Susan's Reviews > Tom Lake

I love Ann Patchett’s writing. It’s so easy to open her books and begin to read and be swept away into her storytelling. Once I started Tom Lake I hated when I had to put it down. Lara is a wife and the mother of three grown daughters. They own an orchard of fruit trees, mostly cherry, and because of the pandemic the daughters have come home to live and are helping Lara and their father Joe with the harvest. The girls have pressed their mother to tell them the story of when she was a young woman, and an actress, and dating Duke (who goes on to become a Hollywood star) while they did a summer stock production of Our Town at Tom Lake. The story has a dual timeline with Lara as a young woman, and in the present, as she and her family work the harvest. Lara’s past is vividly recalled and Patchett does such a wonderful job of taking the reader straight into that setting of a summer of rehearsals, beautiful northern Michigan, swimming in the lake, friendships and young love. The characters are so real I could picture them in my mind. This is also true for the setting. Beautiful small town in Michigan on a lake in the summer. Little cabins all around, swimming and tennis. It’s an exciting time for Lara but can the magic last beyond the production? I loved how Lara is transported back to the past and the bittersweet memories she has yet never forgets her beautiful present and how thankful she is for the life she has. I felt the same way reading her story. Wistful but not disappointed in her choices. We ache sometimes over memories we have, of what might have been, or if only we had made different choices. But what I especially loved in the book was Lara didn’t get stuck in the past . She did not let “what ifs” tarnish her beautiful present. It’s just a really well done story and I feel so satisfied at the end of it. It’s a story of relationships and family and being at peace with our circumstances. I just want to sit with it a while and think it over. Loved it!! Five stars!