Tom Lake

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Patchett, Ann, Adult Book / Fiction / General / Patchett, Ann
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Recalling the past at her daughters' request, Lara tells the story of a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance, which causes her daughters to examine their own lives and reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Great summer novel submitted by srlorand on August 10, 2023, 11:24am What to read while you’re waiting for a copy of this delightful new novel to be available? I have three suggestions: Ann Patchett’s recent essay collection _These Precious Days_; Thornton Wilder’s play _Our Town_; and Chekhov’s play _The Cherry Orchard_.
In the summer of 2020, the narrator and her husband are happy to have their grown daughters back home on their northern Michigan cherry farm. While harvesting cherries together, the narrator tells her daughters more about a youthful romance than she had previously revealed (while still withholding some private details). Along with that storytelling, Patchett artfully weaves in the narrator’s reminiscences of her daughters’ childhoods and the daughters’ hopes and fears for the future as climate change threatens the trees in the coming decades.

Mixed feelings submitted by mowjac on August 13, 2023, 4:59pm I really enjoyed the majority of this novel, which weaves stories of a farm family during the pandemic in and out of the mother's past as an actress in summer stock. But there is a major reveal at the end that casts the narrator and her story in a whole different light.

A beautiful love letter to theatre submitted by skfitzsimons on August 22, 2023, 1:34pm Another wonderful read from Patchett--while I wouldn't have thought of it, the way that she writes and her worldview reminds me very much of Thornton Wilder. Putting Our Town into relief against the early days of the COVID pandemic was really moving.

Another Great Patchett Book submitted by flemingj on June 14, 2024, 8:56am Lots of love for the Michigan setting and choice for the less well known life.

A Great Read submitted by Zekicmom on June 17, 2024, 8:30am Really enjoyable. I loved how details of the present time were slowly revealed by the telling of the past. And much of the story takes place in Michigan!

Great Michigan Summer Read! submitted by sjb on June 17, 2024, 1:00pm I really enjoyed this book and especially the switching back and forth between the past and present. This was done seamlessly and was a great way to tell the story! I would highly recommend!

A cozy read but not really a pandemic novel submitted by redwood on June 21, 2024, 5:52pm Lara, once an actress and now a farm wife, narrates the novel as a story to her three daughters in the summer of 2020, though there are also some asides that she keeps to herself. Emily (26, taking over the cherry farm), Maisie (24, veterinary student), and Nell (22, acting student), all home at once for the first time in a while, want to know the story of their mother’s romance with movie star Peter Duke, which occurred when they starred in a summer stock production of Our Town at Tom Lake, a bit south of Traverse City.

Lara starts at the very beginning, showing how she adopted the role of Emily Webb as a high school student in New Hampshire and from there, fell into her career as an actress. Her romance with Duke is very clearly not the point of her story, which is more about youth vs. age, learning what happiness means to her, the love of Our Town. The back and forth between Lara’s narration and family commentary in 2020 is effective and engaging, even if some parts of Lara’s story dragged.

I really liked the Michigan setting and all of the stuff about cherries (funny, to reference Wilder more than Chekhov for a novel set largely in a cherry orchard), as well as slowly uncovering the significance of the characters’ names. I felt that the “diversity” was a bit shoehorned, though not my least favorite example of this—Pallace, the main Black character, is as much of a character as anyone outside Lara’s family. Mainly, I didn’t understand why this had to be a pandemic novel—the pandemic is just fun storytime, and they never really mention any of the obstacles or fears

Disappointing submitted by kath on June 23, 2024, 11:52pm I usually enjoy books by this author and I love our great state of Michigan. I was so looking forward to this story. However, I found it trite and oh so boring. I almost couldn't finish it.

Life goals and family submitted by lizgiessner on June 27, 2024, 8:03am This is a really good, well-told story with insights into life's goals, marriage and motherhood. The settings, both times and places, made it very relatable to me.

A Great Read submitted by Beth Manuel on July 3, 2024, 1:56pm This story was charming with developed characters who I was interested in. It spanned some time that made for an interesting reveal about how the character's names came about. There were some slow parts but generally, I enjoyed this book and its significance to Michigan.

Best book I’ve read in a long time submitted by ared25 on July 5, 2024, 7:39pm Endearing story

Too saccharine submitted by berkleya on July 8, 2024, 11:15am I mean, is this an actual family? Everyone just loves each other so much and no one has any conflict. Adult daughters seem like children. Still-the story kept me engaged and it was interesting to read a novel with the pandemic integrated into the story.

Mother/Daughter Relationships submitted by alemmon100 on July 14, 2024, 10:27am I enjoyed the novel, particularly the setting of Michigan and the relationships of the main character and her daughters. Having never read this author before I didn’t really know what to expect, but it didn’t quite live up to the hype for me. Enjoyable but not groundbreaking.

Beautiful exploration of family history submitted by tuttlium on July 21, 2024, 7:15am This book explores how family history is built through the stories we tell each other. Parents navigate this by sharing, and sometimes withholding, details at key moments. That's particularly resonated with me from the perspective of a mother sharing her life with her daughters. As with any Ann Patchett novel, all the threads that appear to dangle along the way will get tied up. She is masterful at constructing a book.

Cozy, relaxing read submitted by 21621031390949 on July 22, 2024, 11:15pm This is a cozy, warm-hearted novel, filled with wholesome characters you wish you knew. Patchett is so good at bringing her characters to life. She also captures the beauty of the northern Michigan/Traverse City fruit-growing area, an area everyone (who knows it) loves.

One interesting aspect of this book is that part of it takes place during the COVID pandemic. There is very little explicit info about this, but the whole premise of why this family is spending day after day isolated together is because of the pandemic. This is so familiar to us today, in 2023, with the pandemic so fresh in our memory, but I wonder if readers in 20 years will understand some the characters’ actions - such as avoiding contact with neighbors and sitting outside with them to watch a movie projected on a hung sheet. Patchett doesn’t explain these actions, but I wonder if future readers will be confused.

Overall, it’s a fun, relaxing read, and I recommend it.

Lowered expectations submitted by Susan C on July 23, 2024, 10:50am Starting the hold list at number 612, I had high expectations for this book. I thought this book would be more insightful. Instead, there was a lot of mother/daughter bickering that was not justifiable and many life choices that left me with “Hunh?!?” I finished the book hoping it would get better.

Enjoyable Novel submitted by teri on July 30, 2024, 11:29am Nicely written. I liked the idea of a mother telling her story to her daughters in bits and pieces - in the midst of Michigan's cherry orchards. But a mother often leaves out a few things, keeping them to herself.

10/10 submitted by hannahrice on July 31, 2024, 3:42pm This is the best book I've read this year. Ann Patchett had me hanging on by every word!

Quiet but Powerful submitted by magg2185 on August 1, 2024, 12:35pm Beautifully written and insightful. Read it with a bowl of cherries.

A good summer book submitted by mcompton on August 24, 2024, 12:11pm I enjoyed this book and thought it perfect to read during the summer. At times I thought it seemed their relationship a little too perfect, but liked the dynamic between the mom and her daughters. Living in Michigan it is easy to visualize the setting and that added a lot to the story.

Did drag on a bit :) submitted by Wendyberry on August 25, 2024, 10:39am This immensely popular book has an excellent literary style and a perspective I found engaging. Both the setting here in Michigan and in New Hampshire were personally familiar and added to the enjoyment of the story line. The plot draws you in quickly and keeps you turning the pages. The book is a fast, enjoyable read up to a point. It is at this place where the story could softly end, yet it does not. It as though the story were intentionally stretched launching into a new stretch of backstory with a divergent storyline that, to me, did not enhance the core and actually became quite disturbing.