TOM LAKE by Ann Patchett

The first Patchett novel I have read, but it won't be the last.

Tom Lake the latest novel of American author Ann Patchett. This is the first Patchett novel I have read, and I read it while taking a week away from work and life. It was the perfect novel for that week of my life.

Tom Lake is the story of Lana, a former actress recounting the story of her summer at a playhouse at Tom Lake and the summer of love she shared with her leading man, Peter Duke. She was the star of the play Our Town. Duke went on to become a famous, Academy Award winning actor but who lived a tragic life. She tells the story to her three daughters, who have found themselves at home on their cherry farm early in the pandemic and pushing their mother to tell the story of her love affair with one of the most famous men on earth.

The story jumps around a bit - between Lana’s life growing up, during the summer at Tom Lake, he life since with her husband Joe and the lives of their three daughters, particularly Emily, who at one stge believed Duke may have been her father. This jumping is easy to follow though.

I can’t speak to Patchett’s writing in comparison to her other novels, but I liked this story. It is both flashy and humble simultaneously, and really contemplates the benefits of fame in opposition to genuine love and contentedness. The characters feel real, the story likely.

Is it the greatest novel I’ve read? No - but it was perfect for what I needed a couple of weeks ago as I pulled myself together after grief and spent some time getting back to myself.

I really liked this one. It would be a good quality beach read or, as I found, a good novel for sitting by the fire with a glass of merlot. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it’s not so shallow that it is easily forgettable, either. I recommend it!

Have you read Tom Lake? What did you think?