Will I love Tom Lake?

Want to spend 10 glorious hours with Meryl Streep?

I loved her audiobook performance of Tom Lake. Her intonation mirrors the exact qualities that the main characters, who are actors, strive for: neither underacted nor overacted. Just genuine. 

Ann Patchett is a treasure, and in Tom Lake, she effortlessly navigates two timelines: one in which Lara tells her daughters about meeting famous actor Peter Duke in a long-ago play. These scenes are just as compelling as the flashbacks in which we learn about her time with Duke before he became a famous movie star.

It's a talent, the… show more.

I listened to this book, and it’s hard to argue with anything voiced by Meryl Streep—fantastic!— but the story itself had me engaged from beginning to end. I love dual timeline books, and in this one, Lara and her three grown daughters pick cherries on the family orchard as the girls try to wrestle out of their mother the story of her long-ago romance with a man who became a movie legend.

Like Lara’s daughters, I’m hopelessly drawn to anyone touched by the glitter of fame, and this book serves as a great reminder that fame tends to look better… show more.

First of all, the audiobook is narrated by Meryl Streep. Yup. It is glorious. Second, this is my favorite of Ann Patchett’s books, and I love all of them. This is also a sneaky pandemic novel, meaning it takes place during that time when we were all required to be home, but the pandemic is not really the topic of the book.

I read this book and immediately gave it to my mother because it was the first book I’ve ever read that accurately depicted what it is like to be the mother of adult children (well, almost adults—in their… show more.

I loved Meryl Streep’s narration. I’m not sure I’d have liked the book otherwise.

I have loved every book by Ann Patchett that I have ever read from Bel Canto to State of Wonder to the Dutch House. She is such a gifted writer whose plots are always intriguing and full of twists and turns. Tom Lake was of the same high quality, yet wholly fresh and distinct from Patchett's other works, especially in terms of the interesting settings. I love the way she uses humor in her writing and little moments of affection between characters. The bond between the mother Laura and her three daughters is richly drawn and totally believable. Furthermore, it… show more.

This quiet book made a big impression, bringing me back to the early days of the pandemic and the ways it brought my family together for precious time with one another, and how this wonderful aspect contrasted with the terrible repercussions of the virus for the world. I loved the flipping back and forth from present to past as the plot unfolded, and the window into the mother-daughter relationship. And the voice narration by Meryl Streep in the audiobook was the most delicious treat,

A story steeped in contentment, Tom Lake is like a pleasurable summer walk filled with frequent stops to admire the beauty. The novel is in fact set in a cherry orchard where a mother gives her Covid-bound adult daughters all the details of her long-ago romance with a famous Hollywood actor. Gorgeous and poignant, like daily life can be if given a chance.

The portrait of a family, in all its messy beauty, working together as they hear their mother's history. Simply unforgettable.

I started reading Tom Lake at a writing residency and it quickly became an important part of my morning routine. I've read most of Ann Patchett's novels, and this was my absolute favorite. The combination of the close ties between a mother and her daughters on a cherry farm during the COVID-19 pandemic and the memories of the main character, Lara's, found family during a production of "Our Town" might seem treacly at first, but this novel confronts real problems, from the future of raising children during a changing climate to the capriciousness of memory, and the love that can… show more.

I will read anything by Ann Patchett, but this was a sublime read. The family who hovers over the story and the story of a long ago love affair, and the melding of Our Town into the whole sensibility of the American vision, was a total delight.