Ann Patchett (These Precious Days; The Dutch House), once again displaying her singular talent as an author, peels back the layers of a story of coming-of-age, love, life, and expectations in Tom Lake. It is 2020, and the Covid-19 lockdowns have brought Lara's three grown daughters home to the cherry farm where they were raised. She regales the trio, standing in for the seasonal workers unable to come due to travel restrictions, with the story of her long-ago romance with Peter Duke, years before he became a world-famous movie star, and she became the contented wife of a cherry farmer. "It isn't a funny story except for the parts that are," she tells them. This captures the heart--and the art--of Tom Lake, which is not necessarily funny, except when it is, and is fully reflective of the nuance and complexity of this thing we call life. Within the retelling of her past and might-have-been life as an actress, Lara's story evolves to become about much more than a one-time summer fling: it is the story of her growth as a person, woman, wife, mother, and her as a product of every decision she's made along the way and every decision made for her.
In many ways, Patchett's stunning novel is a story of opportunity missed or not taken; her daughters' unspoken questions hang between them: "Are you sorry? Don't you wish?" Tom Lake, though, is not a novel of regret but rather one of clarity, offering a tale of gratitude borne of perspective and experience, a life lived in the present--even as it is shaped by the past. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer