A review by serendipitysbooks
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.5

 Tom Lake is a beautifully crafted novel, quiet and understated, but filled with warmth and love. It’s 2020 and all Lara’s adult daughters are home in Michigan because of the pandemic and helping on the family cherry orchard. Prompted by their demands she recounts a summer from her twenties, when she was acting in the play Our Town and dating a guy who went on to become a famous actor. I felt that this story beautifully captures the bond between sisters and the relationship between mothers and their adult daughters. I also loved the depictions of the relationship between Lara and her husband Joe. It felt strong and right and true. The structure - Lara tells the story of her past relationship in segments which we hear in between accounts of the family’s current life - worked for me. This isn’t a story filled with high drama and conflict. Rather it’s a story of a woman looking back at a life once lived, at a pivotal summer where her life could have gone in one direction but didn’t, and more fully sharing this part of herself (or at least most of it) with her daughters. Lara, her family, and her story (if not all it’s details) are all quintessentially nice. Nice can sound a bit like damning with faint praise, but that’s not the case here. It simply the most apt description. 
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