Tom Lake

By Ann Patchett, 2023

This novel is set in the midst of the pandemic, on a cherry orchard in Michigan. The narrator Lara is one of many people (myself included) who sort of enjoyed some of the repercussions of the pandemic: simpler days and uninterrupted time with family. Things are a bit difficult for them in terms of work, since most of the seasonal cherry pickers they would usually employ are unable to come to work due to COVID restrictions, and so Lara, her husband and daughters are working morning to night to save the harvest.

Lara’s three daughters are in their twenties. The oldest lives in another house on the orchard, and the other two have recently returned to help with the picking. They have decided that now is the time for her to tell the story of her love affair with Duke, a man who became a famous movie star. Lara, probably like anyone who has the long-awaited and denied undivided attention of her daughters, takes her time. She begins with an explanation for how she began her short-lived acting career: a hometown performance of Our Town.

I am a huge fan of Ann Patchett and have read all her work but The Magician’s Assistant (it’s on my shelf and will be read eventually). As far as I recall she has never written an entire novel from the point of view of a mother. This is important, I think, because it paints a picture of women who are doing other things while not diminishing the importance of being a mother. In this novel, while it’s narrated by a mom, we still get a sense of Lara’s full life. She has a loving relationship with her husband, she had exciting and dramatic love affairs in her younger years, she even goes by a new name. The point is, the story shows her daughters that she is a full, complex human, not only the woman who raised them.

During a family dinner, Emily, the oldest, shares that she’s not having children. Her mother asks her, “You don’t want children?”

Emily tips back her wineglass. She drains it. ‘I don’t know if I want them but I’m sure I’m not going to have them.’

Tom Lake, p. 143

The brilliant thing about this short exchange is that it demonstrates the difference between wanting something and not, while balancing it against other practicalities. In Emily’s case, her reason is climate change, but her response demonstrates that her decision is separate from any desire she might feel to be a mom. And both options are offered without judgement. Four stars.