Ann Patchett
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett unfolds in two interlocking threads. The first thread consists of flashbacks in which Lara Nelson, the narrator, tells her three grown daughters about the summer she played the role of Emily in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. The second thread consists of the present in which the whole family works long hours to harvest the cherries in their Michigan farm. Popping in and out of both threads is Lara’s husband, Joe.
The three Nelson siblings are sequestered at home during the pandemic lockdown. They badger their mother to tell them about her short-lived experience as a young actress, including her stint at the Tom Lake summer stock theatre. They are particularly interested in her relationship with Peter Duke, a fellow actor and ex-boyfriend who later became a famous movie star. Lara muses on how much to reveal to her daughters and how much to hold back. The narrative voice alternates between Lara’s storytelling of her coming-of age, eventful summer in the long ago past and Lara as the first-person narrator telling the story to her grown daughters in the present. The switch from present to past and back again is done seamlessly.
The two threads intertwine and are integral to one another, enhancing the storytelling. Lara’s flashbacks are interrupted with comments and questions from her daughters. They demand details of her past, demonstrating their insatiable appetite to learn about their parents’ lives, pre-marriage and pre-children. Meanwhile, the family picks cherries during the day, swims in the lake for the occasional reprieve, and eats dinner together at night. Weaving in and out of both threads are references to Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, when Lara and her co-actors rehearse the play, and to Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. What emerges from the two threads is the contrast between a young girl’s passionate first love with the strong, resilient, and mature love Lara feels for her husband and their three daughters.
The characters are lovingly and authentically portrayed. Each of the siblings has a unique identity with unique interests and unique temperaments. They bicker and tease one another, and tolerate one another’s foibles. But the strength of their bond is never questioned. Similarly, Lara’s and Joe’s relationship is on a firm foundation built of enduring love. Some of the best moments in the novel consist of the dialogue and touching moments between family members, especially when the girls begin to empathize with the young woman their mother once was.
Unfolding in precise, measured prose, Ann Patchet’s quiet, unassuming book is a warm meditation on first love, on family love, on parenting, on marriage, and on the relationship between mothers and daughters. This is a beautiful story beautifully told with sensitivity and insight.