Diane Barnes's Reviews > Tom Lake

I'm not sure how Ann Patchett keeps getting better and better with each book, but she does. I have loved them all, some more than others, but this is my favorite, probably until the next one.
A master at her craft, the top of her game, a writer's writer, literary superstar....take your pick of cliches, they're all true, at least for me.

Tom Lake is a place, not a person, as I thought before reading it. It's a beautiful tribute to Thornton Wilder's Our Town. Lara played Emily Webb, the female lead, in high school, then went on years later to play her in summer stock theater in Tom Lake, Michigan. She falls in love with another actor, who goes on to become a famous movie star. She later marries the owner of a cherry farm in Michigan and raises a family. During the Covid shutdown, her three adult daughters come home to spend the summer helping in the cherry orchard, and beg for the story of her relationship to the actor. Which they get, in bits and pieces, but not all of it; no mother is going to tell her daughters everything.

Our Town infuses the whole plot, wrapped around the Tom Lake action, but the present day scenes as well. Lara wouldn't be where she is without Our Town, her life would be poorer had it never happened. This novel takes place in different timelines, so expertly done that we readers are always there, never really knowing how it's going to pan out, but knowing that it will. Surprises all along the way, pleasant ones mostly, leading to an ending that couldn't be more perfect. Patchett gives us the same wisdom as Wilder did. Things happen, life goes on, we all do the best we can in our own little corners of the world.

I read Our Town in high school, later saw a stage production of it, and yesterday watched the 1940 film version. The sound and picture quality is awful, but the acting is pretty good. I'm betting that sales of the play are going to skyrocket after this book, and local and national theater groups will decide to bring it back. Tom Lake is a great book even if you aren't familiar with the play, but the play itself is pretty spectacular. Read them both, just for the sheer entertainment value.