What do you think?
Rate this book
Tam-O'-Shanter
In this short story by Donna Tartt, an ageing actor confronts the passage of time as he makes a visit to a dying child in a Children's Hospital.
20 pages
First published April 19, 1993
About the author
Donna Tartt
35 books34.4k followersDonna Tartt is an American author who has achieved critical and public acclaim for her novels, which have been published in forty languages. In 2003 she received the WH Smith Literary Award for her novel, The Little Friend, which was also nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction. She won the Pulitzer Prize and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Fiction for her most recent novel, The Goldfinch.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
February 10, 2019
This sad short story shows Donna Tartt's writer quality. And it's the start of her dark and brooding stories I guess, written years ago, published in The New Yorker, April 19, 1993.
I think this is the last one I had left of all she wrote...
Therefore, Ms. Tartt, please announce your next book soon!
I am looking foward to it!
Here's the link to Tam-O'-Shanter by Donna Tartt:
http://www.languageisavirus.com/donna...
I think this is the last one I had left of all she wrote...
Therefore, Ms. Tartt, please announce your next book soon!
I am looking foward to it!
Here's the link to Tam-O'-Shanter by Donna Tartt:
http://www.languageisavirus.com/donna...
January 1, 2023
Gordon is an old man and a retired actor who used to star in the pictures as Geordie MacTavish, the highland lad. A ramshackle, unsavoury hero who seeks adventure before common sense. He was a fan favourite, especially with children.
Gordon was often invited to paediatric hospitals to visit these wee invalids in desperate need of a laugh. However, it wasn't always smooth sailing,
the alien trappings of childhood irritated him and made him uncomfortable.This story is quite brief, something I was never sure Tartt was capable of but her signature style still shines through with about as much subtlety as a nuclear blast. Gordon is an observer, just like Tartt's heroes I've grown to indulge in. He is pragmatic about the situation but can't help but wonder why children have to suffer. For him, as an older man, it's consequences of past vice come to roost. His newfound loneliness is something he acknowledges,
Away from the camaraderie of the shared routine, the office acquaintances had begun to slip, and he didn’t see too many other people on a regular basisas are his own medical battles,
The crowning inequity in a life full of bad deals.Tartt's puts us in the children's hospital and has us experience a heaping of emotion, served along with an existential crisis. Would you like fries with that? No thank you, I'm watching my weight for my 60s. There's one line that left me breathless, as I suppose it would any dreamer who is working towards a specific ambition. It was to be the most prestigious film Gordon would appear in in his entire career, though he would not become aware of this for another twenty years or so.
What if you've already gotten as close as you'll ever get?
Sometimes I review other things: Visit, like, share
December 18, 2021
WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
this explanation/intro will be posted before each day’s short story. scroll down to get to the story-review.
this is the FOURTH year of me doing a short story advent calendar as my december project. for those of you new to me or this endeavor, here’s the skinny: every day in december, i will be reading a short story that is 1) available free somewhere on internet, and 2) listed on goodreads as its own discrete entity. there will be links provided for those of you who like to read (or listen to) short stories for free, and also for those of you who have wildly overestimated how many books you can read in a year and are freaking out about not meeting your 2019 reading-challenge goals. i have been gathering links all year when tasty little tales have popped into my feed, but i will also accept additional suggestions, as long as they meet my aforementioned 1), 2) standards.
if you scroll to the end of the reviews linked here, you will find links to all the previous years’ stories, which means NINETY-THREE FREEBIES FOR YOU!
2016: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
2017: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
2018: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
reviews of these will vary in length/quality depending on my available time/brain power.
so, let’s begin
DECEMBER 2: TAM-O'-SHANTER - DONNA TARTT
this is an older story, first published in 1993, and it's donna tartt, so it's obviously not gonna be bad writing, but it IS a little on the schmaltzy side. then again, it's about a washed-up former child actor visiting a sick child in the hospital and there's a little dog, too, which—that scenario's got unavoidable schmaltzy baggage lodged deep in its bones, so it can't be helped, i suppose. just read it! it's short! 'tis the season for schmaltz, and it's not like you're gonna get to read a new book from her anytime soon; take what you can get!
read it for yourself here:
http://www.languageisavirus.com/donna...
*******************************************
THE STORIES:
DECEMBER 1: FOR HE CAN CREEP - SIOBHAN CARROLL
DECEMBER 3: TRASH BIRD - REZA FARAZMAND
DECEMBER 4: COLOR AND LIGHT - SALLY ROONEY
DECEMBER 5: SEONAG AND THE SEAWOLVES - M. EVAN MACGRIOGAIR
DECEMBER 6: KAIJU MAXIMUS "SO VARIOUS, SO BEAUTIFUL, SO NEW" - KAI ASHANTE WILSON
DECEMBER 7: BEWARE OF OWNER - CHUCK WENDIG
DECEMBER 8: THE TALE OF THE THREE BEAUTIFUL RAPTOR SISTERS, AND THE PRINCE WHO WAS MADE OF MEAT - BROOKE BOLANDER
DECEMBER 9: OUT OF SKIN - EMILY CARROLL
DECEMBER 10: PROBABLY STILL THE CHOSEN ONE - KELLY BARNHILL
DECEMBER 11: THE HUNDREDTH HOUSE HAD NO WALLS - LAURIE PENNY
DECEMBER 12: GIRLS, AT PLAY - CELESTE NG
DECEMBER 13: MR. THURSDAY - EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL
DECEMBER 14: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE - MADELINE ASHBY
DECEMBER 15: A FOREST, OR A TREE - TEGAN MOORE
DECEMBER 16: OUTFOXED: A FABLE - DYLAN MECONIS
DECEMBER 17: THEN LATER, HIS GHOST - SARAH HALL
DECEMBER 18: OH, WHISTLE, AND I'LL COME TO YOU, MY LAD - M.R. JAMES
DECEMBER 19: PREMIUM HARMONY - STEPHEN KING
DECEMBER 20: KNOWLEDGEABLE CREATURES - CHRISTOPHER ROWE
DECEMBER 21: THE HOLE THE FOX DID MAKE - EMILY CARROLL
DECEMBER 22: MRS. FOX - SARAH HALL
DECEMBER 23: SEASONAL WORK - LAURA LIPPMAN
DECEMBER 24: THE PLAGUE - KEN LIU
DECEMBER 25: ANY WAY THE WIND BLOWS - SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 26: BLOOD IS ANOTHER WORLD FOR HUNGER - RIVERS SOLOMON
DECEMBER 27: CIRCUS GIRL, THE HUNTER, AND MIRROR BOY - J.Y. YANG
DECEMBER 28: ALL ALONG THE WALL - EMILY CARROLL
DECEMBER 29: SWEETNESS - TONI MORRISON
DECEMBER 30: DERIVING LIFE - ELIZABETH BEAR
DECEMBER 31: EVERY LITTLE THING - CELESTE NG
come to my blog!
this explanation/intro will be posted before each day’s short story. scroll down to get to the story-review.
this is the FOURTH year of me doing a short story advent calendar as my december project. for those of you new to me or this endeavor, here’s the skinny: every day in december, i will be reading a short story that is 1) available free somewhere on internet, and 2) listed on goodreads as its own discrete entity. there will be links provided for those of you who like to read (or listen to) short stories for free, and also for those of you who have wildly overestimated how many books you can read in a year and are freaking out about not meeting your 2019 reading-challenge goals. i have been gathering links all year when tasty little tales have popped into my feed, but i will also accept additional suggestions, as long as they meet my aforementioned 1), 2) standards.
if you scroll to the end of the reviews linked here, you will find links to all the previous years’ stories, which means NINETY-THREE FREEBIES FOR YOU!
2016: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
2017: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
2018: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
reviews of these will vary in length/quality depending on my available time/brain power.
so, let’s begin
DECEMBER 2: TAM-O'-SHANTER - DONNA TARTT
Nine years old and dying of leukemia -- some chromosomal kind, nearly always fatal. "She watches your movies before she goes into chemo," the doctor had said. "Says Geordie's never afraid and neither is she." What a rotten world, thought Gordon.
this is an older story, first published in 1993, and it's donna tartt, so it's obviously not gonna be bad writing, but it IS a little on the schmaltzy side. then again, it's about a washed-up former child actor visiting a sick child in the hospital and there's a little dog, too, which—that scenario's got unavoidable schmaltzy baggage lodged deep in its bones, so it can't be helped, i suppose. just read it! it's short! 'tis the season for schmaltz, and it's not like you're gonna get to read a new book from her anytime soon; take what you can get!
read it for yourself here:
http://www.languageisavirus.com/donna...
*******************************************
THE STORIES:
DECEMBER 1: FOR HE CAN CREEP - SIOBHAN CARROLL
DECEMBER 3: TRASH BIRD - REZA FARAZMAND
DECEMBER 4: COLOR AND LIGHT - SALLY ROONEY
DECEMBER 5: SEONAG AND THE SEAWOLVES - M. EVAN MACGRIOGAIR
DECEMBER 6: KAIJU MAXIMUS "SO VARIOUS, SO BEAUTIFUL, SO NEW" - KAI ASHANTE WILSON
DECEMBER 7: BEWARE OF OWNER - CHUCK WENDIG
DECEMBER 8: THE TALE OF THE THREE BEAUTIFUL RAPTOR SISTERS, AND THE PRINCE WHO WAS MADE OF MEAT - BROOKE BOLANDER
DECEMBER 9: OUT OF SKIN - EMILY CARROLL
DECEMBER 10: PROBABLY STILL THE CHOSEN ONE - KELLY BARNHILL
DECEMBER 11: THE HUNDREDTH HOUSE HAD NO WALLS - LAURIE PENNY
DECEMBER 12: GIRLS, AT PLAY - CELESTE NG
DECEMBER 13: MR. THURSDAY - EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL
DECEMBER 14: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE - MADELINE ASHBY
DECEMBER 15: A FOREST, OR A TREE - TEGAN MOORE
DECEMBER 16: OUTFOXED: A FABLE - DYLAN MECONIS
DECEMBER 17: THEN LATER, HIS GHOST - SARAH HALL
DECEMBER 18: OH, WHISTLE, AND I'LL COME TO YOU, MY LAD - M.R. JAMES
DECEMBER 19: PREMIUM HARMONY - STEPHEN KING
DECEMBER 20: KNOWLEDGEABLE CREATURES - CHRISTOPHER ROWE
DECEMBER 21: THE HOLE THE FOX DID MAKE - EMILY CARROLL
DECEMBER 22: MRS. FOX - SARAH HALL
DECEMBER 23: SEASONAL WORK - LAURA LIPPMAN
DECEMBER 24: THE PLAGUE - KEN LIU
DECEMBER 25: ANY WAY THE WIND BLOWS - SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 26: BLOOD IS ANOTHER WORLD FOR HUNGER - RIVERS SOLOMON
DECEMBER 27: CIRCUS GIRL, THE HUNTER, AND MIRROR BOY - J.Y. YANG
DECEMBER 28: ALL ALONG THE WALL - EMILY CARROLL
DECEMBER 29: SWEETNESS - TONI MORRISON
DECEMBER 30: DERIVING LIFE - ELIZABETH BEAR
DECEMBER 31: EVERY LITTLE THING - CELESTE NG
come to my blog!
July 16, 2016
A link to all of Tartt's short stories:
http://languageisavirus.com/donna_tar...
She writes with unbelievable skill. She master's the psychological power writers need to create the experience. Her skill matches Poe in my opinion.
http://languageisavirus.com/donna_tar...
She writes with unbelievable skill. She master's the psychological power writers need to create the experience. Her skill matches Poe in my opinion.
February 16, 2023
This short piece of writing gives a glimpse of what compassion and kindness can convey. It reminds you what's important and significant in life, it's the little things.
The author's writing is beautiful and richly detailed as usual. I admire her gift to make use of words like musical notes to create a symphony full of magic.
The author's writing is beautiful and richly detailed as usual. I admire her gift to make use of words like musical notes to create a symphony full of magic.
January 5, 2019
pretty short, pretty good
May 6, 2024
2.5⭐️
Short, sweet, memorable and raw.
A quote that resonated with me:
“It was to be the most prestigious film Gordon would appear in his entire career, though he would not become aware of this for another twenty years or so.”
A reviewer wrote as a response: ‘What if you've already gotten as close as you'll ever get?’
Short, sweet, memorable and raw.
A quote that resonated with me:
“It was to be the most prestigious film Gordon would appear in his entire career, though he would not become aware of this for another twenty years or so.”
A reviewer wrote as a response: ‘What if you've already gotten as close as you'll ever get?’
September 14, 2020
An aging child actor coming to terms with his own mortality, visits children in the cancer wing of the hospital.
Questioning his own importance and why he bothers to visit these children he gets a gentle reminder that seemingly insignificant acts of kindness can mean the world to others.
Questioning his own importance and why he bothers to visit these children he gets a gentle reminder that seemingly insignificant acts of kindness can mean the world to others.
December 17, 2019
Two kindred souls get to meet.
June 26, 2023
3.5 stars. A quick read, communicates a lot in a small number of words, as all good short stories should. Sad in such a specific way that it's quite eerie.
November 21, 2023
I think Donna Tartt is incapable of writing something thats not incredible
January 4, 2024
Short story - a nice read.
July 2, 2024
lover to lover, ruin to ruin
*
every time i think i can easily write a short story, i read something like this that makes me embarrassed even to open The New Yorker emails the next day.
*
every time i think i can easily write a short story, i read something like this that makes me embarrassed even to open The New Yorker emails the next day.
April 29, 2021
4.5
it was so beautiful and sad at the same time
donna tartt always shining the brightest with her words and storytelling
it was so beautiful and sad at the same time
donna tartt always shining the brightest with her words and storytelling
February 2, 2022
so short and so simple but so very heartfelt
July 20, 2019
You can definitely see the beginnings of Donna Tartt's style with this short story. It's nothing very memorable but it's a definite vivid picture with every page.
September 15, 2014
This was really sweet. :)
April 17, 2016
Elderly actor visits dying child in hospital.
July 22, 2019
Donna really knows how to break your heart in as few words as possible.
January 21, 2021
No one writes life like Donna.
October 13, 2021
.･ﾟﾟ･(／ω＼)･ﾟﾟ･.
I was not prepared!
I was not prepared!
Read
September 2, 2022and on this week of 'mia reads something in class instead paying attention to her tutor':
January 6, 2023
Donna Tartt does it again, but this time in less than 900 pages
March 21, 2023
3
I know the point is that it's a short story, but I think this should have been a little longer.
I know the point is that it's a short story, but I think this should have been a little longer.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews