Tom Lake: A Novel

Appreciating the little things in life, the joy of day-to-day existence, and the love for your family and your work is what Tom Lake meant to me. Tom Lake refers to a (fictional) summer stock theater in northern Michigan in the 1980s, close to the locale of the current 2020 timeline--- a cherry farm (and pears, and apples). The late eighties marked a luminous period for protagonist/narrator Lara, a time that she walked the fine line between adulting and adulthood, coming of age amid a torrent of drama that swept her up in its fury. And then there was Our Town, the play within the novel that portrayed Lara’s life on the stage (and backstage). Lara is telling her three twenty-something daughters about her short stint as an actress in her twenties, and the brief romantic affair with Peter Duke, a famous movie star before he was a famous movie star. The gorgeous cherry farm backdrop is like a staid but vivid character, with Lara, husband Joe, and the three girls all together for the first time in a while. Due to the pandemic, they don’t have the usual crew to help pick the fruit, so the storytelling unfolds as the family works the orchard during harvest time. Like the cherries, some parts are sweet, some tart, and all of it is juicy. I felt the air, inhaled the scents, the cherries, the land and the whole layout of the farm while reading. And there is the kindness, too, of this family, whose flaws are also part of their strengths. The chaos of Lara’s life as a young woman is juxtaposed with the serenity of her life now, and the two timelines fluidly alternate, sometimes gently, at other times with piercing intensity. And every storyline has at least two. So, when you read about Lara in the past, or present, you just can’t help sniffing around to see the connections, of what surprise is crouched in the corner or hidden behind the door. I verily slipped into Lara’s character and imagined what decisions I would make as her, given so many pressing options and dilemmas. Ann Patchett nails it every time, her characters are complex and her graceful pace is measured even when events are brutal. Lara is a radiant work-in-progress during her young years, many readers will see themselves in her. I was a local stage actor in Austin during my twenties, so I immersed myself in Tom Lake, pretending to be Lara acting as Emily Gibbs and then back to Lara again. The two timelines showed the difference between the fiery summer love of youth and the deep, tender, and mature love of family that you helped to create. The high points were explosive, even when they were pin-drop quiet. Lara’s low points stirred me almost to tears; I could feel her pulse against mine. If you’ve never seen a production or haven’t read Our Town, you’re about to get a spoiler’s worth in the novel. But I think Ms. Patchett has surmised that most of her readers are already familiar with Thornton Wilder’s play. She coalesced Our Town and Tom Lake together in a way that reveals her refined skill of integration. Tom Lake and Our Town were separate but conjoined. I know that doesn’t make sense, but it will when you read the book. She also quotes Chekhov at pique (and even peak) intervals; she shares the Russian writer’s work with spare but specific devotion. I recently learned that Patchett has never owned a smart phone, and doesn’t herself do social media (she talks to the camera and her staff completes the rest). She has never used Google, or researched on Wiki—she does it the old-fashioned way. And perhaps she’s that slightly eccentric but lovely gentlewoman you see carrying paper road maps! Tom Lake is thoughtful, deft, and life-affirming. (It isn’t a pandemic novel, even though it takes place during that time). There’s comedy, tragedy, drama—a look-back-at-your- own-life kind of book. It’s classic Ann Patchett. There’s this passage that really tickled me from the book. It’s toward the end but not a spoiler, it’s thematic with the rest of the narrative. Lara was so busy recounting the past for her daughters that she forgot to make lunch, which she said she should have been working on while talking. “The past need not be so all-encompassing that it renders us incapable of making egg salad.” Priorities!

Tom Lake is one of those books that I enjoyed while reading but pondered more for weeks after I finished it. This is not an action-based book, but rather a character-based narrative which unfolds slowly, so it may not appeal to all readers. Lara, a former actress, now a cherry-farming mom of adult daughters, is prompted to tell the story of her acting career and romantic involvement with a huge movie star. The novel takes place during the Covid pandemic, and the daughters have returned home to isolate with their parents. This setup reminded me of classics like Bocaccio's Decameron (where a group of people isolate at a country estate to escape the plague, and they pass the time telling stories). This novel is very much a story about telling stories, about the interaction between the narrator and the audience (who may or may not know parts of the story already), what the narrator chooses to disclose (or not) to the audience, and the power of storytelling to influence the listener. Even Thornton Wilder's play Our Town, which runs like a thread throughout the novel, underscores the storytelling motif and how the play influences and teaches Lara life lessons. There is a deft contrast between the glamorous and superficial world of the actors and the very earthy, tenuous and sensual world of the farmers as the novel moves between these two worlds through Lara's eyes. Throughout, there is a deep appreciation for the love and bond of family and the strength in finding a life where you truly belong. This is a subtle novel, with many layers to explore, but it requires the reader to be willing to sit and savor the experience of the storytelling process. A note about the audiobook: 5 stars. Meryl Streep is the perfect narrator for this novel. Her tone is the right balance of emotion and wry commentary, and her own life experience parallels Lara's life enough to lend an authenticity and warmth which made the listening experience very enjoyable.

Ann Patchett is one of my favorite writers and she has once again written a novel I love. The novel takes place at the beginning of the Covid epidemic. Lara, her husband, and her three young adult daughters are residing on the family orchard in Northern Michigan. The narrative is told from Lara's viewpoint and consists primarily of her daughters' wanting to know about her past life - especially her romantic involvement with the now famous actor, Peter Duke. Much of the story is about a summer stock stage production of 'Our Town' located in Michigan on Tom Lake. Lara is in her twenties and has been called upon to take the lead role after the original actress has decided to quit. On Lara's first day, she is greeted by a charismatic young man named Peter Duke. From their first meeting evolves a drawn-out romance and affair that leaves Lara much beholden to Peter's narcissistic view of himself. Lara is quite aware that her daughters want to know all the intimacies that she and Peter shared, but she is not ready to give out these details freely. It is understood that Lara once had a promising future in acting but she chose to give it up for what she considers her idyllic life as a mother and wife. Her daughters find this all hard to absorb and want to know every last bit about Laura's time with Peter and her involvement with the stage. The writing flows beautifully and the imagery is incandescent. I could see Lara and feel her emotions. Ann Patchett knows people and her empathic writing exudes from every page. There isn't one false note. I have never read Our Town but that didn't stop me from loving this novel, nor did it prevent me from understanding what was transpiring. I learned a lot about stage production, acting, and actors. I especially loved how the author provided each of her daughters with a distinct and inimitable personality, all beloved to her and each other. This is a book to savor and reflect on. It is as sweet as the smell of cherries in Lara's Michigan orchard.

I want to preface my review with my love for Ann Patchett. She wrote one of my all time favorite books Commonwealth and I have enjoyed other books she’s written. This unfortunately missed the mark for me. I pre ordered this book months ago in anticipation of it becoming another one of my favorite books by Patchett. I will still continue to read her books every time she releases a new one, but I was disappointed this book did not give me all the feels. The books starts off very slow and becomes boring at times. I pushed through and I will say it gets better about half way through. The beginning leaves you confused with the dual time line that does not give a good background of why/what Lara is trying to accomplish by telling her story of her life when she first becomes an actress. I didn’t like how it switched from her story to the present of her retelling her story to her daughters. It was strange how she incorporated the lockdown of 2020 into the storyline. I felt like it was forced instead of something that needed to be part of the story. All in all, Patchett’s writing is superb as always. Her way with words and her development of character is in a style all her own. If you love her writing give this book a go, but if you e never read Patchett before maybe try one of her other books first.

During the summer of 2020, the Nelson family is quarantining themselves on their cherry orchard in Northern Michigan. Matriarch Lara is relishing the time with her husband Joe and her adult daughters Emily, Massie, and Nell. As they harvest their crop, Lara unspools to her children the story of her early career as a modestly successful actress. In high school she performed the lead role of Emily in the play Our Town and reprised the role in a college production. It was there that she was “discovered” and whisked off to LA to make a film that was not released. After a lull, she is asked to play Emily once again in a summer theater program in Michigan on Tom Lake, where she has a whirlwind romance with fellow thespian Peter Duke. Peter Duke went on to become an acclaimed, Oscar-winning actor, and Lara’s daughters are fascinated by the idea that their mother was once involved with someone so famous. The narrative alternates between the Nelsons idyllic but busy days on the orchard and Lara’s story about her summer at Tom Lake with Peter Duke. I like how she sanitized some aspects of her love affair with Peter for her daughters, but didn’t hold back for us readers. The characters were captivating, the storytelling masterful, and the writing exquisite, because of course, it’s Ann Patchett. I even felt compelled to write down the following quote because I found it so endearing: “He’s starving, and I’ve made potato salad, potato salad being my husband’s truest love.” It was such a lovely novel and I adored the juxtaposition of thwarted young love and enduring mature love.

A pleasant read about a mother telling her three children about a summer fling she had with a fellow actor in the play Our Town to her three grown daughters. Much is revealed here, but not everything. I didn’t find it worth the wait, but others have.

Excellent story. I really enjoyed this book. I highly recommend it. Love Reese’s book club picks,helped me get back into reading.

Such a thought provoking book. Makes you think about the most important things in life and how the way we think life will go when we are young is not at all how it goes. It may be a good book club book, but there is the mention of sex and one f word. It could make for a good discussion.

Livro bom de ler ainda assim não tão bom quanto outros livros da mesma autora.

Está muy bonito. Llegó a tiempo pero algo golpeado y maltratado.

Lara's three grown up daughters have returned to the family farm to help with the cherry harvest during the pandemic lockdown. Over the years, they've heard bits and pieces of their mother's brief, but quite successful career as an actress, and now they persuade her to share more about her relationship with now famous Hollywood actor Peter Duke. Switching between the 1980s and the present, this tale tenderly tells of Lara's youth in New Hampshire, leaving her university to travel to LA after being spotted by a talent scout in a college play. At summer stock theatre, she meets Duke and they immediately embark on a relationship - it is as if Lara has no choice, swept away as she is by her charismatic co-star. Events come to a head when Lara injures her Achilles tendon, the mess of intertwined relationships with Duke's brother Sebastian and another actress Pallace, captured beautifully. What also slowly emerges is how Lara ended up marrying husband Joe and on a farm in Michigan as a result of that summer stock, sweetly connecting the threads. Some parts of the story, Lara leaves unspoken - those are her memories only and not for sharing, no matter how close the family dynamics are. Clearly, the author has used her love of the play Our Town to weave this wonderful story of where we think we are going, and where life takes us.

This was my first Ann Patchett and it will not be my last. I'm hungry to read more and sad I didn't take the plunge before. Beautiful. I adored this story and would give it 6 stars if I could. Sometimes a character is so well written you have the urge to Google them to check they are in fact fictional and not a real person, Ann writes characters like this. As I finished the last words at almost 1am I actually found myself quietly saying "wow" This book made my soul ache, my heart yearn for people and planes I didn't know, and ultimately it made me feel better for having read it.

Interesante libro y esta escritora tiene una manera muy elegante de escribir