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A review by melissatrew
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
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.)
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.)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness
Minor: Death and Abortion