I
have a long history of loving Ann Patchett’s writing, her New Yorker
articles, the gorgeous collections of essays, and, beginning with Bel Canto,
her novels.
Tom Lake is
no exception. In Covid lockdown on a Michigan cherry farm, a mother, a father,
and three grown daughters isolate. But this novel is neither dark nor fraught.
Rather, I found a literary fairy tale, told by the inimitable Patchett, our
Scheherazade, that led me into an enchanted forest (or, more accurately, cherry
orchard) of allusions to Chekov, to Our Town, to Pasternak and Sam Shepard and
more, much more, in order to solve a puzzle and in the process tell a story
with a happy ending.
To throw in a literary reference of my own, it turns out
all happy families are not alike.
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER * THE NO. 1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *
A REESE WITHERSPOON AND BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK
'A new Ann Patchett novel is always cause for celebration ... and Tom Lake is one of her best' i
'This comforting summer read has it all ... Young love, sibling rivalry and deep mother-daughter relationships' REESE WITHERSPOON
'Filled with the moments I live for in a story' BONNIE GARMUS, author of Lessons in Chemistry
'One of the most beloved authors of her generation' SUNDAY TIMES
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This is a story about Peter Duke who went on…
Lessons in Chemistry is also a fairy tale, a feminist one infused with humor
and a strong dose of karma.
Set in the benighted 1960s (as opposed to our own
benighted times), it’s the story of two soulmates, the brilliant chemists, Elizabeth
Zott and her doomed husband Calvin, their daughter Madeline, and the psychic
dog, Six-Thirty (there is no piece of literature not improved by the presence
of a dog, especially such a good boy as is Six-Thirty).
In quick succession, Elizabeth loses her husband, research job, discovers she
is pregnant, and lands an insulting cooking show assignment. But never fear, enemies
are confounded, grievances redressed, mysteries solved. “And she lived happily
ever after” will never be a bad thing, no matter how much of a cynic you think
you are.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • Meet Elizabeth Zott: a “formidable, unapologetic and inspiring” (PARADE) scientist in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show in this novel that is “irresistible, satisfying and full of fuel. It reminds you that change takes time and always requires heat” (The New York Times Book Review).
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Oprah Daily, Newsweek, GoodReads
"A unique heroine ... you'll find yourself wishing she wasn’t fictional." —Seattle Times…
Edisto (along with its sequel, Edisto Revisited) is a novel I reread
every couple years for the sheer pleasure of revisiting seriously underrated
southern writer Padgett Powell’s account of a pivotal summer for the twelve-year-old
Simon Manigault.
It’s the closest one can get to hitching a ride in a time
machine back to an Edisto Island before gentrification, a chance to get
yourself back to the garden. Take it. You won’t be sorry.
Finalist for the National Book Award: Through the eyes of a precocious twelve-year-old in a seaside South Carolina town, the world of love, sex, friendship, and betrayal blossoms Simons Everson Manigault is not a typical twelve-year-old boy in tiny Edisto, South Carolina, in the late 1960s. At the insistence of his challenging mother (known to local blacks as “the Duchess”), who believes her son to possess a capacity for genius, Simons immerses himself in great literature and becomes as literate and literary as any English professor. When Taurus, a soft-spoken African American stranger, moves into the cabin recently vacated by…
Your nephew has been staying
with you (temporarily) for the past three years. Your ex moved into a house
down the street and keeps forgetting where he lives. Your dog has decided on bachelor number one, who
lives next door but you prefer number two, the man whose daughter busted up
your marriage.
And, the last straw, you suspect that your family, ignoring your
wish for no fuss, is planning a BIG seventieth surprise birthday party for you.
Who
says you can’t have a page-turning charmer of a novel (in which no dogs die),
one that will make you laugh, cry, and leave you wanting more, as it addresses
aging, dementia, loss, and death? An Invitation to the Party is that book.
