Tam Lin (The Fairy Tale Series)

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book
Review: Other reviews have commented that there isn't much actual "legend" in this retelling of the Tamlin ballad. I have to agree - but this shouldn't stop you from reading this book. The characterizations were so true to the experience of growing up, going to college, making friends, and dating that it is *well* worth picking up.

To my view, the legend isn't the central focus to the book, but it does enhance it. It's definitely a book that I pick up over and over and always find something new to like about it.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely fantastic
Review: I first read Tam Lin, well, I can't remember when. I've read it over and over since then, though, and each time I pick out new clues, new hints, new allusions, new jokes . . . This is a textbook example of a LAYERED novel.

As many other reviewers have pointed out, understanding this book can hinge on a liberal arts education. I had one, I'm happy to say--we even operated on a trimester system, just like Blackstock, the college Janet attends in the novel (which is loosely based on Carleton College in Minnesota--after reading this book, I seriously considering transfering there).

Now. The ending IS a bit rushed. I tallied it up once: Janet's freshman year takes up very nearly one half of the book, while her other three years take up progressively fewer pages. The "fairy tale" ending gets a similarly rushed treatment, but I don't think that necessarily detracts from the story as a whole, especially if you're familiar with the Tam Lin ballad--which I wasn't when I first read it, and I still loved it.

If you can find it, buy it. This isn't a book to be borrowed from the library and read once--you'll never catch everything. Buy it, read it, read it again, and then read it once more. After a year or so, read it again.

Rating:
Summary: an excellent adaptation of the Tam Lin legend
Review: I was first intrigued by the Tam Lin legend after reading the Jane Yolen picture book of the same title. I found this book, part of-and perhaps the best of- Terri Windling's Fairy Tale series, at the local bookstore and bought it, took it home, and read it in a weekend. I couldn't put it down. I've read it a number of times since.

The plot itself works the Tam Lin legend (included in ballad form in the book)into the like of a young woman attending a small midwestern liberal arts college. Janet enters school as an English major(I was an English major in college) where she finds friends in her roomates and romance in a bumpy relationship with a Classics major.

For anyone who loves literature, this book also has an added appeal, Pamela Dean recommends many, many books, plays, and poems through the character of Janet. Some were books I'd already read, others I've read since. I can't recommend this book enough.

Rating:
Summary: hated it, went to Carleton, learned to love it ....
Review: honestly, the first time i read the book - in high school, after receiving my acceptance to Carleton - i hated it. i Didn't Get It. but like other people have said, i think that it takes a liberal arts education to appreciate it. i'm in my junior year at Carleton now, and i AM an English major, and by this point i've read the book at least 40 times. i think the novel takes repeated readings, because i am still picking out new clues each time i settle in to re-read it in one night (usually when i should be studying for something). if you don't read carefully, it's easy to understand why you find the fairy tale only appearing at the end. but if you read closely, you'll notice that dean gives you hints throughout the entire book about what will happen. it's still as magical for me the 40th time as it was the 2nd.

and to corroborate with the other northfield posters, we do talk like this. dean got one thing right, and it's the carleton student: we're Smart and we Know It. not an attractive quality all the time, of course, but my theater and english major friends here quote and allude and pun on authors constantly. it's why tam lin is a cult novel on our campus. we see ourselves. she did that portrait brilliantly.

Rating:
Summary: O I Forbid Ye, Maidens All....
Review: A lot of what the negative reviewers of _Tam Lin_ say is true. By many standards, the book is heavily flawed... but it's still one of my favorites.

I read _Tam Lin_ in one night--I couldn't bear to put it down; I never wanted it to end. I would have been happy to be caught up in the world of Janet, Thomas, Molly, Nick, etceteras for all time. The literary allusions were intriguing; the poetry was enchanting; Robin was hilarious. This book, in fact, was one of the factors responsible for my decision to change my major to English (one which I don't regret). It is a beautiful, spellbinding, memorable work of art.

And you just know there's a but coming after that sentence.

The ending is rushed, and seems contrived. There are loose ends which are never tied up. There are mysteries which are never explained to satisfaction. Unless there is a sequel, which seems unlikely, we will never find out what happens to the secondary characters; further, the cliffhanger question at the end (which are the 'two dearer'?) is left unanswered. Subplots are ended roughly and abruptly.

The miracle of _Tam Lin_ is that I can see all this, recognize all of this, and love it anyway. It's definitely worth the read--you may not come away with a sense of having read something perfectly crafted, but you will probably come away with the sense of having read something worthwhile.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing, wonderful, beautiful
Review: I reviewed this book two and a half years ago, when I first read it, and I feel the urge to re-review it and give a more mature perspective. (or, "How Tam Lin Impacted My Life")

Since reading this book I have read so many works of great literature (like the poetry of Keats, and _The Lady's Not for Burning_, and _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead_, and the poetry of Pope) that I wouldn't have been introduced to, otherwise. Besides that, I've reread the book itself a thousand times, recommended it to everyone I know, and looked for everything else she wrote. (This is still my favorite.)

The plot in brief: Janet Carter (of Carterhaugh) goes off to college; discovers friends, literature, magic, mystery, and politics.

How realistic is it? Rather. I go to a small Midwestern liberal arts college (it's in Ohio, though); I reread the book two weeks after arriving here, and I knew exactly what Janet/Pamela Dean was talking about. Ending up with roommates (well, only one) you don't know a thing about, becoming friends with them, meeting large groups of guys . . . and in my experience, Theatre majors really do talk like that, except my theatre major friends are more likely to quote Sondheim than Shakespeare (being the musical variety). My father went through a physics class altogether too similar to Janet's; my friend's fencing class is altogether too much like Janet's; and there are people here who *would* set bizarre things like "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" to music. (Does this make you intrigued?)

The ballad plot, for the sticklers, comes in on page 73. There are hints and other ideas of it before that, but the actual opening of the ballad is page 73. That doesn't mean you can skip the first 72 pages of the book, however. They're just as vital, just as amusing, just as interesting as the next 72 pages, or the last 72 pages.

My first recommendation is: Read it! My second recommendation is: Read ANYTHING Janet does that sounds interesting. "If it Doesn't Work, It's Physics"

Rating:
Summary: my theory on the "nonexistent" ballad
Review: Recently I reread Tam Lin for the second time (because I was about to move away to college), and while I rediscovered why I love this book (the prose, those crazy half-invisible punctuation marks--which add character--and just the story in general, all the little details you don't see first time round), I also found a possible answer to so many people's complaints that the book neglects the ballad and then rushes into it full-force at the end. I am actually typing this from college, from what I wrote in my journal:

I think that Medeous' direct quote ("Tam Lin," that line from the ballad), at the end, which so demoralized one reviewer (his contention being that if Pamela Dean kept the fantasy so under wraps for the first 5/6 of the book--which of course is false, but the subtlety of the fantasy fits the syllogism just as well--she ought not to have made the ending, with the transformations and Medeous' words, so literal), was in fact strictly that, a QUOTE. Quoting literature, whether Shakespeare or other works, is very important to the court (Nick and Robin and Rob cherish Shakespeare because they lived through the making of it, and acted it). It lends meaning, and mystery, and even justification, to any sentiment; thus I believe Medeous' intent to have been.

The story, after all, was NOT--as some reviewers seem to assume--simply the ballad moved forward in time, for in Janet's world the ballad existed, as it would not if she were acting it out, living it. (I think it would have been incongruous for it NOT to have existed, because of all the emphasis on the literature WE, the readers, possess, and to extract any work would make it somewhat alien to us). Instead, it was another episode on the same lines (which makes it forgivable if Ms. Dean did not follow the ballad exactly); as Thomas explained to Janet before the crisis, it had happened before (sometimes to people who "deserved it"), and it would assumedly happen again, whenever seven of the Fairy Queen's years passed.

Because of all this, I believe that Medeous was quoting HERSELF--or perhaps her ancestor, if Fairy Queens ever die--from the time recorded in the ballad. It fits; it was a timely quotation, and therefore right and necessary for one of that court. (All this makes me long to find the Fairport Convention version of the ballad, which Pamela Dean said she used, so I can relate it all better.)

As for the sudden burst into literal ACTION, I think the action was going on all the time behind the scenes (there are tons of illusions to it in the characters' speech) and that the last scene was merely when JANET started to really see what was happening, and since we were seeing the situation very much through her eyes it seems just as all-of-a-sudden to us as it did to her. And we realize, as she did, that it was there all along, if we had only noticed it.

THAT'S why I love this book.

Rating:
Summary: Enchanting
Review: "Tam Lin" is unadulterated fun. The characterizations are richly developed, the literary allusions are plentiful and amusing and the description of university life makes me want to do my college years all over again. For the most part, I also think Pamela Dean did a beautiful job of weaving the Tam Lin legend into a modern day setting. The parallels between the book and the legend begin from the moment she introduces her characters. My only complaint is the book's ending which I find incomplete. I also feel that in a book which seems so real, the ending should have been equally real and should have made sense of the legend without relying on things that simply cannot happen. For this reason, I give the book four stars and not five.

The book includes the Tam Lin ballad at the end. I think the ballad is misplaced and I strongly urge anyone reading the book to read the ballad first. Not only did I read it first, but I found it helpful to refer back to it several times during the course of the book in order to remind myself of the clues I was looking for. Finally, for those who want more of the Tam Lin legend, I highly recommend "The Perilous Gard," which, although is a children's book, does another take on the Tam Lin legend and is set in the sixteenth century.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome, unless you're a plot-driven type
Review: Tam Lin isn't a book for plot-oriented or excessively realistic people; the plot alternates between languid and choppy, and it leaves a lot of loose ends hanging out. Also, I have a hard time believing that any college student anywhere has ever behaved like Janet and her friends. (The college students I know drink a lot and quote Austin Powers, not Christopher Fry.) But none of that has kept me from reading this book so many times I can recite pages of it. Realistic or not, Janet Carter is one of the most fully developed and appealing heroines I've ever encountered. The supporting characters are varied, fully realized, and so entertaining; if you can read this book without falling in love with both Molly and Thomas, you have no soul. Aside from the characters, Pamela Dean's prose is both wry and beautiful. She also does a marvelous job burying clues to the plot where they'll only emerge after multiple readings. The literary references aren't always necessary, but they're fun anyway. If you get hung up on plotting, Tam Lin will only make you angry. But if you enjoy complex, likable characters, excellent prose, and fresh surprises every time you read, I highly recommend Tam Lin.

Rating:
Summary: A suprising gem
Review: First, I LOVED, this book. In the beginning it seemed dull to me, but the mystery, and curiosities of the tale, grabbed my attention, and wouldn't let go. The story is almost a "coming of age in the 1970's" tale of a young woman named Janet Carter (already the literary references begin). My University days were nothing like Janet's, nor were my friends like hers, nor my campus like Blackstock, but I really wish they had been (minus having to pay the piper). This is a faerie tale in one of the truest senses.

Janet Carter, oldest daughter of Professor Carter and his wife, begins her freshman year of college at Blackstock, the campus she has basically grown up on. The room she shares with Tina and Molly, was the room of a Classics major, who committed suicide. Many campus jokes and tales are based on the notion that Classis majors are nutty. In spite of the notorious ecclecticness, of Classics majors, all three roommates take up relationships with Classic majors. From there the story takes off, in strange ways and the interweaving of their day to day lives infused with unearthly elements, is so delicately done, that the effect is utterly original. Ms. Dean develops the characters so subtly, that you get to feel like you know them, without them being forced on you. Yes, some of the characters do seem a bit full of themselves, and their intellect, but it works. They fling quotes around in no good order, but on the few occasions the literary refernces went over my head, I actually felt compelled to find out more (this book sort of proves the value of a liberal arts education, with all it's references, like when Janet was reading *The Waste Land*) All in all this book is incredibly well written, I adored the characters, the wierdness, and the sometime absurdity of the situations. There was just the right mix of 'reality' and 'faery' to make this book suprisingly wonderful.