Book Review: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
This is a story about how a past can be both sweet and tart, twisting and turning to create a story with layers, some visible and some deeply hidden.
If you have ever experienced keeping secrets about your past that you had no intention of sharing with your family, then chances are you can relate to Tom Lake. In the summer of 2020, Lara has all three of her twenty-year-old daughters home in the family’s multigenerational cherry orchard in Michigan. Amid uncertainty, uprooted plans, and restlessness, the daughters persuade their mother to recount the story of her relationship with the famous actor Peter Duke. While they know the relationship was more than two actors starring in a summer play, the girls had created a version of the story that served them with glamorous excitement based on who they know them to be now. One of the most sought-after actors and their loving, confident mother. Lara wonders how her family will accept her version of the story and if some secrets are meant to be kept.
To be honest, this book was a slow start for me. I would pick it up and read a bit, but it never called me to get lost in its pages. Then, I downloaded the audiobook. The audiobook immediately immersed me in the story. I felt that a movie was playing in another room, and I only heard the film. More than once, I caught myself looking at my iPad, somehow thinking it would display vivid images of the characters I was hearing. While I thought I should push through with the book, my time with the audiobook flew by.
Our book club discussion centred around how much of our past we have shared with our children. Do they know what our lives were like before we had them, or do they think they knew what we were doing? When one chapter of our lives ends and another starts, have we simply closed the book? Opened a new fresh page to start fresh? Did we not tell our past stories because the opportunity never came up or because they were safely held by us, in the past?
Rating:
4 out of 5
Audiobook Rating:
5 out of 5. Narrated by Meryl Streep, the audiobook is captivating. It indeed raised the bar for how I will evaluate audiobooks from now on.
Who would like it?
Anyone who enjoys a lyrical, layered writing style with intricate, perfectly placed words.
Who would I advise to read it?
Anyone with a past containing sweet and sour events that created stories you never shared, some waiting to be told and some secrets hidden in deep layers of our memories.
Would I give this book as a gift?
Probably not.
