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Title: Taps: A Novel by Willie Morris ISBN: 0-618-21902-1 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 08 April, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.36 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: TAPS by Willie Morris
Comment: TAPS is more than a title, it is the background of a bygone era. It is the very footsteps of youth frozen in time and memory. The setting of Fisk's Landng, Mississippi is the stage on which Swayze Barksdale and his friends learn about life, its hardships, pleasures, and sometimes about tough decisions on day to day priorities. When Swayze and his friend Arch are drafted by the hardware store owner and World War II veteran, Luke Cartwright, to play Taps at a military funeral because as members of the high school band they are the only trumpet players in town, it marks the beginning of the return of casualties from the Korean conflict. Swayze and Arch play Taps and 'echo' at the many funerals which come to punctuate the days and experiences of their young lives. The town's bullies led by Durley Godbold, scion of the wealthiest family in town, make life miserable for Swayze and his friends until Durley leaves for service. He proves opposities attract by marrying his girlfriend Amanda before he leaves. She is as beautiful and well liked as Durley is arrogant and mean. When Durley is reported missing in action, it is bad news to no one but his parents. Soon after that, Swayze and his girlfiend, Georgia, discover that Luke and Amanda have become lovers. They keep their secret, enjoying their friends' comraderie in spite of the age difference, right up to Luke's shocking murder. Swayze's mother teaches tap dancing to the town's more affluent children and he welcomes every chance he has to escape his mother's constant surveillance and the irritiating sound of the tap dancing. The characters and scenes are so skillfully done you can almost hear their voices and picture the school, the teacher, and the old hearse at the funeral home. The developing affection between Swayze and Georgia, between Luke and Amanda, and the intrigues and shocks of life and sudden death in Fisk's Landing are drawn against a rural background which quickly becomes familiar in the first few pages. The playing of Taps captures the reader's imagination and winds its way using the characters' experiences and emotions along a pathway strewn with the reader's own milestones and memories, to touch the heart. Willie Morris died at the age of sixty-six in August of 1999 and TAPS is a fitting memorial of the pleasure he bequeathered his readers.
Submitted by: Jackie Griffey, columnist for The North Shelby Times, Memphis, Tennessee.
Rating: 3
Summary: Lacks a strong narrative drive
Comment: Gifted, with a clear distinct voice, Willie Morris' TAPS while insightful to a time past, yet lacks a strong narrative drive. With all the well-drawn characters, Morris sets up the reader in a way that suggests something is going to happen. It doesn't. I would recommend the book, but don't expect to be riveted, rather rocked by the wonderful prose.
Rating: 3
Summary: Okay, but not great
Comment: Morris captured the "Big Picture" of how the Korean War affected a small town in Mississippi well, but his writing style was very inconsistent. The story is good and the narrator, Swayze is compelling, but I didn't find it worthy of more than three stars.
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Title: North Toward Home by Willie Morris ISBN: 0375724605 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: August, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: My Dog Skip by Willie Morris ISBN: 0679767223 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 30 January, 1996 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: My Cat Spit McGee by Willie Morris ISBN: 0375706933 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Good Old Boy: A Delta Boyhood by Willie Morris ISBN: 0916242684 Publisher: Yoknapatawpha Pr Pub. Date: October, 2000 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: The Courting of Marcus Dupree by Willie Morris ISBN: 0878055851 Publisher: Univ Pr of Mississippi (Trd) Pub. Date: October, 1992 List Price(USD): $16.05 |
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