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Looking for Andy Griffith: A Father's Journey
Andy Griffith (1926-2012) was is one of North Carolina's most beloved exports for decades, capturing America's heart as Sheriff Andy Taylor. Evan Dalton Smith was born in North Carolina's in Asheboro,Piedmont region North Carolina a few over four decades after Andy, just over an hour south of Griffith's hometown of Mount Airy. Both were small-town boys who grew up in similar places, where the counties were dry and the churches plentiful. But for both, there was darkness, crushed hopes, and tragedy, hidden just below the surface.
For Smith and many generations in North Carolina, Andy Griffith was like the air—everywhere, all the time, a part of daily life. Even after he left the state, Smith always felt the pull of home and the lingering ghost of Andy alongside it. This is an exploration on celebrity and the self, on home and what that means when you leave it, and why we love and admire the people we do—even if we've never met them—all told through the entwined lives of iconic actor Andy Griffith and writer Evan Dalton Smith. It is through Smith's telling of Griffith's life that he finds his own story, one that is both informed by and freed from the legacy of one of North Carolina's most famous sons.
For Smith and many generations in North Carolina, Andy Griffith was like the air—everywhere, all the time, a part of daily life. Even after he left the state, Smith always felt the pull of home and the lingering ghost of Andy alongside it. This is an exploration on celebrity and the self, on home and what that means when you leave it, and why we love and admire the people we do—even if we've never met them—all told through the entwined lives of iconic actor Andy Griffith and writer Evan Dalton Smith. It is through Smith's telling of Griffith's life that he finds his own story, one that is both informed by and freed from the legacy of one of North Carolina's most famous sons.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published May 28, 2024
80 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 19, 2024
I listened to this wandering disjointed memoir that was more about the author’s growth than about Andy GriffithZ it was all over the map about the author, Andy Griffith, NC history and random people associated (or not) with Andy. Offbeat.
May 4, 2025
Look, I'm the #1 fan of the TV series "Matlock" and this book mentioned Matlock 3 times - and only in the most grudging, short ways possible. I was going to say "3 stars for 3 mentions of Matlock" but they're not even good mentions! It's like he was just contractually obligated to say the title and move on as fast as possible. And the book doesn't really deserve 3 stars anyway tbh, so, 2 it is.
The book does a terrible job establishing what it's ABOUT, so it veers off course from whatever you may have been expecting almost immediately. The subtitle is "A Father's Journey" but the author (who is the father here) does not go on any sort of journey looking for Andy Griffith, which is what you'd think was implied by the title. I mean, "Looking for Andy Griffith: A Father's Journey" sounds like 'a father's journey looking for Andy Griffith,' no? Well, too bad.
The author DOES go on journeys, but only sad journeys of divorce; if he's going anywhere doing research on Andy Griffith and looking for him, or looking for some sort of answer or something, that is sadly completely left out of the book.
He reflects on his own lack of a father figure (due to his dad dying in an auto accident, which he describes in vivid detail more than once, for some reason) and the way he'd watch the Andy Griffith show, imagining Andy Taylor was his dad, just as so many people did and do. But then he never talks about how, say, Andy's lessons relate to his own actions as a father, or how the lessons he learned here inspire his parenting philosophy (other than the most surface-level 'we go fishing sometimes now').
A significant portion of this book is about the author complaining about his divorce, which to be fair, does sound pretty brutal, pretty devastating, and the situations that he put himself into afterwards were pretty harsh. But these sections just went on for too long - or really, they were too repetitive, you found him telling the same stories and reintroducing concepts he had already brought up in chapters prior. It does get to be a bit much. In one chapter he remarks how his friends are impressed that, with how far he's sank, he hasn't put a gun in his mouth. Okay, man, this is a book supposedly about Andy Griffith, not a pity party, thank you, reverse course please.
Like, truly I do hope this guy finds healing and peace and has a better life, but there is only so much that needs to be written in a book that's not about your divorce.
And I want to circle back to the Matlock thing, because I'm not just bringing that up for snark. Fatherhood was one of the biggest overarching plot points of multiple seasons of Matlock. In season 1, Ben Matlock's daughter Charlene (played by Lori Lethin in the pilot film, replaced by Linda Purl for the show) is a main character who works with him as a fellow lawyer, and their father-daughter relationship is frequently brought up, albeit not deeply, until she leaves by season 2. In later seasons, though, Ben's other daughter Leanne (Brynn Thayer) comes back into the picture. Ben and Leanne's complicated, often at-odds father daughter relationship is explored thoroughly over 3-4 seasons, with full arcs and satisfying character development. It's often contrasted to the father-son relationship in the show between Billy and Cliff (Warren Frost and Daniel Roebuck). There is analytical GOLD here.
For a book about Andy Griffith playing an important role as a father, you might imagine how this could be brought up! Compared and contrasted to the more idyllic father figure Griffith played in his first show, the things an idealized father could provide in the 1960s vs. the realities of a more nuanced fatherhood take in the 1990s. How these things could've mirrored the course of Griffith's life, say, or how the two sides of the same coin could've influenced the author and his approach to his children.
But, no, the author completely glosses over anything more deep or interesting here that would take real, fresh analysis, and sticks to his same constant "Andy Taylor was the dad I never had and now I'm very divorced" drumbeat the entire way through, as if he is deathly allergic to probing more insightful thought.
In the later parts of the book, the author has a whole section on how everything Andy did after the original Andy Griffith show was pretty much a failure, failure after failure, which I thought was unnecessarily mean (projection maybe?) and also totally untrue, Matlock ran for 9 damn seasons and has a reboot airing NOW!
There was also not even the most basic surface level analysis done on how Andy Taylor's approach to fatherhood affected the author's own kids. He mentioned they watch the show together sometimes. But he is present, and the kids have a whole second dad (stepdad I mean, the mom's new guy), so perhaps an interesting point could've been made on how Andy Taylor could function as a THIRD dad for his new generation vs. the ONLY dad for him, or how... how... ANYTHING. ANYTHING. There is very little analysis or real critical exploration in this book.
Not even the most basic connections to his fatherhood... I was left thinking, "is he not making this point because he assumes it's so obvious that it's implied, or does he truly just not connect any dots here?"
This book was sold to me from a university press at a writers literary analysis convention but the author seems determined to avoid any hint of analysis at all! Instead we have another section on how backbreaking working in a grocery store is while paying child support. Okay.
For no reason at all, the book brings up Michael Jordan a bunch, too. Bizarre.
Still, I did like the parts ABOUT Andy, his life and accomplishments and history, and the slim amount of reflection the author had about him. Those parts of the book were great. The parts about the author could have been a WHOLE lot better.
Perhaps what the title REALLY means is how you, as the reader, will be paging through this book, scratching your head, and Looking For Andy Griffith.
The book does a terrible job establishing what it's ABOUT, so it veers off course from whatever you may have been expecting almost immediately. The subtitle is "A Father's Journey" but the author (who is the father here) does not go on any sort of journey looking for Andy Griffith, which is what you'd think was implied by the title. I mean, "Looking for Andy Griffith: A Father's Journey" sounds like 'a father's journey looking for Andy Griffith,' no? Well, too bad.
The author DOES go on journeys, but only sad journeys of divorce; if he's going anywhere doing research on Andy Griffith and looking for him, or looking for some sort of answer or something, that is sadly completely left out of the book.
He reflects on his own lack of a father figure (due to his dad dying in an auto accident, which he describes in vivid detail more than once, for some reason) and the way he'd watch the Andy Griffith show, imagining Andy Taylor was his dad, just as so many people did and do. But then he never talks about how, say, Andy's lessons relate to his own actions as a father, or how the lessons he learned here inspire his parenting philosophy (other than the most surface-level 'we go fishing sometimes now').
A significant portion of this book is about the author complaining about his divorce, which to be fair, does sound pretty brutal, pretty devastating, and the situations that he put himself into afterwards were pretty harsh. But these sections just went on for too long - or really, they were too repetitive, you found him telling the same stories and reintroducing concepts he had already brought up in chapters prior. It does get to be a bit much. In one chapter he remarks how his friends are impressed that, with how far he's sank, he hasn't put a gun in his mouth. Okay, man, this is a book supposedly about Andy Griffith, not a pity party, thank you, reverse course please.
Like, truly I do hope this guy finds healing and peace and has a better life, but there is only so much that needs to be written in a book that's not about your divorce.
And I want to circle back to the Matlock thing, because I'm not just bringing that up for snark. Fatherhood was one of the biggest overarching plot points of multiple seasons of Matlock. In season 1, Ben Matlock's daughter Charlene (played by Lori Lethin in the pilot film, replaced by Linda Purl for the show) is a main character who works with him as a fellow lawyer, and their father-daughter relationship is frequently brought up, albeit not deeply, until she leaves by season 2. In later seasons, though, Ben's other daughter Leanne (Brynn Thayer) comes back into the picture. Ben and Leanne's complicated, often at-odds father daughter relationship is explored thoroughly over 3-4 seasons, with full arcs and satisfying character development. It's often contrasted to the father-son relationship in the show between Billy and Cliff (Warren Frost and Daniel Roebuck). There is analytical GOLD here.
For a book about Andy Griffith playing an important role as a father, you might imagine how this could be brought up! Compared and contrasted to the more idyllic father figure Griffith played in his first show, the things an idealized father could provide in the 1960s vs. the realities of a more nuanced fatherhood take in the 1990s. How these things could've mirrored the course of Griffith's life, say, or how the two sides of the same coin could've influenced the author and his approach to his children.
But, no, the author completely glosses over anything more deep or interesting here that would take real, fresh analysis, and sticks to his same constant "Andy Taylor was the dad I never had and now I'm very divorced" drumbeat the entire way through, as if he is deathly allergic to probing more insightful thought.
In the later parts of the book, the author has a whole section on how everything Andy did after the original Andy Griffith show was pretty much a failure, failure after failure, which I thought was unnecessarily mean (projection maybe?) and also totally untrue, Matlock ran for 9 damn seasons and has a reboot airing NOW!
There was also not even the most basic surface level analysis done on how Andy Taylor's approach to fatherhood affected the author's own kids. He mentioned they watch the show together sometimes. But he is present, and the kids have a whole second dad (stepdad I mean, the mom's new guy), so perhaps an interesting point could've been made on how Andy Taylor could function as a THIRD dad for his new generation vs. the ONLY dad for him, or how... how... ANYTHING. ANYTHING. There is very little analysis or real critical exploration in this book.
Not even the most basic connections to his fatherhood... I was left thinking, "is he not making this point because he assumes it's so obvious that it's implied, or does he truly just not connect any dots here?"
This book was sold to me from a university press at a writers literary analysis convention but the author seems determined to avoid any hint of analysis at all! Instead we have another section on how backbreaking working in a grocery store is while paying child support. Okay.
For no reason at all, the book brings up Michael Jordan a bunch, too. Bizarre.
Still, I did like the parts ABOUT Andy, his life and accomplishments and history, and the slim amount of reflection the author had about him. Those parts of the book were great. The parts about the author could have been a WHOLE lot better.
Perhaps what the title REALLY means is how you, as the reader, will be paging through this book, scratching your head, and Looking For Andy Griffith.
May 10, 2025
This book is different than any other Andy Griffith book I’ve seen. It’s peppered with interesting facts and stories and clearly well researched. I love the authors personal stories and how they intertwine with the stories about Andy’s life and legacy. I can’t recommend this book enough.
August 3, 2024
A book that was suggested to me since of the fact that I do enjoy the The Andy Griffith Show.
First of all the book isn't really clear about what the author Evan Smith is really looking for when he mentions looking for the famous actor Andy Griffith and secondly the father in question is him although there is a strange side story, which is also rather confusing, about his own fathers that had me confused more times than any.
The rest of the book does provide stories of Andy Griffith in various phases of his life although from the end portion of the book these are all curated stories that may or may not be true or if they are they may be heavily doctored to provide a certain narrative to cover the sheriff of Mayberry. Combined with these stories is a bunch or rambling memoirs of the author with the last third of the book explaining how much of a failure he has been in his life, stories of the economics for Mt Airy, as well as a bunch of historical trivia, especially of North Carolina, scattered in that will make you wonder how it even relates to any of the two topics the book is meant to focus on. As a result the reader will be provided with very little of what they may think is coming from this book.
To me there is a bit of an emotional element to the story but the disjointed telling, the fact that the author does throw in his politics and the fact that the story is so full of extra fluff that makes it seem endless is basically what makes me dislike this tale so much. With some careful trimming, a bit less more pity party and a more outlined goal may have bumped up my rating to a higher star than it is now.
Otherwise if you are into North Carolina history or disjointed memoirs this book may hit home but otherwise I think the author correctly foretells it in his own pages that this book won't make it too long on the offering plate for reader as the only real draw is the information on Andy Griffith, which it doesn't provide enough of.
First of all the book isn't really clear about what the author Evan Smith is really looking for when he mentions looking for the famous actor Andy Griffith and secondly the father in question is him although there is a strange side story, which is also rather confusing, about his own fathers that had me confused more times than any.
The rest of the book does provide stories of Andy Griffith in various phases of his life although from the end portion of the book these are all curated stories that may or may not be true or if they are they may be heavily doctored to provide a certain narrative to cover the sheriff of Mayberry. Combined with these stories is a bunch or rambling memoirs of the author with the last third of the book explaining how much of a failure he has been in his life, stories of the economics for Mt Airy, as well as a bunch of historical trivia, especially of North Carolina, scattered in that will make you wonder how it even relates to any of the two topics the book is meant to focus on. As a result the reader will be provided with very little of what they may think is coming from this book.
To me there is a bit of an emotional element to the story but the disjointed telling, the fact that the author does throw in his politics and the fact that the story is so full of extra fluff that makes it seem endless is basically what makes me dislike this tale so much. With some careful trimming, a bit less more pity party and a more outlined goal may have bumped up my rating to a higher star than it is now.
Otherwise if you are into North Carolina history or disjointed memoirs this book may hit home but otherwise I think the author correctly foretells it in his own pages that this book won't make it too long on the offering plate for reader as the only real draw is the information on Andy Griffith, which it doesn't provide enough of.
March 4, 2025
Looking for Andy Griffith: A Father's Journey
is not what I thought it was going to be. . .at all. That said, what it turned out to be was interesting enough to keep me engaged throughout the read.
Other reviews have mentioned a poetic feel, and I'll agree to a certain point - would rather say a free associating lyricism drives the entire piece, from start to finish. Snapshot descriptions, timelines that go back and forth, and two different stories woven over and through each other: Evan Dalton Smith's and Andy Griffith's. These are not whole biographies of either of them, but rather a cherry picking of all the commonalities between them. There are quite a few as they both come from the same region, the same dna backing up a number of generations, and all of it shows the effect of place, time and family outlooks on life circumstances.
Many of the author's choices surprised me, the wandering narrative giving no clue of what was ahead (or behind, if we were backtracking), not the least of which was the wrap up. Still, an approach in presentation that normally wouldn't be my preference turned out to be of interest to me. I suppose in a longer book, that would have worn out eventually, but in this length it worked for me. The overall tone of melancholy and a sense of woebegone-ness was not one I'd have ever associated with Andy Griffith.
There were aspects of Andy G's life that were new to me - and I was able to add some books to my TBR from information provided by the author, and have added A Face In the Crowd / Your Arkansas Traveler movie to my list of future viewing. Have somehow missed that over these years.
I do wonder what Mr. G would think of this book. . .
*A sincere thank you to Evan Dalton Smith, University of North Carolina Press, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #LookingforAndyGriffith #NetGalley 25|52:43c
Other reviews have mentioned a poetic feel, and I'll agree to a certain point - would rather say a free associating lyricism drives the entire piece, from start to finish. Snapshot descriptions, timelines that go back and forth, and two different stories woven over and through each other: Evan Dalton Smith's and Andy Griffith's. These are not whole biographies of either of them, but rather a cherry picking of all the commonalities between them. There are quite a few as they both come from the same region, the same dna backing up a number of generations, and all of it shows the effect of place, time and family outlooks on life circumstances.
Many of the author's choices surprised me, the wandering narrative giving no clue of what was ahead (or behind, if we were backtracking), not the least of which was the wrap up. Still, an approach in presentation that normally wouldn't be my preference turned out to be of interest to me. I suppose in a longer book, that would have worn out eventually, but in this length it worked for me. The overall tone of melancholy and a sense of woebegone-ness was not one I'd have ever associated with Andy Griffith.
There were aspects of Andy G's life that were new to me - and I was able to add some books to my TBR from information provided by the author, and have added A Face In the Crowd / Your Arkansas Traveler movie to my list of future viewing. Have somehow missed that over these years.
I do wonder what Mr. G would think of this book. . .
*A sincere thank you to Evan Dalton Smith, University of North Carolina Press, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #LookingforAndyGriffith #NetGalley 25|52:43c
June 29, 2024
''Looking for Andy Griffith'' is a quasi-memoir-biography that intertwines the author's childhood in North Carolina with that of our titular Folk Hero (who became something of a Surrogate Father Figure to Mr Evan Dalton Smith; Andy was something of a Father America to all children of the 1960s). It's the latest biography of the Hollywood Icon (the most recently released title was ''Andy Griffith's Manteo'' about the Star's life in Manteo and the Outer Banks). ''Looking for Andy Griffith'' was not set to be officially released to Amazon and all major retailers until May 28, but I was able to pre-order the book through the University of North Carolina Press and received a special discount through the author's official Twitter page (much cheaper than the list price). It just so happens that the author's maternal grandfather, Wallace Simmons, was Andy's third cousin, and though the author and his family were not so well-acquainted with Andy, his influence over the author throughout his life was prevalent. The book is so beautiful and poetically written. It was a great pleasure to begin this journey! ❣
June 29, 2024
I didn't read the synopsis before I started this book, so I went into it thinking it was a biography of Andy Griffith, but most of the book is about the author. Quite often I would be reading about his troubles or the history of a place and time and wonder how it connected to Andy Griffith, and eventually it would usually tie in somehow. The author is usually depressed about something, his divorce, not seeing his children, not having any money. If you're looking for a book that is actually about the life of Andy Griffen, I would look for something different.
June 15, 2024
Listening to the audiobook, I could feel the author's pain from several life events. I hope he has found healing. I do need to point out that not all author's make good narrators.
Good luck with everything.
Good luck with everything.
January 5, 2025
I did not like it. It was hard to follow his plot. What was his points. It seems to be more a struggle with himself personally than a true story about Andy. Nothing seems to connect. I was lost most of the time.
July 1, 2024
An interesting parallel biography of Andy Griffith and Smith himself. Both grew up poor in North Carolina. It was written during the COVID pandemic.
July 13, 2024
I actually scanned the last 50 pages. The author let his obsession with Andy Griffith take over too much of his life.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews