Tam Lin (Fairy Tale)

Rating:
Summary: nya-nya-nya-nya I WENT to the college in the book
Review: And Carleton is just as wonderful, awesome, and invigorating as the college in the novel. I first read Tam Lin while in High School and immediately decided to go to the college in the book. Dean's charecterizations of college life, studies, and then general weirdness that goes on at a small liberal arts college are spot on. When her deft interweaving of the fantasy elements is added--this is an incredible book. The story is well done; the plot elements are consistent and interesting and the sheer presence of literature and books in the novel is sure to be enjoyable for anyone who enjoys books and reading. A wonderful book.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I am a big fan of most of the Fairy Tale series and this one is one of the best, in my opinion.
Some earlier reviewer claims you have to have been an English major to enjoy this book. How sad that this person is so negative to readers in general. It is also a sad testament to todays world that not enough reading is done so that books like this would get reviews like that.
It is a clever and well written novel and there are references throughout to the Tam Lin ballad, but unlike less skilled writers Pamela Dean doesn't come out and hit you on the head with them, YOU have to see them.
Excellently crafted and delightful twists and turns make this a facinating read for ANYONE who enjoys a more complicated tale instead of something with all the clues handed to you on a platter!

Rating:
Summary: great story, nice retelling
Review: I enjoyed the modern retelling, especially using the perils most college women face. The struggles the heroine goes through are timeless for other young women, and she faces them practically. I also really enjoyed the literature quotes and learned a great deal about the classics. Good book!

Rating:
Summary: Maybe you need 2 copies of this one
Review: I liked this book so much that when I had loaned my copy out, I borrowed my library's copy several times till I got my own back. The book was not what I expected when I picked it up - the modern-day (well, 1970's still feels modern-day to me, okay?) setting was a surprise, and the first time I read it I kept expecting a dissolve to fairyland. Despite the unexpected setting, I've returned again and again to this story of tangled relationships. The college situations rang true, and in fact made me homesick for my college town. Another reviewer mentioned Diana Wynne Jones' Fire and Hemlock, and Elizabeth Marie Pope's The Perilous Gard, both of which I heartily agree are wonderful variants from the same root stock as Tam Lin. Try all three!

Rating:
Summary: A subtle book that a modern reader can't "get" in 1 reading
Review: I see many reviews of those who read the book once, and didn't "get" it. This book requires VERY careful reading, and even then, unless you know the "Tam Lin" legend, you are unlikely to unwrap all the layers on one reading.

Apparently modern readers can't keep their attention on the details which are the heart of this book. For example, when
the "boys" first appear in the cafeteria, they appear to "glow."
Dean is NOT kidding that they are glowing, for reasons that only
are apparent when Medeous leads the ride on Halloween.

For me, I was confronted with a contradiction: Janet Carter belongs with Thomas Lynne (Tam Lin). Why is her boyfriend through most of the book named Nicholas Tooley, and Janet's roommate is dating Thomas? However, note the times that Janet goes sledding (traying, really) with Thomas. She goes to a bunch of plays with Thomas. She gets love advice in The Tea Room from Thomas. Etc. Etc. He comes to Greek Class to divert Medeous' attention from Janet to himself.

Thomas knows he is the Fairy Queen' sacrifice to the Dark Power
behind the Queen, and he does not want Janet hurt. He is as subtle in expressing his love as he can be. Robin knows that
Thomas is the next sacrifice (well, all the Riders with the Fairy Queen know). Lots of byplay with Robin: "all right then,
YOU say farewell to this life!" Robin: "If not to you, it may come to me." Thomas is Hamlet to Robin's Horatio. Those who
think that Thomas and Janet are not having a subterranean love
life throughout the book have missed hundred of clues...

You must be awake and pay close attention while reading this book! I had most of the details figured out, yet second and third readings showed more things I missed.

Ignore Steven Brust's opinion at your peril: "This is what fairy tales are supposed to be; this is what fiction is supposed to be."

Rating:
Summary: "...A Double Rose, A Rose but Only Twa"
Review: Not much happens in this book until the last 30 pages or so, and by that point it was too late for me. The characters are, for the most part, fairly well-drawn if not very compelling, but their dialogue isn't very realistic. Their endless discussions of literature, and extremely detailed descriptions of the action of various stage plays, became really tedious and made me feel like the author was showing off her literary education.

Rating:
Summary: An undeniable treasure
Review: Some people say Tam Lin is a bit 'slow'. I find the book to be at a perfect pace for me. You get time to know all of the characters and you get a real feel for the college and for the way life is there. I have read this book several times and I'm always stasified with the ending, which is rare for me. Too often I feel that books chicken out on the ending, not letting the book fall into a natural ending it deserves. But Tam Lin ends perfectly and doesn't sacrafice the characters, the situations, or the ballad for a cheap ending.
I think that the book needs to be as long as it is in order for it to fufill everything Dean sets out to do. The book is slightly more enjoyable when read over because you pick up on a lot of things you missed the times you read it previously. Also, I don't believe one can accuratly judge the book until one has read the whole thing; The book may seem odd and off at times but it all comes together in the end. So give it a chance and don't give up hope. Are you a lover, a lunatic, or a poet?

Rating:
Summary: A decent novel, so-so retelling of 'Tam Lin'
Review: Terri Windling's Fairy Tales Series has had an uneven history: some breathtaking riffs on classic stories and themes (Tanith Lee's White as Snow, for instance, or Jane Yolen's Briar Rose) alongside some relatively pedestrian, if still enjoyable, retellings (Patricia Wrede's Snow White & Rose Red, Charles de Lint's Jack the Giant-Killer). Tam Lin somehow manages to belong to both categories at once.

OK, first the criticism: Here is a book that has some serious pacing problems and was badly in need of editing for internal consistency. One character's hair color spontaneously changes from red to brown midway through the story and nobody seems to notice. Other characters pop up who are supposed to have already graduated from the Midwestern college that is the setting (and largely the raison d'etre) for the novel, still attending classes and eating at the cafeteria. Main character Janet's first year at said college seems to take more time than the other three combined. The supernatural elements, after a promising start, largely disappear until the last few pages. In fact, for a novel of some 400 pages covering 4 years, not much really happens.

Now the praise: Somehow this book manages to be much, much more than the sum of its parts. The depiction of college life, while it probably will only resonate with those who have themselves attended a small liberal arts college, is appealing enough to make you wish Blackstock really existed so you could visit the campus and see buildings like the "modern malaprop" Fine Arts center. English major Janet sees life through the perspective of the (many) books she reads, tinging her internal narrative with a wry and engaging sense of humor reminiscent of Austen and peppering it with lovely, intriguing literary quotes ranging from Lewis Carroll to T. S. Eliot (with, of course, loads of Shakespeare). And, most importantly, the characters are rich, warm, funny, and endearing, even when they're busy making the other characters (and the reader) want to scratch their eyes out. Maybe it's the would-have-been English major in me, or the fact that I first read the book just as I was beginning my own college studies, or simply the suspicion that, if the Queen of Faerie and her court really do haunt the contemporary world, they probably do it just about exactly the way Dean proposes they might, but flaws and all, this is one book I will always have on my shelf.

Rating:
Summary: I loved it, but you might not...
Review: This book is full of lovely language, subtle references to the ballad of Tam Lin, unadulterated nostalgia for life at a liberal arts college in the 1970s, and characters who are flawed but endearing. I wore out one copy of this book and had to buy a second, which disappeared into a friend's library, so I had to buy a third. I reread it at least once a year, or whenever I want to read a beautifully written book which will reveal more on each successive reading.

However, lots of people hate this book. Some of the people who hate this book are people whose literary tastes I otherwise trust implicitly. It's hard to know why they hate it. They say they hate the cardboard characters (but the characters seemed to me to be both wonderful evocations of the archtypes they represented and also quite well-drawn as individuals). They say the book is pretentious (but I went to school with a bunch of people who talked like that -- we outgrew it, but the dialogue sang to me). They say the fairy tale is just nailed onto the ending of the book (but if you look, the details of the ballad are present from the first page -- and surely one of the things Dean is trying to say is that the fantastic has as its context the mundane). They say the writing is wooden (I disagree).

If you love lanugage, if you were ever a somewhat pretentious young intellectual, if you want to remember what it felt like to be 18 years old at a liberal arts college (and you didn't have to go to Carleton to feel the tug of nostalgia), you will probably like this book. But if you don't, you will be in good company.