon) attempts suicide. Nick Nolte plays Tom Wingo (Conroy’s alter ego). “Prince of Tides” opened Christmas Day to glowing reviews, Golden Globe nominations (best dramatic film and best director for Streisand) and is near the top of the box office charts, having grossed $31.3 million in only two weeks. There’s something about my family and my background - we speak in stories. “I think for this reason: I simply love stories. Why have virtually all of Conroy’s novels been made into movies? Conroy’s novels are available in paperback from Bantam Books. “The Lords of Discipline,” published in 1980, was made into a film released in 1983. (basis for the fictional town of Colleton in “Prince of Tides”), was made into a movie (released in 1979) which was filmed in Beaufort (as was “Prince of Tides”) and starred Robert Duvall and Blythe Danner. Conroy’s 1976 novel, “The Great Santini,” set in Beaufort, S.C. His first, “The Water Is Wide,” published in 1972 and based on his experiences as a teacher on a South Carolina island, became “Conrack” (1974), starring Jon Voight.

Most take place in the Lowcountry area between Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, Ga. “The Prince of Tides” is the fourth Conroy novel to be adapted to the big screen. “The key event in my life is that Dad beat us up and then we couldn’t talk about it.” I asked Dad, ‘What’s it’s like to hit a baby?’ I was curious. “Dad considered himself a wonderful, wonderful guy, but I remember he knocked us around as kids. His jovial personality, that of a born raconteur in the tradition of great Irish wits, further masks a dark childhood past. As Conroy, 46, says this, his cherubic countenance - ruddy complexion, white-hair, twinkling eyes - belies not a trace of malice.

Conrack the water is wide