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A review by emjay2021
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I enjoyed <i>Tom Lake</i> very much. I listened to the audiobook for half of it and thought Meryl Streep’s narration was perfect. It’s interesting reading the other reviews; it seems quite polarizing. There are quite a few people who found it slow and boring, and found the main character dull and unrealistic in her perfect happiness. I did find the pace leisurely, but I was fine with that and definitely did not find it boring. I also felt there was more to the characters than was presented on the surface.
Essentially, this is the story of a mother, Lara, telling her grown daughters stories from a particular time in life to pass the time while they all harvest cherries on their farm in the early days of the COVID pandemic. Because of the lockdown, they aren’t able to hire the workers they normally would to help bring in the harvest, which has to be done in a very short span of time. So, the family has to do the harvest themselves, and it is tedious work. And so, in what I am sure is a time-honoured tradition, the farming family passes the time listening to someone tell a story..
There is so much about this that I find fascinating. So much here depends on Lara’s narration. I thought frequently about how she was framing her story, what she was leaving out, what she emphasized versus what she chose to minimize. How she takes her audience into account, and her daughters’ relationship with their father (who is doing work elsewhere on the farm most of the time, but makes an appearance here and there).
Some reviews have criticized Patchett for making Lara and her family too saintly and perfect. I didn’t see it that way at all. Because Lara is the one telling us the story, the reader needs to assess whether Lara is reliable. Sure, she doesn’t mention the disagreements her daughters have. She praises her husband as being saintly and perfect. But is he really? Do her daughters really never fight? Well yes, they do (oh my, the descriptions of the hormonally disturbed Emily thinking Duke is her father!), and eventually bit by bit we do see glimpses of ugliness in Lara’s previous life that she is keeping from her daughters. I understood that some of her eagerness to continually pronounce her husband as a good, kind man is because I don’t think she has ever really gotten over Duke completely despite knowing that he is a user and a narcissist. I think she has mostly gotten over him, but I also think there is a little tiny part of her that DOES give in to the “what ifs” that her daughters keep asking her about.
That’s not to say she doesn’t love her family as much as she says she does. I think she really does love them that much, and her husband really is a good, kind man. But I also think she understands somewhere deep down that she has a tiny part that longs for the asshole that was Duke, and I think she struggles with that. I think when she tells the story of how she and Duke met and got together at Tom Lake, she puts a gloss and fantasy sheen on it at first and then she acknowledges later on in the narrative (as an aside to us, the audience) the things Duke did from the beginning that she knew were not the hallmarks of a considerate boyfriend or a well person, for that matter. The story she tells her daughters is not the story that she eventually shares with us, her readers. She is much more honest with us—in some ways.
It’s a peaceful listen/read at first, but as we get a more “real” version of the story later on, the calm narration almost puts more of a horrifying spin on things. The chapter at the rehab centre is so bleak; it almost seems to come from another book. It’s as though here, Lara lets the happy mask slip and reveals some of the sordidness beneath. But then, the mask goes back up and she seems determined to put a good face on things. The final chapter with Sebastian is part of the “good face.” Far from finding it unrealistic, I could believe that the cherry farm was a place Duke <i>would</i> have romanticized as he got further and further away from normal life. But he always viewed it through his self-centred lens. Remember, when he first returns to the farm, he doesn’t even remember that he was first there with Lara. It wasn’t Lara he wanted to return to; it was literally the place and that golden, pleasant day he spent there. And so he would have talked with Sebastian many times about having bought the cemetery plot from Joe’s aunt and uncle, I’m sure [edit: and I realize now, probably included it in his will]. And, because Sebastian is so codependent (see the aftermath of the rehab visit), [edit: to be fair, even if not so codependent anymore, then almost certainly the executor of his estate] he would have tried to ensure his brother’s wishes could be carried out.
Edit: Re-reading my review, I think I was a little bit too cynical. There is another explanation for Lara’s seemingly exaggerated satisfaction with her perfect happy family life (including her marriage with Joe). It is possible that the reason behind it is not any kind of longing or what-if alternate path she imagines with Duke, but rather relief and wise recognition of how terrible things would’ve been if she had not chosen Joe and the calm, steady life of the farm. In fact, the more I think about it, the more certain I am but this is the correct interpretation. I am sure I am not alone in having made poor choices when choosing partners in my youth, and not everyone (including me) figures it out as quickly as Lara does that it is far better to be with someone who is kind and good than someone who is exciting and seductive but selfish and messed up.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this and in fact listened/read to the entire thing in just a couple of days. I’ll be interested to see what any of my friends who read it think of it.
(Content warnings: substance abuse, death, infidelity, coerced sex, abortion)
Essentially, this is the story of a mother, Lara, telling her grown daughters stories from a particular time in life to pass the time while they all harvest cherries on their farm in the early days of the COVID pandemic. Because of the lockdown, they aren’t able to hire the workers they normally would to help bring in the harvest, which has to be done in a very short span of time. So, the family has to do the harvest themselves, and it is tedious work. And so, in what I am sure is a time-honoured tradition, the farming family passes the time listening to someone tell a story..
There is so much about this that I find fascinating. So much here depends on Lara’s narration. I thought frequently about how she was framing her story, what she was leaving out, what she emphasized versus what she chose to minimize. How she takes her audience into account, and her daughters’ relationship with their father (who is doing work elsewhere on the farm most of the time, but makes an appearance here and there).
That’s not to say she doesn’t love her family as much as she says she does. I think she really does love them that much, and her husband really is a good, kind man. But I also think she understands somewhere deep down that she has a tiny part that longs for the asshole that was Duke, and I think she struggles with that. I think when she tells the story of how she and Duke met and got together at Tom Lake, she puts a gloss and fantasy sheen on it at first and then she acknowledges later on in the narrative (as an aside to us, the audience) the things Duke did from the beginning that she knew were not the hallmarks of a considerate boyfriend or a well person, for that matter. The story she tells her daughters is not the story that she eventually shares with us, her readers. She is much more honest with us—in some ways.
It’s a peaceful listen/read at first, but as we get a more “real” version of the story later on, the calm narration almost puts more of a horrifying spin on things. The chapter at the rehab centre is so bleak; it almost seems to come from another book. It’s as though here, Lara lets the happy mask slip and reveals some of the sordidness beneath. But then, the mask goes back up and she seems determined to put a good face on things. The final chapter with Sebastian is part of the “good face.” Far from finding it unrealistic, I could believe that the cherry farm was a place Duke <i>would</i> have romanticized as he got further and further away from normal life. But he always viewed it through his self-centred lens. Remember, when he first returns to the farm, he doesn’t even remember that he was first there with Lara. It wasn’t Lara he wanted to return to; it was literally the place and that golden, pleasant day he spent there. And so he would have talked with Sebastian many times about having bought the cemetery plot from Joe’s aunt and uncle, I’m sure [edit: and I realize now, probably included it in his will]. And, because Sebastian is so codependent (see the aftermath of the rehab visit), [edit: to be fair, even if not so codependent anymore, then almost certainly the executor of his estate] he would have tried to ensure his brother’s wishes could be carried out.
Edit: Re-reading my review, I think I was a little bit too cynical. There is another explanation for Lara’s seemingly exaggerated satisfaction with her perfect happy family life (including her marriage with Joe). It is possible that the reason behind it is not any kind of longing or what-if alternate path she imagines with Duke, but rather relief and wise recognition of how terrible things would’ve been if she had not chosen Joe and the calm, steady life of the farm. In fact, the more I think about it, the more certain I am but this is the correct interpretation. I am sure I am not alone in having made poor choices when choosing partners in my youth, and not everyone (including me) figures it out as quickly as Lara does that it is far better to be with someone who is kind and good than someone who is exciting and seductive but selfish and messed up.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this and in fact listened/read to the entire thing in just a couple of days. I’ll be interested to see what any of my friends who read it think of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Abortion