SOUTH OF BROAD

Just finished SOUTH OF BROAD by Pat Conroy. I did read through to the end, but it was a struggle. He throws in integration, child/spousal abuse, priest pedophiles, AIDS, orphans, Appalachian hillbillies, Charleston old families, Hurricane Hugo...

You get the idea. It's a long book with not a lot of plot. Which is okay for literary fiction, I guess. But I fear he's turned out like a lot of other good writers who become wordy without a good editor to calm them down. Maybe it's because their books sell so well that the pubs don't care; maybe it's a lack of enough editors to go around. I don't know. But I've noticed this in the works of several other writers including a couple of well-known mystery writers,

So I'm looking for something light to read. I have a historical romance I'm about ready to jump on.