"Tom Lake": Book Review

One of my favorite books.

Everybody has been talking about Tom Lake by Ann Patchett and I never got around to reading it until now and I'm not sure why I waited so long.

Lara lives on a cherry farm in Northern Michigan with her husband Joe, in the summer of 2020 while the world was shut down due to the pandemic the farm needed to keep going so her three adult daughters came home to help the farm and quarantine.

Lara's daughters Emily, Maisie, and Nell only know that she dated a famous actor Peter Duke but didn't know the entire story. To pass the time on the farm they have quiet nights and pick cherries while Lara tells the story of her and Duke and her summer at Tom Lake. The reader not only gets to experience the story she is telling her daughters but also her daughter's reaction to the story, relate the story to their own lives as they are the same age now that she was when she dated Duke.

The story Lara tells about Tom Lake and acting transports the reader to Michigan in the summer, living on a lake, and being an actress. It gives the feelings of summer love in your twenties and what it feels like to be young and carefree hoping the summer, relationships, and fun will last forever.

The novel is not a fast-paced page-turner, but it is, overall, a good story. Patchett captures what it was like during the early months of the pandemic and how everyone had different ways to pass the time while there were so many unknowns in the world she also makes Lara's story of her past so real you feel as though you were there with her in her early twenties living on Tom Lake working as an actress and experiencing her youthful summer.

Tom Lake by Anne Patchett is one of the most beautifully written books I've read and it should be added to everyone's want-to-read list.