Reviews with content warning for Vomit - Tom Lake

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Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

31 reviews

msaggy's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

The pace of this book is slow and I jumped into the audiobook midway, enticed by Meryl Streep's narration – a choice I'm glad I made.

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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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hinkleh's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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rayreyes's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring 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? No

4.25

Solid book. Took me up until 50% through to get invested in the story. Really lovely and would recommend overall.

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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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