Looking for Andy Griffith

“A poignantly candid memoir . . . . Shot through with admiration and grief for all the father figures Smith ever loved, this unique, at times wistfully lyrical memoir is a moving celebration of fatherhood as well as a warm tribute to the lessons all fathers, real and imagined, have to teach us.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Smith bounces his life against Griffith’s to see where the sparks fly. Their twined lives get meted out in vignettes, in short capsules glancing on Griffith’s career, his fan base, his cultural legacy, North Carolina history, Smith’s shambolic post-divorce existence, and, perhaps most of all, 'our desire and nostalgia for things that didn’t exist.' . . . A surfeit of pain courses through this book, but, as Smith reminds us, a similar river trickled through Mayberry.”—Jonathan Miles, Garden & Gun

“An excellent book.”—New York Magazine

“A comprehensive examination into the life and career of actor Andy Griffith . . . [that] is intended to offer a glimpse into the impact of both Griffith and The Andy Griffith Show on the author’s life. . . . [S]uitable for inclusion in any academic or local public library with a focus on North Carolina cultural history.”—North Carolina Libraries

“In a narrative blending memoir and biography, Smith offers strength and hope as he recounts the image and reality of a man he admires and who struggled in some of the same ways he does. I enjoyed this book immensely.”—Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish and This Isn’t Going to End Well: The True Story of a Man I Thought I Knew

“This coming-of-middle-age story chronicles Smith’s search for validation while offering readers a profound glimpse into the complicated nature of Andy Griffith the man and Andy Griffith the character. A tender and brutal panegyric about one of America’s most beloved icons.”—Lily Hoang, author of Changing and A Bestiary

“Evan Dalton Smith’s Looking for Andy Griffith is not so much a cross between biography and memoir as a gorgeous collision. In prose shot through with gentle humor and gut-wrenching grief, Smith writes about the turbulent aftermath of his divorce, all the while steering us toward the devastations and triumphs in Griffith’s life. A powerful and ingenious meditation on fatherhood, loss, and self-discovery.”—Rebecca Donner, New York Times bestselling author of All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days