Tam Lin
I’m a little torn about this book. I wasn’t completely happy with it, but, in a way, it redeemed itself in the end.
First, the warning: the novel contains somewhat objectionable content, but considering the setting, this content is appropriate. The novel is set in the 1970s on a college campus. While author Pamela Dean leaves the politics out, for the most part, several minor characters are involved with drugs, and most of the characters are engaged in premarital sex. This is actually where the book almost lost me; I don’t mind a bit of sexual content, but when it becomes the main focus of the plot, I tend to lose interest. Early in the novel, the three freshman girls the plot follows through college make the conscious decisions to begin sleeping with their boyfriends. While Dean does spare us superfluous descriptions of their encounters, for much of the novel this is the main focus. When towards the middle of the novel, the action sort of peters out, I nearly put down the book, tiring of these young adult lives that revolved only around sex and school drama.
But as I said, the ending really does make up for these faults, at least in my book. Since this novel is not really based on a fairy tale, per se, but on a ballad, you don’t necessarily get the happily-ever-after ending, but it is delightfully true to the story of the ballad. The ballad itself concerns a young woman who sleeps with a man who has been ensnared by the Queen of the Faeries. When she becomes pregnant, she must rescue her lover. It really is a deligtful story if for no other reason than for the fact that the woman is the savior–a rarity in classic literature.
I’ll also say that I was a bit disappointed with the very modern, realistic perspective of the entire novel. It made all mention of the faery seem out of place, and left something to be wanting at the end of the novel. It is almost as if Dean was trying to be too politically correct, too feminist in a world of literature that is decidedly not so. Oh, well.
It was an enjoyable read, nonetheless. I just expected more.
March 20, 2007
Posted in: fiction, retold fairy tale
One Response
*in best Archibald Asparagus voice* Fascinating!
The emphasis on sex and modern viewpoints is rather what I suspected. I’m sorry to be correct. But I’m glad the ending had more than a little redemption for the rest. Thanks for the review, and I may be reading this one day.
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