The Ambush

Tin House #26

by Donna Tartt

"The Ambush," short story by Donna Tartt: A young girl befriends a newcomer to the neighborhood and grapples with fallout from the Vietnam War.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Historical, Adult, American

20 pages, Magazine

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Donna 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.

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

When 8 year old Evie becomes friends with newcomer 7 year old Tim, she's told not to ask about his father, who was killed in Vietnam. People are worried about the effect it might have on him, but Tim is more than happy to talk about his father, and soon has Evie acting out scenes from Vietnam and in particular his father's death scene. The firefights continue daily, and become ever more frantic. Tim's behaviour gets increasingly worse, but his mother and grandmother are unwilling to chastise him, and leave him to grieve in the only way he knows how.

It's always difficult for me to review a short story as there is never enough depth of feeling for the characters and background, but the author has done a good job in this case, of getting straight to the nitty gritty. Ultimately though, it confirmed my views about prejudice - that whatever form it takes, it's never pretty.

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grieving the death of a loved one can take many forms. Seven year old Tim, with the aid of eight year old Evie, acts out different battle scenarios trying to come to grips with his father's death in Vietnam. Daily barrages of firefights continue for hours on end. While Tim's behavior deteriorates, other family members turn inward. "The Ambush" by Donna Tartt is a multi-layered window into the action or inaction caused by personal loss.

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!

last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.

i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.

and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!

DECEMBER 16



"It's an ugly world," she said. "An ugly, stinking world."

another wonderful donna tartt surprise. not surprising that it was wonderful, but it's a true christmas miracle to think you've read all the donna tartt there was and to then discover SECRET SHORT STORIES BY DONNA TARTT FOR FREE ON THE INTERNET!!

what other secrets does internet hold? let's find out together!

read it for yourself here:

http://www.languageisavirus.com/donna...

DECEMBER 1: FABLE - CHARLES YU
DECEMBER 2: THE REAL DEAL - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 3: THE WAYS OF WALLS AND WORDS - SABRINA VOURVOULIAS
DECEMBER 4: GHOSTS AND EMPTIES - LAUREN GROFF
DECEMBER 5: THE RETURN OF THE THIN WHITE DUKE - NEIL GAIMAN
DECEMBER 6: WHEN THE YOGURT TOOK OVER - JOHN SCALZI
DECEMBER 7: A CHRISTMAS PAGEANT - DONNA TARTT
DECEMBER 8: DEEP - PHILIP PLAIT
DECEMBER 9: COOKIE JAR - STEPHEN KING
DECEMBER 10: THE STORY OF KAO YU - PETER S. BEAGLE
DECEMBER 11: THE HEEBIE-JEEBIES - ALAN BEARD
DECEMBER 12: THE TOMATO THIEF - URSULA VERNON
DECEMBER 13: THE JAWS THAT BITE, THE CLAWS THAT CATCH - SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 14: ROLLING IN THE DEEP - JULIO ALEXI GENAO
DECEMBER 15: ANTIHYPOXIANT - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 17: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TRAITOR AND A HALF-SAVAGE - ALIX HARROW
DECEMBER 18: THE CHRISTMAS SHOW - PAT CADIGAN
DECEMBER 19: THE GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS - PAUL CORNELL
DECEMBER 20: THE TRAINS THAT CLIMB THE WINTER TREE - MICHAEL SWANWICK
DECEMBER 21: BLUE IS A DARKNESS WEAKENED BY LIGHT - SARAH MCCARRY
DECEMBER 22: WATERS OF VERSAILLES - KELLY ROBSON
DECEMBER 23: RAZORBACK - URSULA VERNON
DECEMBER 24: DIARY OF AN ASSCAN - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 25: CHANGING MEANINGS - SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 26: SHOGGOTHS IN BLOOM - ELIZABETH BEAR
DECEMBER 27: THE CARTOGRAPHY OF SUDDEN DEATH - CHARLIE JANE ANDERS
DECEMBER 28: FRIEDRICH THE SNOW MAN - LEWIS SHINER
DECEMBER 29: DRESS YOUR MARINES IN WHITE - EMMY LAYBOURNE
DECEMBER 30: AM I FREE TO GO? - KATHRYN CRAMER
DECEMBER 31: OLD DEAD FUTURES - TINA CONNOLLY

come to my blog!

[Annet · Rating 5 out of 5]

One word: Brilliant. What a story...!
I'm a big fan of Donna Tartt and the books she has written are pretty substantial in size. But now I know she can write short stories too. Very excited when I found this collection of short stories via Goodreads, wow.... The Ambush has the same broody atmosphere her books have. You just know something is going to happen that is not going to be very good...
It's the story of an 8-year old girl Evie, who meets a 7-year old boy Tim, whose father was killed in Vietnam. It all starts out with them playing out his father's death in Vietnam in the garden of Tim's grandmother. A weird play by kids, but seemingly innocent. And things go from there... Telling more would be spoiling. A must-read for Donna Tartt fans and more, you can find it here: http://languageisavirus.com/donna_tar...

Before I met Tim - who, in spite of everything I'm about to tell you, would be my best friend for the next four or five years - my mother warned me on the way over to his grandmother's house that I had to be nice to him. "I mean it, Evie. And don't mention his father."

[Andrew Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love it when I come across freebie short stories written by writers I admire. True, you’re not going to get the depth of story or learn to love or hate the characters therein to the same extent as in a full length novel, but the trade off is that it’s likely to pack a punch and deliver a quick, satisfactory interlude to your day. And this one delivers just that.

There’s no time for a build up, you’re straight in. A young girl visits the house of a boy she doesn’t know – Seven-year-old Tim is the grandson of a friend of her grandmother. She’s warned not to ask the boy about his dad who was killed in the Vietnam War, quite recently. However, it transpires that Tim is keen on re-enacting the event – he playing the part of his father.

The few players in this story are well framed and the interactions and behaviours of the children feel true, if a little strange. But then again, who is to say they’re a little strange? I’ve no idea how I would have reacted to such a cataclysmic event at such a young age. It’s a thought provoking piece and it certainly kept me interested for the short time it took to finish the story.

Tartt is a classy writer and I’d have expected no less from her. What it’s really done though is to further whet my appetite for her next full length novel.

Link: http://www.languageisavirus.com/donna...

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

A short story and one where the ending is maybe not so clear. For me, I interpreted this story as a boy trying to come to terms with the death of his father in Vietnam. Tim is constantly re-enacting war scenes to try and make sense of his loss. His new friend, Evie, goes along with play-acting war. Tim's mother and grandmother are background characters who are also grappling with loss and the changes in their lives. The ending shows how each of them in this small family of three is coming to terms with the death of father, husband and son; and how those in the community cannot come close to understanding. Poignant story.

[Karlyflower *The Vampire Ninja, Luminescent Monster & Wendigo Nerd Goddess of Canada (according to The Hulk)* · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars

I will admit to a little bit of scepticism regarding Tartt’s ability to hammer out a concise short story. While I simply adored both The Secret History and The Goldfinch, the reasons that both these novels worked for me – melodic, shattering, flowing prose that weaves into the peaks and valleys of my mind’s jumbled mess of life experiences – are precisely why I worried she would not do well in a genre which often requires that the most impact be infused into a short number of words. In simple, it is style which I did not expect Tartt to excel at.

However, The Ambush surprised me.



This was a really well written short story. It manages to meld Tartt’s talent for drawing multiple vivid and compelling aspects out of one story with the precision required to wrap a story up in a short timeframe. A story of an unusual friendship, which stems from a young girl befriending a troubled young boy desperately coping with the loss of his father by mimicking the situation of his father’s last moments.

It’s a shattering, multi-layered short story that can be looked at from several different angles. None of which are overly pleasant.

[Άννα Morta ⛧⛧⛧ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This insightful story is well written and explores the different ways of coping with death, loss, grief and sorrow. The deeper meaning of the text is exactly to the point until the end. Donna Tartt's writing is metaphorical, beautiful, and richly detailed as usual. I enjoyed this story, and it really spoke to me 🖤

[Thomas Stroemquist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delicious short by Donna Tartt. I have two more stacked up and I'll see how long I can keep away from those. Writing's five-star of course, but the length of the piece is an obstacle to full-on immersion - it's just over too soon! I'm not going to do a synopsis, the title is adequate and now just read it!

[Regina Fleck · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Tartt" rhymes with "art".

[Phoenix2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Ambush is a short story by author Donna Tartt. It has the vibes of The Little Friend, her other novel, being narrated by a young girl, and describing an incident that took place when she was playing with her best friend.

For a short story, the author does a great job presenting the characters and their motives and giving a wholesome story that gives food for thought.

The writting style, in addition, is easy going, with a fast paced narration and a melancholical mood.

[Varun Iyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was googling Donna Tartt and found this. Well written, as expected. Even in limited length, Tartt manages to create an engaging setting and deliver a jaw-dropping conclusion.

The childhood games always remind me of To Kill A Mockingbird, which, for me, has a bright carefree sunshine vibe. The Ambush stems from a similar vibe in my heart, but comes a little tainted. Where TKAM was dazzling sunshine, this story is like sitting in the shade of very dense tree and looking out into the bright world with squinting eyes.

Idk, make of it what you will. But overall, me likey.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ambiguity may be this short stories best asset. While Tim misses his father, he feels good when playing war convincingly even at the expense of others getting hurt. Tim's mother recognizes that her son's behaving badly, but does she ignore it out of grief or fear of his grandmother asking them to leave the house. Is Evie a good or bad child?

Children need to play games so as to understand the world better, but I can't say with certainty what those two learned.

[tortoise dreams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spoilery Short Story Review

"The Ambush," Donna Tartt's most recent short story, was published in The Guardian in June 2005. This story hides a ruse. As big a ploy as The Virgin Suicides (there the unwitting villains are the the male voyeurs. Now you know.). In "The Ambush," eight-years-old Evie is the unwitting villain of the piece. We open with Evie's mother taking her to Tim's (age seven) grandmother's house to play and telling her not to mention Tim's father who died in Vietnam. But he does and she does and so begins the downward spiral. Tim wants to endlessly reenact his father's supposedly heroic death, just as the War went on seemingly forever. He is playing, literally acting out his father's death, trying to get some control over his own life which has changed so radically, by understanding and controlling the incident that took his father. He brings Evie into his war games, together playing at soldiers on the battlefield. They play "all day long ...every day until the fireflies came out, until it was almost too dark to see." Tim's family, his mother and grandmother, periodically watch bemused as Tim futilely works through his loss. They wish the bad memories would just disappear, but Tim, with his pretend war always escalating, won't let them forget. They can't escape their loss, and Tim and his mother's postfuneral visit "stretched beyond the usual two-week limit" as they stay with his grandmother as Tim can't move on. His family indulges him, caters to him, thinking that they're letting him work through his pain unfettered, and make only feeble attempts to redirect him to something more positive. As Tim is trapped in his violent fantasies, his family too is trapped, isolated in the house, their infrequent appearances in public a cause for comment among the townspeople. Evie is a willing, eager participant in the expanding pretend violence, enabling Tim to repeat his reenactments of his father's death, a puppet show of grief and loss. But a loss Evie has never known. She's never shared the pain and the War isn't real to her, is just a shadow. Evie hasn't suffered, she knows that she doesn't understand what Vietnam is. For her it's just a ghost story as she helps Tim perpetuate the endless death of his father, trapped in a Groundhog Day of loss, not moving on, not getting over the pain and letting time heal. Instead she helps him enlarge the pretend horrors, more fantasy destruction, greater imaginary carnage, going deeper into his violent images of the war. The two children lay waste to the yard of the Grandmother's house. They literally rip down the idyllic white picket fence, "we trampled the garden ... knocked over flower pots and broke them," tore limbs from a cherry tree, use house paint to brush "a landing strip on the grass," leaving a "wrecked yard." Even as the War not only destroyed much of Vietnam itself, but also with its long, difficult influence wounded the American psyche with its death toll, the damaged returnees, the ripping apart of the social fabric, pitting child against parent even as the bloodier U.S. Civil War pitted brother against brother. The two children only enter the house and encounter his family to rudely grab sustenance, brutally ignoring mother and grandmother with the cruelty of children: "If I'd behaved so badly at my own house, I would have got a spanking." The climax of the story comes when the chidren's endless reenactment has palled, is no longer effective, and Tim decides to take it up a notch. He's going to invade the house, which has been a sanctuary, free of the war games. He wants to literally bring it home, bring the trauma to his family. The children charge up the steps only to startle the grandmother who falls injuring herself, and real blood flows. In the moment, Tim keeps his head in reacting to the reality of the situation. He has snapped out of his fever dream. But Evie still as ever blindly follows his commands and Tim's mother lashes out at Evie and her sense of entitlement, that she gets to destroy another family's yard, that she treats adults brutally. The mother is offended at Evie's blithe and superficial playing at war and death. Though the story is told through Evie's eyes, we see that she has been a destructive force in keeping Tim apart from his family forcing them too to relive their unbearable loss, the destruction of their own lives, as Evie helps Tim destroy the yard. As an adult the mother sees what the child Evie cannot. The mother wants to keep her sanctuary, to exclude the crazy behavior that has further damaged her son who is no longer well adjusted, but obsessed, doomed to live out over and over again his father's death, leading him into a sort of mental illness, a recurring fantasy of loss on an unhealthy wheel of death and destruction, stuck in a past of loss and pain. The mother is an outsider, she is the "Other." It's bad enough that she's a New Yorker, but she's (God forbid -- literally!) Jewish. She's a guest in her mother-in-law's house, living there at her sufferance and subject to her rules. She's uncomfortable, isolated, friendless. She's lost her husband and is left with a young son. She doesn't "have anyplace else to go," and dresses differently than others in the Southern town, wears her makeup differently. Emblematic of the difference between New York City and the deep South, the townfolk blame her for her husband's death -- if he hadn't married her he'd be alive today -- a devastating judgment that we get through the eyes of a child. Tim is distanced from his mother in his violent fatal fantasies and she doesn't know what to do. She doesn't want to take away his only friend, as she has no friends, but she sees the damage that Evie has enabled for Tim. When she strikes out at Evie, Tim's mother is telling her "Wake up, snap out of it, you're destroying my son, your sense of entitlement is hurtng everyone." She calls Evie "goyische," as one who hasn't suffered. Evie's life is not scarred, marred, harmed. She hasn't been ripped from her home and lost a parent. But she has harmed Tim, realizing "I was as close at that moment to the real war as I was ever going to get." This story acts as an ambush and lures the reader into a trap much as the Vietnam War did the U.S. Donna Tartt is playin 3-D chess with our hearts and minds. "The Ambush" was included in The Best American Short Stories 2006, edited by Ann Patchett. [4½★]

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

A boy and girl bond and become friends through playing “war,” specifically Vietnam. Tim, whose father died in Vietnam, is a stoic little boy who daily wants to pretend to be in the war. He has recently moved with his widowed mother to his father’s mother, who lives next door to Evie, a little girl. Evie is warned not ask about Tim’s father but the first thing Tim says to Evie is that his father had died in Vietnam and asks her if she would like to act it out. They do this for some time and then get into a little trouble at the end. I don’t think it would be appropriate to reveal the surprise ending. Tim is the reason I enjoyed this short story by Donna Tartt. He is a determined unwavering steadfast little boy who I envision to one day join the military and resolutely take very direct orders while implementing them to the fullest of his abilities. The story is not directly about Vietnam but it does have a slight anti-war sentiment. The Ambush tells the story of a boy longing for his father and the only way he can remember him by is acting out the way he died. This a very well written and original short story that I will certainly re-read.

[Lorrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an odd little story that left me wondering just what Tim's mother was really like. Was she grieving, was she street smart, was she mentally ill? Why wouldn't she let Evie use the phone to call 911? I wish the story would have been longer.

On another thought, Tim & Evie ambushed Tim's grandmother when she was coming down the porch steps with the cake, but then again Tim's mother ambushed Evie when she went into the house to call 911. Ms. Tartt was trying to suggest many of the faces of evil, I think.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories by authors whose work I have read and loved are always on my radar, so I was pleased to come across this one by Donna Tartt, the author of one of my favorite books, The Goldfinch.

The narrator of this short story, Evie, reflects back to a time when she was eight years old and befriends Tim, the seven-year-old grandson of her grandmother's friend. Tim had just lost his father in the Vietnam War and this story centers around a game that Tim teaches Evie to play in which they reenact how Tim's father died in the war. They play this game every day and it is evident how deeply war affects children.

This story resonated with me because I was close to Evie's age during the time this story takes place and also because Tartt handled the short story form well, which can be a hit or miss given the parameters of a short story.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heard this one on a recent Selected Shorts podcast and when I saw that it was freely available on the internet, I decided to read it instead.

Really very good. Two kids, Evie (8) and Tim (7), spend their summer days playing in the yard of southern town. Except, the boy recently lost his father in Vietnam. The kids are all too eager to act out what they know of what is going on there.

Short story, but richly drawn.

[Mili Chamberlain · Rating 5 out of 5]

BRILLIANT. I am in complete awe of how she is able to write children and take them completely seriously while not compromising their inherent lack of judgment or occasional (for lack of a better word) foolishness. I tend to feel weird about children in writing but Donna ALWAYS does it exactly right. Also this story had me in TEARS it’s absolutely hilarious. What a banger!

[Badseedgirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an odd little tale about how different people deal with death differently.

[Matthew Ochal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy cow what a wild ride, we love a good Donna short

[clarissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

ms tartt u have done it again

[Nayan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excuse me? Why was this so dark? 😭

[Ruby-Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
I adore reading her short stories, they are so engaging, although they do take a completely different tone to her novels.

[Ribs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great character voice, it's not overbearing but it gives the main character personality, and the story, too, in a way.

Also, it is a fun read. Really enjoyed the ending? Usually endings (be it in novels or in short stories) fail with me. I'm not saying I dislike endings by any means, but very little endings wow me, and there doesn't seem to be a formula for what type of endings I resonate with. But I liked this one, it seemed to be a great culmination of everything that went on and ended the story on a high note (And a great last sentense).

I'd call this a pretty memorable story, since I remember it very clearly, and read it a little while ago now.

Definetly recommend for fans of Donna Tarrt's writing!!!

edit: for some reason, i always think abt this

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read all five of Donna Tartt's published short stories and I am reviewing them.

The Ambush is the most recently published of Donna Tartt's short stories, appearing in The Guardian in 2005. All the rest of her short fiction is from the '90s and the period in between The Secret History and The Little Friend.

Like most of her short fiction, The Ambush is deeply Southern and colored by Tartt's familiarity and understanding with that particular time and place--not just the deep South, but the deep South of the 1970s. This book follows a little girl (though the sex of the narrator is almost irrelevant) who befriends a boy her age. The boy has them reenact his father's death in Vietnam over and over again in his backyard. It's unclear whether his description of his father's death is accurate, or just what he imagines happened, or what someone told him.

As always with Tartt, the atmosphere is brilliantly rendered and the situation unsettling and even disturbing. The harsh realities of war (and other things--the casual racism against the boy's Jewish mother, for instance) are contrasted with the kids' innocence. The shock of violence is all over the story, leading right up to a bloody accident at the end. Vietnam doesn't play much of a role in The Little Friend, so The Ambush seems to provide another look at this time period for Tartt. She's just a wonderful writer and observer of human nature.

[Iruldina Ataieva · Rating 3 out of 5]

​​Невелике оповідання, яке було опубліковано українською вперше цього року у журналі ВсеСвіт.

В сюжеті дівчинка Іві, знайомиться із сусідським хлопчиком Тімом, батько якого загинув у Вʼєтнамі, беручи участь у війні. Їй забороняють про це з ним розмовляти але перше що робить Тім - розказує їй про смерть батька. Ця трагедія єдине про що може розмовляти хлопчик, а єдине що він може робити - розігрувати сценку смерті у джунглях. Через гру він знову і знову переживає утрату, намагається її зрозуміти та примиритись.

Не дарма головні герої діти, хоча і батьки присутні в історії, вони теж по-своєму проживають горе. Саме діти завжди гіперболізують та підсилюють емоції, а особливо трагічні. Підкреслюють їх жах своєю простотою та наївністю.

Для мене це історія про травму від війни, яка зачіпає не тільки того, хто на ній перебував, а абсолютно усіх членів родини і навіть їх сусідів. Війна це трагедія, втрата, це біль, злам, який не відновити. Сьогодні це відчувається дуже гостро.

Це мій другий твір Донни Тартт і маю ті самі враження, що і від книги «Щиголь». Все прекрасно - текст, сюжет, закладені сенси але мене не чіпляє. Чомусь відчуття абсолютно байдужі і взагалі немає ніяких емоцій.

[Vojtěch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Donna Tartt's "The Ambush" is a typical example of her craft.
However, labeling it as "typical" doesn't imply predictability, as unpredictability is a hallmark of Tartt's storytelling. This is a haunting and beautiful narrative that delves into a young boy's journey to cope with his father's tragic death in the Vietnam War. Much like Tartt's other works, the story's opening line immediately immersed me in its world, and the closing line lingers, ensuring that I'll be contemplating this tale for some time to come.

[Sayo -bibliotequeish- · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young girl befriends a new neighbor, a young boy still coming to terms with the violent death of his father during the Vietnam war.
The young boy has become obsessed with the details of his fathers death and insists on re-enacting the fight over and over again.
His widowed mother watching from inside is dealing with the loss of her husband as well as her sons grief.

[mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first story by Donna Tartt. The Ambush is a very good short story about children in the time of Vietnam war. Tim's father died in this war. He and his mother move to his grandmother's house in Evie's town. And now Evie is in their garden every day playing with Tim. I don't want to give away too much of the content because it can quickly contain spoilers.

This short story convinced me to read some more of Donna Tartt's work.

If you would like to read it, you can read it here for free: The Ambush.