A Review of Tom Lake by Anne Patchett

It is rare for me to choose the audiobook over the physical book; however, when Meryl Streep reads it, and you are ambivalent about the book itself, and reading it only on recommendation, you listen to the audiobook. Or, at least, that was my experience. So, without further adieu, here is my review of Tom Lake by Anne Patchett, narrated by Meryl Streep.

Here's the thing, everyone, except one dear friend, recommended this book to me in the most boring of terms. Describing it like: "a story about a mother, during COVID, telling her adult daughters the story of her life." Even if you like tales like that, you have to admit, that one sounds boring. Not to mention, I have no desire to re-live the COVID years.

Boy was I pleasantly surprised!

Tom Lake, first of all, is NOT about COVID. Thank goodness. Tom Lake is about family. It is about secrets. It is about falling in love, falling out of love, and falling in love again. It's about finding oneself, finding friends, losing friends, embracing opportunities and disregarding others. In short, Tom Lake runs the gamut of the classic tropes within stories about family, coming-of-age, and what it means to be a person.

The funny thing is, Tom Lake IS a story of a mother telling her story to her daughters during COVID, but it is also so much more than that.

The premise is of Lara, a mother of three grown-up girls, who lives on a cherry charm with her husband, Joe. One daughter lives nearby, and the other two come home from college due to quarantine, and ask their mother to tell a well-known story from her past, but this time with more details than before. Lara complies.

Lara's story could be categorized as coming-of-age, but is interrupted consistently by the present where the girls and their mother and father are together, picking cherries, and generally being a family. The past is more chaotic, as it follows Lara's trajectory from playing a part in a high school play, to college, to Los Angeles, and eventually to the infamous Tom Lake. At Tom Lake, Lara falls in love, makes friends, and loses both love and friendship, too. But primarily, she learns a lot about herself.

Tom Lake felt like a warm hug. It was earthy and human, and shockingly believable without being boring. 

The recollections of the past are interspersed with Lara's own musings, so that you know exactly what Lara is telling her girls, and what she is keeping from them that you are reading in confidence. At the beginning of Lara's storytelling, very little is hidden, but as her story progresses, she keeps more and more details to herself, until finally at the end you have the whole story, and the past comes in to meet the present-- in more ways than one.

A common thread throughout the book is the play Our Town by Thornton Wilder. Characters frequently act in this play, reference this play, and call each other by the names of their characters in the play. Several people told me to read the play prior to reading Tom Lake. However, I didn't, but felt that Anne Patchett did an incredible job weaving the play into the story, without losing readers who may be unfamiliar with the world of theater.

My only frustration with Tom Lake was a minor one, and is an easy trap for authors to fall into: somehow, through Lara's story, everyone always manages to be in love with her in some way. While, the character of Lara is a good character, it did feel a little unbelievable that every male she interacts with (almost) would somehow be secretly in love with her, and not just friendly. But like I said, this is a very minor plot point, that only comes up a couple times, but it did take me out for the story a little.

Do I wish I had read the physical book rather than listened to the audiobook? Maybe. But I do not regret listening to it. Meryl Streep's narration is incredible, and she brings life to a simple story in a way I am not sure anyone else could. So however you choose to consume your literature, read Tom Lake.

Adult Content / Trigger Warnings: multiple allusions to sexuality, but nothing gratuitous or graphic. Scenes in a mental institution could be disturbing or triggering to some readers. Family conflict. Smoking, and alcohol abuse. Some narcissistic behavior depicted.