The Total View of Taftly: A Novel Horror Book Review

When we first meet Taftly Harper he is happily ensconced in the boozy Copiah Harper Tavern in bucolic Copiah Springs. Though Taftly descends from a storied line of Southerners, his father has long ago vanished and his mother is dead. Left to his own devices, Taftly seeks an adventurous and heroic existence for himself: a life of honour with an occasional splash of splendour. Our newly svelte Taftly foremost wants what any pathetically noble creature deserves: to love and be loved. Instead, he finds and loses love, gets assaulted—almost raped—by the obscenely obese Clydesdale twins, pestered by a body-building, alien-abducted sidekick; and tormented by the memories of his mother. From peaks of ingenious hilarity to valleys of soul-searching depth, debut novelist Scott Morris has created a character cynical enough to be genuine and ridiculous enough to be loveable. Taftly’s saga is not soon forgotten and, through him, we are forced to explore our own position in the world whereby we are left with a rare glimpse of the ‘Total View’ or how to wrench grace and triumph from an otherwise barren and plotless world.