Quick Synopsis: Growing up an hour south of Andy Griffith’s hometown in North Carolina, Evan Dalton Smith grew up watching The Andy Griffith Show and looking up to Griffith, finding similarities in both his own story and Griffith’s.

Strong Points: I bet when you think of The Andy Griffith Show, the catchy whistling theme song plays in your head. The show's comfy themes and happy endings made me a huge fan. That was also true for Smith, who found comfort and relaxation in his otherwise chaotic childhood. Throughout the book, it’s clear that Griffith has touched the author’s life in a prolific way, and it comes through in his passionate writing.

Weak Points: However, this felt very much like a first draft. The organization was very, very strange. At times, it was hard to follow the author’s train of thought. This, paired with the clunky transitions between the author’s life and Griffith's, left me disoriented. I get what the author was trying to do with this story—a half memoir and half Griffith biography—but unfortunately, I think this needs some serious editing before its publication date.

Did not enjoy the book. I am upset to give such a low rating, but I did not enjoy reading the biography.

As a native North Carolinian, fan of UNC Press, and admirer of Andy Griffith, I was really looking forward to this book. Unfortunately, it was just not to my taste. I was unable to finish it and stopped reading about halfway through. I feel like the author just missed the mark.

Warning: I try to be nice with my book reviews but with this one, I just can’t.

Bad writing, bad premise, bad everything - AVOID if you can! Thank God, Andy Griffith is not around to read this and shame on the University of North Carolina Press for publishing this mess of a book.

This ARC was given to me to review from the publishers and NetGalley. My thoughts and comments are solely my own.

It was interesting to see the link between Andy Griffith and the author evan Dalton Smith.. the way it was written was perfect for the general. And I feel like it should have been a biography about Andy Griffith. I appreciate it getting to know the author through this book. And how he felt Andy Griffith had shaped his life. I understood what he was going for. I look forward to reading More from the author as I think he has potential.

I'm not sure what this is exactly... A bunch of sentences put together that sometimes mention Andy and his wife and a variety of other unknown people.

The pictures are nice though!

The good news is "Looking for Andy Griffith" was my 100th book of 2023. The bad news is it was the worst of the lot.

The author, Evan Dalton Smith, seems like a very nice, sensitive man. Sadly, he seems to be fixated on Andy Griffith. By "fixated", I mean he's spent the better part of his life researching and watching every show Andy ever made . . . . . . . . most of them many, many times over.

If Smith would have written a nice biography, it might have been a three-star book. Instead he elected to analyze the links his own life had to Griffith. In most cases, the links are insignificant and even senseless. The author spiderwebs from the insignificant to the absurd. Does the reader care that both Andy and Evan walked down the same street 20 years apart?

As I said, I hate giving a low rating to such a seemingly nice man. But the fixation is more than a little creepy.