‘Tom Lake’ by Ann Patchett

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

“The stories that are familiar will always be our favourites.”

In the spring of 2020, during the pandemic, Lara’s three daughters return to the family’s orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. An epic love story is revealed but it’s not the one the children were expecting to hear. This is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. This would be an excellent choice for book clubs!

Patchett is a fine novelist. Tom Lake is beautifully written and I loved it. I am tempted to re-read it one day by listening to the audio version which is narrated by Meryl Streep.

The novel is all about plays and acting, and almost felt like a play itself! I’ve never seen the play Our Town by Thornton Wilder, but will surely do so now! It might even be a fun outing to see the play with your book club after reading, if it happens to be featured in your town.

This interview with the author is worth a listen. She shares a very surprising fact about how she wrote the book!