Reviews with content warning for Vomit - Tom Lake

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Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

7 reviews

jamie_rich's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

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carriepond's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Tom Lake is a reflective and beautifully written novel about family, love, and looking back. During the summer of 2020, while harvesting cherries with her three adult daughters as they quarantine on the family’s Michigan cherry farm, Lara regales them with the story of her romance with a famous actor she met while playing Emily in a production of Our Town during her brief stint as an actress. The story unfolds over the two timelines, cutting back and forth between 2020 and Lara’s life decades earlier as she shares (and sometimes doesn’t share) her past with her daughters.

“The painful things you were certain you’d never be able to let go? Now you’re not entirely sure when they happened, while the thrilling parts, the heart-stopping joys, splintered and scattered and became something else. Memories are then replaced by different joys and larger sorrows, and unbelievably, those things get knocked aside as well, until one morning you’re picking cherries with your three grown daughters and your husband goes by on the Gator and you are positive that this is all you’ve ever wanted in the world.”

I loved this book, about how different things look when you’re living them versus reflecting on them. Watching Lara reflect on what was a tumultuous and fraught time of her life from the vantage point of decades later, living a quieter life with people she cherishes, was particularly moving given that it was set during another tumultuous time— the early stages of the pandemic. I re-read Our Town right before starting this novel, and Patchett weaves its plot and themes throughout this novel beautifully and to great effect.

Another theme Patchett plays a lot with is how much of life’s unfolding is molded by destiny or fate versus chance and choice, as we watch Lara’s life be dictated by both: seizing the chance to play Emily in her community production of Our Town leads to landing the same role in college, where a movie director happens to be in the audience, which sets off a series of choices and happenstance occurrences that ultimately lead her to a Michigan cherry farm.

The story within a story also serves as an effective way to think deeply about different kinds of love: the heat and passion of youthful affairs, the steadfastness of marriage, and the push-pull of maternal love, the simultaneous desire to hold them close and let them loose. We watch Lara experience them all in this novel, each serving as a foil to the others in rewarding ways.

Loved this one. Highly recommend it for those who enjoy beautifully rendered family stories.

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deetabz's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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juliacsmith's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

I’m still deciding how I feel about this book. But Meryl Streep as audiobook narrator = perfection. Chef’s kiss.

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aileron's review against another edition

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hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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kcarney86's review

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emotional funny hopeful reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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jennabeck13's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3/5)

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

About 310 pages

In the throes of the COVID-19 lockdown, Lara’s daughters are going stir-crazy, which is how she ends up telling them the story of her summer at Tom Lake with the famous actor, Peter Duke. That summer in Tom Lake changed the course of Lara’s life forever, and if things had gone differently her daughters may not be where they are today. This story forces not only Lara, but also her husband and daughters, to re-evaluate their relationships with one another, the cherry farm, and what they want for the future.

As with many of Reese’s book club picks, this book was average to me. I enjoyed the first half of the book and was drawn in by Lara’s storytelling, but the second half fell flat. I think this was due to the change in tone. Additionally, I cared more about Lara’s story of coming up in the acting world than her relationship with Peter Duke which definitely impacted my feelings toward the second half of the book.

Favorite Quote: “There is no explaining this simple truth about life: you will forget much of it. The painful things you were certain you’d never be able to let go? Now you’re not entirely sure when they happened, while the thrilling parts, the heart-stopping joys, splintered and scattered and became something else. Memories are then replaced by different joys and larger sorrows, and unbelievably, those things get knocked aside as well.”

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