Reviews with content warning for Death - Tom Lake

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

73 reviews

sjexley's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

A cherry farm in Michigan, three grown daughters stuck at home during early Covid, and the story they have never heard of their mother dating one of the most famous actors of their time. The writing in this was so beautiful and compelling, just so, so good. Meryl Streep reads the audio, and I think it might be even better to listen to it!

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ajhowe2's review against another edition

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reflective relaxing 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? It's complicated

3.5

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emma_sky's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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shae_reads's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

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

1.0

This was a book club choice. It was very boring. This novel is character driven but the characters were one-dimensional, unlikeable and uninteresting. In my opinion nothing interesting happens except

when Uncle Wallace throws up all that blood on stage but still finished the show!

There is also very little romance involved in this “romance” novel.

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melissatrew's review against another edition

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hopeful reflective relaxing 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? It's complicated

4.0

"Growing up was a terrible thing—a clear path to the third act. Emily showed us that, all those moments in life we had missed and would never get back again."

Tom Lake snuck up on me a little bit. The gentle storytelling, the almost-pastoral setting, and the low-stakes plot had me expecting a very "meh" sort of book. I even asked a friend if this book would have garnered half as much praise and hype if it had been written by a retired librarian from Topeka (instead of Ann Patchett) and narrated by someone they found on Fiverr (instead of Meryl Streep), and we both agreed no, it absolutely would not.

"He should have been back in Chicago but then he never would have found me. And then what? It would have been a different life, one that I will never be able to imagine."

Having said that, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The mother-daughter dynamic felt similar to Little Women,and a lot of the flashbacks were tinged with a romantic nostalgia that reminded me of The Notebook. And all of Lara's theatre / stage / Hollywood memories made me want to go back and read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo again.

"...in this life a person gets only one chance."

I'd definitely recommend this one if you're looking for a cozy, quiet, feel-good story. (Although, for all the praise she's gotten, I had to speed the audiobook up to 3x because Meryl Streep narrated so slowly that her voice didn't even sound like human speech on 1x.)

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mgdsmile's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

I really enjoyed Tom Lake. The novel is told in the voice of Lara, who in the present day is the mother of three young adult daughters who have, for various reasons, returned home to the family cherry farm in Northern Michigan in the spring of 2020. As the family is forced to isolate from other social obligations due to the pandemic, daughters Emily, Maisie, and Nell engage their curiosity in their mother's past as an actress, and husband Joe listens in.

The story is told through Lara's flashbacks to her growing up and young adult years. Over several days, she recounts to her children how she got into acting as a girl and eventually how she ended up cast at a summer production of Our Town, located at a theater company called Tom Lake in upstate Michigan. Most importantly, her daughters interrogate her about her relationship with Peter Duke, her co-star at Tom Lake, who has since become famous. In her late fifties now, Lara editorializes on her early life, both to her daughters and the reader.

The author reveals important details with intention along the way, as the daughter and the readers pick up clues as to how the story ends. Lara's voice is full of nostalgia, thankfulness, and simplicity as she narrates the closure she found over the years in her romance with Duke. We also observe Lara encountering her changing relationship with each of her maturing daughters, and Lara also reflects on parenting with wisdom and hindsight.

I was nervous that a novel grounded in spring 2020 would evoke elements of stress in me. Instead, Tom Lake captured the slowness and earnestness I want to remember of those days. Patchett has spun a simple yet captivating tale that had my attention for the duration of the book, and after, putting Michigan cherry farms on my travel list.

Many thanks to the Nashville Public Library's Lucky Day Collection for access to this popular novel.

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