Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Book of the Week
‘Tom Lake’ by Ann Patchett reviewed by Isabella
‘Tom Lake is classic storytelling in its finest form and a reminder that we all have a past that defines us for better or for worse; a past that, for the most part, we forget, but one that can be coaxed back to shed light on who we have become and why.
‘Tom Lake’ is a true Patchett experience. A story of family, quiet love (for lovers, friends, parents, grandparents and children) and quiet heartbreak. The novel is full of relatable experiences, of friendship, disappointment and self discovery. Of life that just happens.
Lara, her husband Joe and their three adult daughters are spending lockdown on their cherry orchard in Michigan. Lara is (guiltily) enjoying the fact that everyone has to stay put and isolated. The girls for their part are taking advantage of the time to get their mother to talk about a time in her past when she (almost) became a movie star - and dated a man who did indeed become one.
This is a story of young love and aspiration during rehearsals one summer for that quintessentially American play, Our Town, and a later story of more mature love.
Tom Lake is a gloriously generous, at times thorny and always honest, story of family, of what matters in life, of the beauty and drama of the everyday.
The novel unfolds with expected (and unexpected) turns on a firm base of genuine appreciation for other human beings.
Tom Lake is not an edgy, uncomfortable, pull you out of your comfort zone kind of novel. Plenty other excellent books serve that vital purpose. Tom Lake has another, very different, and important role to play.
One Ann Patchett addressed in a recent interview with ‘The Guardian’:
"If the world is kicking me in the teeth, in terms of the news and all the things we have to worry about, that's not what I want in my novel. I don't need to be lifted up.
But I would like the kindness of humanity that surrounds me to have a moment" she says. "There I am. That's what I do.’
And boy does she do that wonderfully well!’
Happy reading!