Taps A Novel
Taps A Novel by Willie Morris, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2001, is a reprint edition comprising 340 pages. This work presents a poignant narrative set in Fisk’s Landing, Mississippi, during the early days of the Korean War. The story follows sixteen-year-old Swayze Barksdale, who is unexpectedly tasked with playing “Taps” at the funerals of local young men who have lost their lives in combat, capturing the essence of a vanishing way of life and the complexities of coming of age amidst the backdrop of war.
Readers will find a rich tapestry of characters and experiences as Swayze navigates his new responsibilities, intertwining humor and sorrow throughout his journey. The novel explores themes of patriotism, friendship, and the transition from boyhood to manhood, all while reflecting on the impact of war on a small community. With its historical and literary elements, Taps offers insights into the emotional landscape of a young man grappling with loss and identity during a tumultuous time in American history.
Official synopsis Publisher
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 story about the vanishing beauty of a charmed way of life and the fleeting boyhood of a young man coming of age in a time of war. In Fisk’s Landing, Mississippi, at the dawn of the Korean War, sixteen-year-old Swayze Barksdale is suddenly called to an unexpected duty – playing “Taps” at the gravesides of the town’s young casualties sent home from the front. Gradually, Swayze begins to pace his life around these all too frequent funerals, where his horn sounds the tragic note of the times. At turns funny, at turns poignant, TAPS abounds with colorful characters and yet “sings and sighs . . . with a kind of minor key wistfulness” (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette) as Swayze learns what it means to be a patriot, a son, a lover, a friend, a man.
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