Customer Reviews

The Total View of Taftly: A Novel

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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I write a monthly book review column for an Atlanta paper, and I ge a lot of review books. Because my space is limited, I can't possibly review everything, so I tend to save the space for books that I think our readers will enjoy the most. I'm really on the fence about "Taftly." I enjoyed it, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to discerning friends, but I'm not sure I want to serve it up to a wide audience. It's not for everyone. Scott Morris may never write a book that's for eveyone. But this book should find an audience; it deserves one.

Scott Morris has clearly read a lot of good fiction, and I bet that both "A Confederacy of Dunces" and "The Moviegoer" have honored places on his shelves. There's a lot of Binx in Taftly -- but there's a lot of Ignatius elsewhere. For me, the manic, Toole-esque characters (Dennis Jolly, Rodney Train and the Clydesdale twins) were the weakest parts of the book. Dennis at least gets a chance to grow a bit, and the notion of him as a redneck Boswell is a hoot. But as catalysts for Taftly's evolving "total view," none of them really works. Instead, I found the soul of the book in the barely-there character of the doctor who marries Fay.

There's so much bad, self-indulgent and programmatic new fiction out there that a "Taftly" is a welcome breeze. It's got ideas -- good ones -- at its core. It doesn't pander. It delights fans of the nifty phrase, and rewards a thoughtful reader. Here's hoping that it finds its discerning audience, and that Morris will continue to cater to us for years to come.

I read this book a few months ago (and liked it) and since it was on my amazon recommendation list I clicked on it to see what kind of reviews it was getting. There were four listed: two said it was great, even brilliant and two said they were just disappointed, and had some disparaging (even rude) comments about the author. I was surprised to say the least, for I thought the book quite good. Was I missing something or were they? I thought it interesting that the two reviewers who did not like the book were not from the South (and that I and the two reviewers that loved it are). Maybe it takes a Southern person to understand this book, or maybe I'm just not as intellectually advanced as the two dissapointed readers. What I really think, though, is that most Southerners know people who are somewhat similar to Scott Morris's charachters, and identify with their attitudes, problems and desires. That is what makes Mr. Morris's book great. Through his charachters, a reader with imagination can come to see things with a different point of view, in this case... to RELAX. Through Taftly, I was reminded to allow others their quirks (even if I have to watch out for them!) and to be at ease with my own. The two disappointed reviewers (obviously unfamiliar with the Southern mental, social and physical terrain) were unable (even with Mr. Morris's wonderful descriptive imagery) to connect with his characters.

I picked this book up at The Southern Book Festival in Nashville. I bought it on Saturday, finished it on Sunday afternoon...barely put it dowm. Scott Morris has a remarkable gift for language, a splendid ear for dialogue, and the finest, edgiest sense of humor I've run across in years. Here's a book full of puns, wit, wordplay, scholarship, droll asides, and ruminations on philosophy,family and religion....yet it still has a great story to tell. Just a gem. If you buy only a single book this year, this should be the one.

Scott Morris has a perfect hit with his first novel, "A Total View of Taftly," (working title: "The Road To Taftly"). Morris writes with a certain specific eloquence, each word is a piece of art. He really proves that you can't just read a book to find out what's going to happen next; you have to dissect each phrase, each character because then and only then will you receive all you can from the book. And there is a lot to get out of his book; the characters exhibit traits that are universal, making it easy to relate to the sequences that arrive in the chapters. Morris comes from an extremely talented family; his father, Max, is also a best-selling author, and Scott is sure to become one with more books like this!

This debut novel is poignant, funny, and bittersweet. I'll be looking for more from Scott Morris.

Scott Morris makes Franz Kafka look like a bush league pinch hitter. No one I have read more accurately depicts, not only with psychological penetration but with astonishingly beautiful language, the temper of the times. Not Kafka, not Pinchon. Moreover, we have in Morris a Dostoevskian talent for discovering aesthetic salvation amidst the inner terror and confusion that is symptomatic of "modernity." Morris demonstrates that nihilism need not culminate in nihilism, but as in Ecclesiastes, there is salvation found in brutal honesty. Grace happens.

Not to be critical of the beautiful presentation by Hill Street Press, but if THE TOTAL VIEW OF TAFTLY had been published by an Upper West Side publisher, Morris would be buying his tickets for Oslo and dusting off his tux.

But the proof of the pudding is in the eating of it. You will have to suffer through the same panic as Dennis, Taftly, et al, to arrive at the same destination. So pick it up and read it!

Owen Jones Aiken, SC

Since I have an appreciation for the eccentric and iconoclastic I found the book jacket description for this novel enticing. Yet both my wife and I read this and we were both underwhelmed. Her conclusion was that Morris was attempting to produce something in the spirit of "A Confederacy of Dunces". Let me assure you, however, that other than an eccentric protagonist, and the tale being situated south of the Mason Dixon line, in no other way does this story resemble O'Toole's classic.

The plot at several different points in the story seems to initially take off (albeit in slightly different directions) and then to quickly sputter and fizzle. It features the stereotypic microscopically small Southern town with the last of the local gentry representing a spent gene pool, mired in aimlessness and alcoholic escape, having an insecure self image and a somewhat pathetic obsession with an abused woman. Characteristically, he is independently wealthy (but seemingly indifferent to money), and a sort of idiot savant in manipulating investments (though, this interesting tangent, which had potential, was never fleshed out).

The story quickly, and unsatisfyingly concludes in an entirely predictable, easy, happy ending devoid of any complexity. I can usually appreciate a good book, but reading the other reviews I am stymied concerning what they saw that I missed.