Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
I have read every book written by Ann Patchett. Her impressive works delve into her character’s inner lives and offer insight into family and group dynamics. Of her eight works of fiction, her most recent Commonwealth and The Dutch House are my favorites. I hoped her newest novel, Tom Lake, would deepen this exploration of family dynamics. But Tom Lake seemed to float more than dig.
Tom Lake is about family stories and secrets. Three twenty-something sisters return to their family’s Michigan cherry orchard during COVID to help their parents harvest the cherries. To make the long and laborious days of picking cherries pass more quickly, the young women goad their mother Lara to tell them about her life before they were born. Specifically, they want to learn more about her short acting career and relationship with Peter Duke, now a famous movie star.
Over several days, Lara tells her tale with occasional contributions from her husband, Joe. Lara explains to their daughters how she became an actress in high school when she landed the role of Emily Webb in Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town. Lara returned to the role of Emily in summer stock theater in Tom Lake, Michigan. There, she had met Peter Duke, who played her husband-to-be, George Gibbs. Lara’s daughters, Emily, Maisie and Nell, knew that their mother professionally acted in her early twenties. They had seen her in her sole Hollywood movie. But her relationship with Peter Duke was foremost on their minds.
Lara’s narration is dreamy and wistful as she travels back in time. She is calm as she describes her younger self’s thoughts, feelings and interpretations. As she talks, she develops new insights about the story she had told herself and the story that emerges in the telling. Playing Emily in Our Town profoundly affected her life. At the end of Act 3, Emily dies and is allowed to leave the graveyard and visit the living one last time. Emily now sees both the monotony and magic of living. In Emily’s case, it is too late to appreciate life’s gifts. But embodying Emily night after night, Lara had internalized Thornton Wilder’s message. Four decades later, Lara thinks, “Ask that girl who left Tom Lake what she wanted out of life, and she would never in a million years have said the Nelson farm in Traverse City, Michigan, but as it turned out, it was all she wanted.”
As Lara shares her story of summer theater with her daughters, she decides what parts she will disclose and what details she will withhold. Readers are privy to the events not said out loud. Patchett creatively captures the innocent days of youth when choices are made on impulse, not reason.
Though Lara is a complex character, her daughters and husband pale by comparison. References to Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Wilder’s Our Town enrich the story. However, the primary strength of Tom Lake is that Lara learns more about her younger self’s choices than she had understood in previous contemplations, provoking readers to ponder their own life decisions. Even though I had hoped for more, Patchett’s lush and lyrical writing made Tom Lake a pleasure and even a comfort to read. 4/5