TOM LAKE

‘Tom Lake’, by the popular American author Ann Patchett, is her most recent novel set in Northern Michigan telling a story within a story, in which a mother trapped on the family estate, a cherry farm (in the pandemic) indulges in time, to reflect and celebrate her family as well as reminisce on her younger self. A heart-warming favourite amongst book clubs as well as a Sunday Times bestseller.

The novel opens in New Hampshire in the ‘70s and the young Lara whilst helping out with the local auditions for Thornton Wilder's ‘Our Town’ with her school friend Veronica is inadvertently signed up for one of the lead roles. Lara’s lucky break continues as she is spotted by an LA director, Ripley, who fast tracks her career to Hollywood for a part in a new film. The book has two timelines, Lara’s past and the present in which her husband Joe and their daughters, Emily, Maisie and Nell. The girls have had to put their own careers and lives on hold (thanks to the pandemic), and by default are available to help with the cherry orchard harvest. However together they are also eager to discover the story of their mother’s relationship with the famous and scorchingly hot actor Peter Duke, (aka ‘George Clooney’ for us in the real world), who had consumed their lives growing up thanks to his popular film success and fame.

Lara has to fast forwards her story as a young actress, to present her first meeting with Duke. It’s 1988 and Lara is lined up to join another ‘Our Town’ production, to play Emily, a role she knows well, this time joining a summer stock theatre programme held in North Michigan, near the idyllic Tom Lake. Lara and Duke quickly become lovers spending the days by the lake with his equally gorgeous brother and tennis professional and coach, the young ‘Saint’ Sebastian and Lara’s friend Pallace. Lara’s daughters are obsessed about zooming in on the detail. But they have to hear it together and make time to understand the depth of this relationship, how it began, how it finished and how and when their father, Joe becomes a part of the story. Patchett carefully braids time weaving the past with the present, allowing us to reflect on the younger Lara as well as appreciate Lara's good fortune, spending time with her older girls and Joe.

Whilst one of the themes and threads is about fame, rejecting fame and about achieving it or not achieving it, this is also a story about life lessons of which there are many, not about regrets but appreciating the life you have and enjoying the moment.