Tom Lake

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have a girl-author-crush on Ann Patchett. I fell in love with Bel Canto and it has only gotten stronger with each novel I've read of hers. Until I read her memoir earlier this year and thought it was aimless and she was a little smug. My girl-author crush was over. And so I went into Tom Lake ready to really be objective.
My thoughts as I started: this is a little quaint, and sentimental. This woman's life seems so perfect. Where is the drama and angst? She was an actor too? But she gave it up to be a cherry farmer and has no regrets? Really, no regrets? Her kids are normal and have no issues. What?! is going on? Ok well the writing is ok. And it's not wholly boring.
But then, ah, I see what you did, Anne. There is a little darkness to throw the whole thing into relief.
And taken as a whole, with. Our Town as model and inspiration, it is brilliant. The names that echo each other. The looking back and living it but observing it too (like Emily in the play). The moment of realization that we can never go back (realized in a new and relatable way). And really, set in the pandemic, it is beautiful. While the pandemic was horrible, there were moments of beauty, when the busyness was stripped away and we could see the joy of living day by day, some of us not unhappy that we were cocooned with the ones we loved in our own little island of a home. So then, yes, I fell in love with Anne all over again and she deserves to be a little smug because she is brilliant and I will never waver again.

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These were the things I used to think about, how with a slight shift in circumstance the outcome might have gone another way.