Play Book Tag discussion

Tom Lake – Ann Patchett
Book on CD performed by Meryl Streep
5*****

This is a character-driven story set during the COVID pandemic. Lara and Tom Nelson live on a Michigan fruit orchard where they’ve raised three daughters. In the Spring of 2020 the girls all come home to the farm to live together once again. As they work together to harvest the cherry crop (no farm workers available during lock-down), the girls persuade their mother to tell about her youth, when she was an actress in summer stock and dated a man who would become a famous movie star. Patchett moves the story back and forth from the farm in 2020 to follow the young Lara Kenison in the 1980s.

This is the kind of literary fiction that I love. I was completely captured by this tale about love - the reckless abandon of youth, the quiet strength of long-term relationships, the fierce protection of a parent for a child. I liked the parallel between the characters in Our Town (Emily and George), and Lara’s eldest daughter and her beau (Emily and Benny). I loved the relationships between the Nelson family members: Lara & Tom; Tom & his daughters (especially Emily); Lara and the girls; the sisters with each other. Their solid foundation of love and respect gives them the grace to open their hearts to others, which is so beautifully shown in the ending.

I could not help but wish that I had pressed my parents for more details about their courtship and their own youthful experiences before they became my parents. It reminds me that we all have important stories to tell, even if they are important only to ourselves and those close to us.

Meryl Streep is stupendous on the audio version. I could listen to her read a receipt from Home Depot. But pair her acting ability with Patchett’s stellar writing … you just can’t get any better than this! (Note: I did read about a third of the book in text format.)



LINK to my review

So glad to see you loved it too!

Meryl Streep added so much to the story, she was wonderful!

Book Concierge wrote: "

Tom Lake
– Ann Patchett
Book on CD performed by Meryl Streep
5*****

This is a character-driven story set during the COVID pandemic. Lara and Tom Nelson live on ..."

Wonderful review! You captured the heart of it. This book made me want to visit a cherry orchard. I loved the relationships between the mother and daughters