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Tandolfo the Great
A short story about a day in the life of a clown.
Unknown Binding
About the author
Richard Bausch
93 books224 followersAn acknowledged master of the short story form, Richard Bausch's work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Harper's, The New Yorker, Narrative, Gentleman's Quarterly. Playboy, The Southern Review, New Stories From the South, The Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prize Stories, and The Pushcart Prize Stories; and they have been widely anthologized, including The Granta Book of the American Short Story and The Vintage Book of the Contemporary American Short Story.
Richard Bausch is the author of eleven novels and eight collections of stories, including the novels Rebel Powers, Violence, Good Evening Mr. & Mrs. America And All The Ships At Sea, In The Night Season, Hello To The Cannibals, Thanksgiving Night, and Peace; and the story collections Spirits, The Fireman's Wife, Rare & Endangered Species, Someone To Watch Over Me, The Stories of Richard Bausch, Wives & Lovers, and most recently released Something Is Out There. His novel The Last Good Time was made into a feature-length film.
He has won two National Magazine Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lila-Wallace Reader's Digest Fund Writer's Award, the Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The 2004 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story and the 2013 John William Corrington Award for Literary Excellence . He has been a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers since 1996. In 1999 he signed on as co-editor, with RV Cassill, of The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction; since Cassill's passing in 2002, Bausch is the sole editor of that prestigious anthology. Richard Bausch teaches Creative Writing at Chapman University in Southern California
Richard Bausch is the author of eleven novels and eight collections of stories, including the novels Rebel Powers, Violence, Good Evening Mr. & Mrs. America And All The Ships At Sea, In The Night Season, Hello To The Cannibals, Thanksgiving Night, and Peace; and the story collections Spirits, The Fireman's Wife, Rare & Endangered Species, Someone To Watch Over Me, The Stories of Richard Bausch, Wives & Lovers, and most recently released Something Is Out There. His novel The Last Good Time was made into a feature-length film.
He has won two National Magazine Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lila-Wallace Reader's Digest Fund Writer's Award, the Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The 2004 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story and the 2013 John William Corrington Award for Literary Excellence . He has been a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers since 1996. In 1999 he signed on as co-editor, with RV Cassill, of The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction; since Cassill's passing in 2002, Bausch is the sole editor of that prestigious anthology. Richard Bausch teaches Creative Writing at Chapman University in Southern California
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 2, 2017
A humorous story about a complex character. I found myself laughing and wishing he had made different choices.
February 2, 2018
In Tandolfo the Great by Richard Bausch, Rodney's character is shown through the presentation of other characters, for example, by the girl he loves who always identifies him as “sweet clown” and in her pink letter, “her dear old Tandolfo.” (143). Though he’s also shown through speech and action. We know that by always saying "yes," (144) and "yes, he thinks" (151) Rodney is very self-aware. He reaffirms his toxic behaviors and his dual identity as Rodney and Tandolfo. Though similarly, through his action of buying a cake as an act of love expression and saying his heart goes out to the girl with the birthmark on her mouth (147), he’s nonetheless sweet and childish at heart.
The most valuable way to see his character is understanding how Bausch used Rodney’s Tandolfo identity. Doing the clown bit is symbolic of his addictive behavior, concealing addictive behaviors with another addictive behavior. The fact that we meet Tandolfo first shows how Bausch is showing us the façade of Rodney before showing us the true Rodney on the next page who’s already a little drunk. After finding out he also gambles, readers can now look at most actions Rodney does is due to toxic, addictive behavior—including being Tandolfo. Rodney perpetuates the clown so he can make his best friend laugh and therefore she will linger her hand on his shoulder. He will be a clown so he can have clown shows to which he can invite her to, though as audience members, we all know she's not attending. He stays the clown because it's the only real way she sees him, shown in how she addresses him not by name, but by "You sweet clown." And he allows himself to identify with Tandolfo, first, for her, but second, for who he wants people to think he is, in a "we become who we pretend to be," sort of way. For Rodney, it’s easier to be Tandolfo who’s got a painted smile and an excuse to be silly and liked in an abstract way. (145).
But it's also his clown gig that eventually saves him. When there's a culmination of his addictions in too close of a space, shown in the symbolism of his car that holds the burden of the giant cake in the back, his identity as Tandolfo, “the Great”, and the easily accessible bourbon in the glove box, it becomes too much and all the addictions overwhelm him as he looses track of time and the smell of cake makes him woozy. His car representing his addictions is also supported with how he's always considered himself in the race of people who gravitate to the nonmoving lanes of highways. (146) As the car represents the buildup of addictive behavior, they are the things that slow him down and make him stuck in the nonmoving lanes of life.
As he goes through this horrible day, Rodney lugs the cake around which is how it represents the burden of his love for his best friend--he's always carrying it like a weight that gets heavier not because it grows, but simply because he chooses to continue carrying it. It's all pretty and sweet, but nonetheless it's heavy And just like getting nothing out of his last clown gig excepted the stripping of Tandolfo—when he gets beat up and is no longer recognizable as Tandolfo, only then is he revealed to the party as an unmistakable drunkard—it’s appropriate that afterwards, Rodney accepts he's not getting anything out of his love for his best friend and he needs to change. Rodney knows "... there are money troubles and troubles at work, and failures beginning to catch up to him, and he's still aching in love." (151.) With this acknowledgement and self-actualization, that's when taking the cake out of his car and lying it down for someone else to destroy is appropriate as it's immediately releasing himself from one of the larger burdens weighing him down.
The most valuable way to see his character is understanding how Bausch used Rodney’s Tandolfo identity. Doing the clown bit is symbolic of his addictive behavior, concealing addictive behaviors with another addictive behavior. The fact that we meet Tandolfo first shows how Bausch is showing us the façade of Rodney before showing us the true Rodney on the next page who’s already a little drunk. After finding out he also gambles, readers can now look at most actions Rodney does is due to toxic, addictive behavior—including being Tandolfo. Rodney perpetuates the clown so he can make his best friend laugh and therefore she will linger her hand on his shoulder. He will be a clown so he can have clown shows to which he can invite her to, though as audience members, we all know she's not attending. He stays the clown because it's the only real way she sees him, shown in how she addresses him not by name, but by "You sweet clown." And he allows himself to identify with Tandolfo, first, for her, but second, for who he wants people to think he is, in a "we become who we pretend to be," sort of way. For Rodney, it’s easier to be Tandolfo who’s got a painted smile and an excuse to be silly and liked in an abstract way. (145).
But it's also his clown gig that eventually saves him. When there's a culmination of his addictions in too close of a space, shown in the symbolism of his car that holds the burden of the giant cake in the back, his identity as Tandolfo, “the Great”, and the easily accessible bourbon in the glove box, it becomes too much and all the addictions overwhelm him as he looses track of time and the smell of cake makes him woozy. His car representing his addictions is also supported with how he's always considered himself in the race of people who gravitate to the nonmoving lanes of highways. (146) As the car represents the buildup of addictive behavior, they are the things that slow him down and make him stuck in the nonmoving lanes of life.
As he goes through this horrible day, Rodney lugs the cake around which is how it represents the burden of his love for his best friend--he's always carrying it like a weight that gets heavier not because it grows, but simply because he chooses to continue carrying it. It's all pretty and sweet, but nonetheless it's heavy And just like getting nothing out of his last clown gig excepted the stripping of Tandolfo—when he gets beat up and is no longer recognizable as Tandolfo, only then is he revealed to the party as an unmistakable drunkard—it’s appropriate that afterwards, Rodney accepts he's not getting anything out of his love for his best friend and he needs to change. Rodney knows "... there are money troubles and troubles at work, and failures beginning to catch up to him, and he's still aching in love." (151.) With this acknowledgement and self-actualization, that's when taking the cake out of his car and lying it down for someone else to destroy is appropriate as it's immediately releasing himself from one of the larger burdens weighing him down.
January 16, 2024
As short stories go... This one is okay. It felt hard to feel sympathy for the main character, and a big part of this story involves the reader feeling pity for this guy. The most interesting part is that the reader never gets to meet the girl he was in love with. Rodney didn't truly know her, so how did we, as readers, deserve to know her either? It felt really full circle in that regard.
February 6, 2018
I would rate it higher but I really hate clowns, and this story did not make me feel any better about clowns.
November 12, 2020
Good read
March 17, 2023
It’s another one of my favorite short stories
Read
February 19, 2024Read for class
October 29, 2025
When a story has you sympathizing with a drunk driver who also physically assaults a child, you've written a good one. I adored this story surprisingly. Forever a yearner.
November 5, 2025
don't you just love a story about an alcoholic clown??
June 12, 2024
As an example for good storytelling, Tandolfo the Great offers an emotional and well-structured tale about a young, heartbroken man who plays a clown at children’s birthday parties and lets his emotions get the best of him.
This wasn’t life changing by any means, and the narrative felt quite simple even for its masterful approach. It is not to say it wasn’t successful, as it delivered a concise, clever, and intentional story that relied heavily on the reader’s persistence; we’ve all heard of the sad clown who either ends up doing something bad or has a revelation. Due to this, trusting the story, at first, can cause hesitation.
Bausch utilizes lots of point-by-point imagery, focusing on specific characteristics of characters, and an especially interesting building of tension. Such tension is created slowly and reinforced over and over again, making the reader want to keep going. Tandolfo becomes endearing thanks to the simple backstory, and the ending ultimately feels gentle, though, in my opinion, a little bleak.
This wasn’t life changing by any means, and the narrative felt quite simple even for its masterful approach. It is not to say it wasn’t successful, as it delivered a concise, clever, and intentional story that relied heavily on the reader’s persistence; we’ve all heard of the sad clown who either ends up doing something bad or has a revelation. Due to this, trusting the story, at first, can cause hesitation.
Bausch utilizes lots of point-by-point imagery, focusing on specific characteristics of characters, and an especially interesting building of tension. Such tension is created slowly and reinforced over and over again, making the reader want to keep going. Tandolfo becomes endearing thanks to the simple backstory, and the ending ultimately feels gentle, though, in my opinion, a little bleak.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews