A review by dpacker
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

3.0

This book showed up a lot in the posts asking what you're currently reading and its mention always had a lot of likes. Between that and seeing a lot of hype for it, I was so excited to read it. Maybe that was a bad thing because it just wasn't that interesting to me. I saw that a lot of people listened to the audio version. Maybe, just maybe, having Meryl Streep telling the story would have made me enjoy it more. Having just read it, however, it left me with a weird, unsatisfied feeling. Some of the characters weren't likable to me and it felt depressing. [SPOILER] The whole thing about Emily thinking her Dad was Peter Duke and insisting on it for years was just weird. I didn't like her character and that part of the story took away something from the story overall. [END SPOILER] When you like some of the characters (Nelson, Sebastian, and the other two daughters), but end up disliking many of the other characters, it's difficult to enjoy the book. It gets 3.5 stars from me, and I feel like that is a gift. Many readers who love Ann Patchett say this is their least favorite book, so I'm going to try one of her others and hope that I like it better.