Taps

by Willie Morris

Book Overview

The final work from one of America's most beloved authors and an instant classic, TAPS takes readers on one last fictional journey to Willie Morris's South and spins a tender, powerful, very American... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618098593
• ISBN13: 9780618098590
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A look into the soul of Willie Morris

Taps flows at a languid pace, giving the reader ample time to see, and hear, and smell the South of the Mississippi Delta, and to track the protagonist's very painful process of growing up. This is the fourth book I have read by Willie Morris, along with Larry King's fine memoir to him. King argues that Taps may be the truest, most unvarnished account of Morris' life, particularly when compared with his non-fiction work. He also says that Morris kept working on this book for virtually his entire adult life. If King is correct, then Willie Morris lived his life with an underlying sadness and sense of loss that, as revealed in Taps, is overwhelming. For him to be able to fly as high as he did in his impressive career, particularly his editorship of Harper's, and to write so many books with such rollicking good humor, must have required enormous courage and determination.

TAPS by Willie Morris

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.

Taps by Willie Morris

Taps is a wonderful book. After reading just a little Iwished that the book was much, much longer. I grew up duringthis period and believe it to be true to my experience. This is the first book I have read by this author. Based onthis book I plan to read all he has written. Very sorry thatmr Morris died so (relatively) young. I read 20-25 books a year. This is easily the best in quite afew years.

Best of 2001

Simply the best book I read in 2001. Completely satisfied my hunger for a great read -- now hungry for more, of course -- the same feeling I had after reading some of my other favorites: Flamingo Rising, by Larry Baker; Tomcat in Love, by Tim O'Brien; Wildlife, by Richard Ford; Straight Man, by Richard Russo and, of course, anything by Pat Conroy. Morris' last book is the first of his I've read. I'll work my backward through his library now.

If you enjoyed reading My Dog Skip, you will love Taps.

Taps is a beautifully written novel by a connisseur of letters. The word imagery is wonderful. It is exhilarating, it is sad, it is poignant. You will never hear Taps again without thinking of Swayze, Luke, Amanda, Georgia and the dog Dusty. It is even better than John Grisham's A Painted House.