A visit to Tom Lake
A book recommendation and some very good cherry preserves
Way back in September, just after we dropped my daughter off at college and became official empty nesters, we went to see Cheryl Strayed interview Ann Pachett in Portland. It was part of the book tour for Ann’s latest book, Tom Lake.
I have been a fan of Pachett’s work since I read Bel Canto way back in the early 2000s. I was traveling and had run out of books to read. (Something that, in the age of e-readers is, blessedly, no longer a concern.) Between flights, I rushed into the airport newsstand and grabbed Bel Canto to read on my cross-country journey.
I read the entire book that one flight, embarrassingly sobbing just as we were descending into LAX, the ending making me feel as I never have before. Somehow, in the course of four hours, Ann had made me love every single character, both the good and bad, and brought me to the realization we are all just humans, trying our best to get through this thing called life.
This morning, as I sat in my living room, sipping dandelion tea, the Pacific Northwest skies their usual steely shade of gray, I finished Tom Lake. And damn it if Ann Patchett didn’t do it to me again! I held the book close to my chest, teared up a little, and then went upstairs to my husband’s office to hug him. He had finished the book before me and nodded knowingly when I told I had just finished the book.
Through her character Lara, Ann somehow managed to once again hit on the very heart of our humanity. This time she perfectly conjured forth the quiet joy of a long marriage, growing and releasing children together, doing what you love, all during a worldwide pandemic. It is a book about looking at your past and being far along enough in life to see that there really aren’t any regrets, because everything that happened brought you to what you have now. And, if you are lucky, the now is exactly what you wanted.
In the story, Lara is living with her husband on their cherry farm. It is the early days of the pandemic and her three, young adult daughters are all home, quarantining and helping pick cherries. To pass the time, they ask Lara to tell them about the time she was an actress, performing in a summer stock production of Our Town in rural Michigan, in a place called Tom Lake. This is a story of their mother before her father-a time that I think many children are curious about. The time before your parents became a couple is a thrillingly dangerous time when you think about it. A time when your very existence hung in the balance. If your parents had made the slightest deviation from the path, their DNA would never have mixed to create you.
During that long ago summer, Lara had a brief love affair with a famous actor. The story was one that had been told, in bits and pieces across the girls’ childhood, but this telling is special. It is an (almost) complete account. A story that is finally revealed to her daughters, who are now in the same season of life that Lara was during that summer. It is a story of how they came be and how their mother feels about her past.
It is a quiet book and you need to have the same patience reading it as you would sitting and listening to someone tell you their story. But, it is cozy and comforting and made me think of past loves and heartbreaks and how very glad I am that those heartbreaks happened because they led me to THIS life and that’s the best place to be.
Take Your Reading to the Next Level
Ann Patchett had American Spoon make some Sour Cherry Preserves to go with the book. I love the idea of reading Tom Lake while drinking tea and nibbling on homemade bread spread with it. The book, the preserves, and a copy of Our Town would make the perfect holiday gift for your favorite reader in your life too.
Read Our Town. The play is like a character in Tom Lake. I’m eager to read it. I was thinking of inviting a group of friends over for a dinner party and we could all do a table reading of it. Wouldn’t that be fun? Want to come? Or maybe I should put together a Zoom call for paid subscribers and we could do a reading together? What do you think?
If you are ever in Nashville, visit Ann’s bookstore, Parnassus.
Discover more books by Ann Patchett
There are quite a few but these are the ones that have stayed with me:
Have you read Ann Patchett? What is your favorite book by her?
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I'd love to know what your favorite Ann Patchett book is. Leave a comment and tell me!
I had to skip over a large part of this because I haven't read it yet! But I am on the enormous wait list at the library, so hopefully it will be soon. My fave is These Precious Days but I also really love Bel Canto and The Dutch House. She's just such a great writer, hashtag goals. Happy early birthday!