TOM LAKE (2023) - Review

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Started September 30, 2023 - Finished May 17, 2025

Did you see how long it took me to read "Tom Lake"? My life changed dramatically in the last couple of years and I stopped reading. Actually I opened book after book, read a chapter or two, and set them all aside. This month I decided it was time to try again, picked up Ann Patchett's lovely book, and became a reader once more.

Set in the Cherry Orchards of Northern Michigan, "Tom Lake" is Lara's story of her stage career and her time as Emily in "Our Town". Her three grown daughters have come home to avoid the pandemic and to help with the harvest. Knowing a now famous actor played opposite their mother in the Michigan summer stock theatre, the girls are fascinated by the story she tells. But the reader knows Lara doesn't tell them everything.

This is a charming story about family, love, and the past as the daughters learn about their mother's life and choices. When I finally closed my book, I felt that life was not a bad place to be.

View all my reviews