Book Review: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Just like my review of Lessons in Chemistry from a few weeks ago, I finally purchased and read Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, a Reese’s Book Club Pick, because everyone raved about it and said I had to read it. Like many book recommendations I receive, they were right. This book is lovely. Ann Patchett is a beloved and award-winning author who I’ve enjoyed in the past, so anything by her is a sure bet. But it’s hard for me to pinpoint why I loved this book so much, because reading it felt like a seamless experience for me; the characters were well drawn and believable, the plot moved at a steady pace, and the emotional pull of the story kept me engaged from beginning to end. You can’t ask for much more in a summertime read.

Plot Summary

It’s early in the pandemic and Lara and her three adult daughters are back on the farm, racing to pick all the cherries off their trees before they rot. Many of their usual workers are not able to be there, so it falls to the five of them, including their father Joe, to get this monumental task done in order to save their crop. To help pass the time, Lara’s daughters request a story from their mother about her past; the summer she dated the now famous movie star, Peter Duke. Over the course of a few days Lara indulges them, bring both her kids and the readers back to her early twenties, (which fell during the 1980s) in which a young girl is whisked to Hollywood after catching the eye of a director in a community play. A few years into her career she is offered the chance to act in a summertime community theatre production in an idyllic place called Tom Lake. It’s here that she meets Peter, his brother, some new friends, and learns the difference between those who like to act, and those who must act.

My Thoughts

Patchett’s writing is a masterclass in how to tell a good story without drawing attention to words being used, until you notice a particularly thoughtful turn of phrase, or a quip that gets a good laugh. Her descriptions of the natural world are some of the best I’ve read, simply because they don’t drone on, but also use examples and comparisons that everyone can relate to:

“The order in the rows of trees and the dark green of the lush grass beneath them soothed me like a hand brushing across my forehead.”

–Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, p. 160

And the natural world plays a large role in this story; the lake itself is a source of wonder and relaxation for Lara’s summer at Tom Lake, and the cherry orchard determines the course of many lives. Working on a farm is at once romanticized but also realistically drawn, as the never-ending work and struggle of farming are often touched upon. I’d be curious to hear if fruit farmers have read this book and what they thought of it! Family dynamics are also a major theme in this book. Patchett deftly describes the various kinds of families and their varying degrees of closeness. So much of this story is about looking into the past, and examining the shifting course of one’s life over time. She captures the wide open possibilities of youth in the summertime just as expertly as the dichotomies of parenting.

The plotting is also very well done. As the story of Lara’s youth emerges, people’s past and present collide, and the reader is let in on a few secrets that Lara won’t even tell her own kids, so it feels like a story meant ‘just for us’. Small details are withheld as we slowly move through that fateful summer at Tom Lake, and even the very end of the book holds a few surprises, so there’s just enough (realistic) suspense to keep the pages turning. I honestly can’t come up with a single criticism of this book, it was a pleasure to read from beginning to end and one I’d recommend to a wide range of readers.