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Francesca Forrest's Reviews > Tam Lin
Tam Lin
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I really adored The Dubious Hills (review here), and I am sure I'll enjoy more stories set in that world. This version of Tam Lin, however, is not for me.
It's really a story about college friendships and the college experience, with just the barest whiffs of magic around the edges, if you sniff very, very hard. I'm pretty committed to the Tam Lin-as-Tam Lin story, and here it seems incidental.
The college scene is very authentic (the scene at the beginning where they're taking apart bunk beds could be nowadays), but I don't care for how clever everyone is about everything--it's all classics and English and theater and references to old books and translations. So... just not my thing.
I think Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary will be more my thing. That's the next one I'll try.
It's really a story about college friendships and the college experience, with just the barest whiffs of magic around the edges, if you sniff very, very hard. I'm pretty committed to the Tam Lin-as-Tam Lin story, and here it seems incidental.
The college scene is very authentic (the scene at the beginning where they're taking apart bunk beds could be nowadays), but I don't care for how clever everyone is about everything--it's all classics and English and theater and references to old books and translations. So... just not my thing.
I think Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary will be more my thing. That's the next one I'll try.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
February 14, 2018
– Shelved
February 14, 2018
– Shelved as:
gave-up-on
February 14, 2018
– Shelved as:
gave-up-on
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Sherwood
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Feb 14, 2018 04:37PM
I do love this one, probably because it's the kind of college experience I'd wished I'd had. (The one you name I thought problematical, but I'll be interested in your take.)
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Sherwood wrote: "I do love this one, probably because it's the kind of college experience I'd wished I'd had. (The one you name I thought problematical, but I'll be interested in your take.)"I so wish you'd been able to have a college experience like this! You would have lived it so fully.
I was glancing at other people's reviews, and I really liked Faye's review--I enjoy other people's enjoyment! I really regret that it's just not a story for me.
I'll be sure to report on the other one when I read it.
Sally Owen wrote: "I love this novel. Probably because I am a Literature graduate!"It definitely captures the feeling of a group of friends who are enthusiastic about learning and literature! I do *like* literature--and I was an English major as an undergraduate, and read many of the things referenced, had Shakespeare classes and Old English lessons--but somehow I still ended up alienated. But it's definitely a case of it being my idiosyncratic problem and not the book.
I completely agree with you! I'm a sucker for books based on Tam Lin (cf Fire and Hemlock, The Perilous Gard, and Margaret Storey's Thursday), but this one didn't quite work for me. I loved Juniper, Gentian and Rosemary, though. I think I would have liked it better had it not been called Tam Lin, because of expectations disappointed, perhaps unfairly.
... sorry - Catherine Storr's Thursday. I always get them muddled.
Yeah, I really love The Perilous Gard! And I'm looking forward to trying Juniper Gentian and Rosemary.
