Tom Lake
Patchett, Ann
Home together in Northern Michigan courtesy of the Covid-19 pandemic, Joe and Lara Nelson and their three adult daughters are picking their orchard’s cherry crop, providing the perfect opportunity for the girls to quiz their mother about her youthful romance with a man who became a famous actor. Moving between the present day and 1984, when Lara shared a stage with Duke during a summer production of the Thornton Wilder play Our Town, this is the story of a woman reflecting on her past and exposing a family myth to the full light of day.
Multilayered and compelling, this family drama evokes Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, and convincingly portrays the beauty of an ordinary life.
Comments from BDS Reviewers
"I loved the writing. The beauty of an ordinary family and an ordinary life."
"The ending is superb. It is surprising, but when you consider it, there could have been no better way to end it."
"The book is mainly about love - intense romantic love that is your first summer love, the love of the land, of animals, of a long marriage, the joy of having loving parents. Most enjoyable."
"The small things in Tom Lake are the things that give this book its strength."
"Patchett seems to have an enormous capacity for understanding and revealing the dignity, depth, compassion, and tragedy of human life. The book is not just 'readable', it is totally compelling reading."
"I am now a fan of Ann Patchett, after just one book!"
"Patchett is so clever in developing her characters. Just when you come to really dislike one of her characters, you discover the tragedy .,.."
"There's not a great deal that happens in this book. To enjoy it, you will have to enjoy stories about ordinary life …"
309
2023