Tom Lake
Ann Patchett

This wasn’t my favourite of Ann Patchett’s (& I am huge fan) but it was still a very nice read. It’s a lovely gentle story told with tenderness & warmth. As a bonus it’s made me want to go off and find out more about the play ‘Our Town’
I was delighted to get the chance to read this one and plan to listen to the audio as well as I hear Meryl Streep does an amazing job of bringing the story to life.

Many thanks to Netgally & the publisher for the arc.

This is a gentle read, not particularly actioned-pack. We find ourselves at a cherry farm, with Lara, her husband and their 3 grown-up daughters, all together due to Covid restrictions. It is under these circumstances that Lara starts telling stories from her youth, her encounter with the acting world and her first love with a man who subsequently became a famous actor.

I was such a fan of 'The Dutch House' that I had big expectations of this book. However, I am afraid it all fell rather flat - the (lack of) story and characters alike. So much so that I actually missed the plot twist towards the end and I only read about it in some reviews on Goodreads! If I am being honest, I'd give Tom Lake 2 stars, however the Meryl Streep narration elevated it to 3 (just!).

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest and impartial review.

I had high hopes for this, based on other reviews, although I have never got on too well with Patchett's fiction, but I do enjoy her essays/nonfiction.

Sadly this was not a good for me, I think that is due to a cultural disconnect, so I would say that this is a book more likely to appeal to a certain kind of American reader, who enjoys sentimental, feel good stories.

I found it too sentimental and given the age of the protagonist, I just did not buy into her alleged naivety.

A woman with three young adult, tertiary educated daughters (a vet, a wanna-be actor and the country girl daughter set/ideal to take over the family farm), while picking cherries on their cherry tree farm (stuck there together during the pandemic), tells them (reluctantly but willingly) about a period in her youth when she was involved in a theatre production and got scouted by someone in the film world, who just happened to be in the audience.

Despite the opportunity, she professes to be unaware of those involved, so depicts herself as a young naive girl finding opportunity (and a romance with a Hollywood heart throb) without seeking it, going to California and New York (all expenses paid) and ending up in this place called Tom Lake.

It might be made into one of those Christmas romcom type films, in which case it would attract that kind of audience.

This was my first Ann Patchett and I loved it. A wonderful story about love, family and acting. Even the pandemic setting of the present couldn't put a damper on this read.

I just adore Ann Patchett, and Tom Lake was everything I wanted it to be and more.

Her books are just so atmospheric – I've never had any desire to go to a cherry farm in Michigan before, but now I'm desperate to. Her characters are so engaging too – they're real, and there's something to love about all of them, and I can't wait for whatever Ann writes next. I've also just found out that Meryl Streep narrates the audiobook (!!!). Going to listen right away.

The title of Ann Patchett’s latest novel, Tom Lake, doesn’t refer to a person, as I’d assumed before I started reading, but to a place – a town in Michigan with a theatre overlooking the lake. One summer in the 1980s, a theatrical group gather at Tom Lake to rehearse the Thornton Wilder play, Our Town. The role of Emily has gone to Lara, a young woman who previously played that same part in a high school production. Here at Tom Lake, Lara meets and falls in love with the charismatic Peter Duke, the actor who plays her father in Our Town and who goes on to become a famous Hollywood star.

Many years later, in 2020, Lara and her husband, Joe, are living on a Michigan farm with their three adult daughters, Emily, Maisie and Nell, who have all come home to be with their parents as the Covid pandemic sweeps across the world. While they help to harvest cherries from the family orchard, the girls ask Lara to tell them about her relationship with Duke. As they listen to her story unfold, they discover things about their mother’s past that makes them reassess everything they thought they knew about her and about themselves.

I loved Ann Patchett’s last novel, The Dutch House, so I was hoping for a similar experience with this book. Sadly, that didn’t happen, although I did still find a lot to like. It’s certainly a beautifully written novel, but I just found it a bit too quiet and gentle and I never felt fully engaged with the characters the way I did with the characters in The Dutch House. I know I’m in a tiny minority, though, and I expect to see Tom Lake on many people’s ‘books of the year’ lists in December.

Although the present day sections of the book are set during the pandemic, Covid is barely mentioned at all and it’s really just a plot device to explain why the family are all together on the farm with such little contact with the outside world. This provides the perfect environment for the three daughters to pass the time listening to their mother’s story without too many distractions – and a cherry orchard does sound like a lovely place to spend the pandemic. Something else which plays a much bigger part in the novel is Thornton Wilder’s Our Town; clearly the play and, in particular, the role of Emily are very important to Lara, but as I’ve neither read nor seen it I didn’t really understand the significance. It seems to be a play that is much better known and more widely studied in America than it is here in the UK and I wish I’d had at least some familiarity with it before I started this book. That’s possibly one of the things that prevented me from enjoying it as much as I’d hoped.

I do like Patchett’s writing, so even though this particular book wasn’t a huge success with me, I’m still looking forward to trying some of her earlier work.

Ann Patchett writes beautifully; this novel, like her others, is a pleasure to read.

I found it an interesting take on life during lockdown with older children back home with their parents (like my own household at the time). Instead of focusing on the pandemic, the focus is on how people in the same family, thrown together unexpectedly, build a new kind of relationship. In this case, it's largely about a mother, Lara, (re)telling old stories about her past, when she was a young woman and before her children were born, and when she spent time at the eponymous Tom Lake and had an affair with a young man, Peter Duke, who has since become a very famous actor.

It's a mild story, gently told. I found it a bit saccharine. And while there are revelations, and some shifts in the relationship between the mother and her daughters, it's all just a bit too understated. A bit weak-chinned.

Much of the story (and some reviews I've seen) revolves around a sort of surprise that someone would give up the world of theatre in favour of a quiet life on a cherry farm. Since I would rather have a lobotomy than be an actor, and I wouldn't half mind living on a beautiful cherry farm, all of that was lost on me.

What makes this novel stand out? Well, I suppose it would fall into the category of literary fiction, given that it has that sort of gravitas, it's clearly 'taking itself seriously' and it is skillfully written and paced. Still, it's fairly light and easy to read, indeed entertaining, which would slip it more into the general fiction category. I feel it just misses the mark of literary because it doesn't really make me see or think of the world in a different way. It's not 'enlightening', doesn't change me at all.

So in conclusion, it's a nice book, very pleasant to read, not particularly challenging.

By the way, the lockdown setting is merely an excuse to explain why these people are spending a lot of time together. Otherwise, the pandemic is 'not happening' and doesn't form any real part of the story.

My thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for giving me a free copy of this book. All my reviews are 100% honest and unbiased, regardless of how I acquire the book.

Tom Lake is a brilliant book. Ann Patchett is a superb story teller and this book is as well written as the rest. This book is about a family in lockdown and how together the story of the parent’s history is played out. It is the only book I have read about lockdown and I loved it. The children’s personalities are all different and loveable all the same. The parents tell the story of how they met through the lens of the stage. I would highly recommend this book to everyone. Thank you to NetGalley for advance copy.

This is my third Ann Patchett book, and I enjoyed it! It's about Lara, who has her three daughters come to stay at her cherry farm in Michigan during the pandemic, and the story she has to tell about the summer she dated one of the world's most famous actors. I really really liked the beginning chapters and the rest didn't quite hold up: partly cause I found the daughters quite one-dimensional compared to the story told in the past, partly because there is no part of me that understands someone giving up acting to become a cherry farmer. But it is so readable and I was so keen to find out what happened. It's a gentle, meandering kind of read that still had enough plot to keep me hooked.

I love Ann Patchett's work, and Tom Lake is a worthy successor to The Dutch House. It is an immersive account, of a mother to her three adult daughters,during lockdown, of a time in her early life when she had an affair with a young man who went on to become a famous heart-throb and cinema star. While the reader enjoys what she tells her family, we empathise even more with the parts she leaves out, through inhibition, shame or an acknowledgement that it would be received as 'too much information'. We feel her excited abandonment to this reckless affair, to this all-consuming love that in retrospect is just a juvenile fling. We are given clues about her present life, and it is so satisfying to see a woman in middle-age living a fulfilled and undoubtedly happy life, reconciled to the road she has taken.
I can't recommend this lovely book highly enough, it is immersive and every word is perfectly pitched. I shall be telling all my friends to get their hands on a copy.

4.5 stars. I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I started reading this but it felt like a gentle stream that was taking me on a reflective journey; what happens when your kids want to learn about the summer when you, or Lara our protagonist, an aspiring actress at the time of her youth, dated a famous actor, at a time when he was not so famous. The intricacies and complications of what used to be simple relationships and the impact people have on our lives and how they can influence on our future. This felt like a warm hug in places and by the end I was in tears; such heartfelt storytelling. My first of Ann Patchett and certainly not the last. I would definitely recommend to everyone. Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an unedited and honest opinion. Please check minor trigger warnings before reading.

I'm a bit of a fan of Ann Patchett - her novels, essays and her bookshop in the US (one day perhaps I'll visit!). So I was pleased to find that this new book had been released - and with the most beautiful cover!

It's set in the pandemic when three adult daughters have returned to the family farm and are urging their mother to tell them about her early life.

Lara Nelson once dated the famous actor Peter Duke. This information slipped out when the family were watching one of his films together and the girls were told this fact by their father, Joe.

The sisters are home to help pick cherries on the farm and in the slow months of lockdown, they pester Lara, their mother, for details of this early romance.

In daily instalments, Lara shares her story and in so doing explores the themes of fame, ambition, talent, lost love, destiny and choice.

It's a gentle read, which, as the cover suggests, should be enjoyed luxuriating in a summer sun!

Ann is an exceptional writer. She is a gifted storyteller.
I have preferred other books but excellent nevertheless.

I was sent a copy of Tom Lake by Ann Patchett to read and review by NetGalley. This novel is a very slow burner from start to finish. It is tender, poignant, insightful and very readable. I liked the way it was written with the main protagonist telling the story of her youth to her grown up children, with added memories that she chose to keep to herself. I doubt that this book will appeal to readers who crave action and thrills in a novel but those who like a more thoughtful read that is beautifully written will definitely enjoy it, as I myself did.

Another wonderful tale from Ann Patchett. If you haven’t already come across this author this is certainly a good place to start.
Lara is recounting a story about the time she dated a famous movie star to her three daughters as they are harvesting the family’s cherry crop with her husband Joe. Lara and Duke were actors in a production of Our Town during a summer festival in Tom Lake. This is a story of hopes and dreams and the resilience needed when things don’t work out quite as planned.
Read this book and enjoy.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for this honest review.

i am an ann patchett fan. scratch that, i am devoted to her work. but this? this was not it. it seems very kate morton-ish and book clubby in a cheesy way that is very generic.

Loved this book. I’ve read The Dutch House and loved it so I was really happy to see a new book by Ann Patchett.
I loved the story of the young actress and the life she had while playing a character in Our Town.
I loved how the story went between the past and the present.
Lara and her daughters were great characters and I enjoyed the relationship that they had with each other.
Ann Patchett is a great storyteller and this book is a must read.

This is a new personal favorite. Lara's three grown daughters rejoin her and her husband on their berry farm in Michigan during the pandemic. As they work on the farm, Lara entertains the daughters (they can't bear to turn on the news) with stories from her youth, particularly of her career as an actress and her romance with a movie star. I absolutely loved the storytelling and Patchett's writing left me wanting more from this story and its characters. I can't wait to listen to the audiobook, read by Meryl Streep.

I savoured this book. I just didn't want to finish it. Toggling backwards and forwards in time, this tells the story of Lara, then a young, up and coming star of the stage and now a mother of three, grown up girls, riding out Covid on a cherry farm in Michigan. Lara's daughters have always been obsessed by the fact that she once dated the famous movie star Peter Duke. She has never told them the story of their romance until now.

I love the fact that this is romantic without being in any way sentimental or soppy. Lara is happy with her life and her choices and there is no great epiphany to this tale. It's a love story with all the real bits put back into it. It's a coming of age story that is told by a woman in her fifties and it's so poignant and powerful and good. The claustrophobia of the isolated summer months on Tom Lake are revised and revisited through the claustrophobia of the isolated summer months on the cherry farm. This is such skilled, beautiful writing. I loved it.

I utterly loved this and would recommend this to anyone.
Set in the pandemic, but not the main focus. It follows a mother and her three daughters and moves between the past and present brilliantly. Loved it.