Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. 

While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew. Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart.

 As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.

Paperback, 320 pages

Published August 1, 2023 

by Harper

3.5/5 stars

My plan for this book was to do a hybrid read, alternating between the audio and my print copy. However, with Meryl Streep being the narrator, most of my reading was done listening to her, she does a stellar job.

There aren’t that many books set during the lockdown (that I have read that is) but Tom Lake is such a story. It is the spring of 2020 and Lara's three daughters return home to northern Michigan, amidst the cherry orchard and picking season. It is during this time that Lara slowly recounts her years as an stage actress and her relationship with an up and coming famous actor.

Tom Lake is a slow moving story that I think was easier to listen to then to read. It had that quiet feel as Lara told her story. I enjoyed reading about the relationships between this family and how they are committed to each other and the family farm. It is a story of young love, searching and surviving 2020 together. The flash backs at times were a bit jarring but it didn’t take long know where and when I am reading.

This is my third Ann Patchett, I have come expect a more quiet and slow paced read with unique subjects.

This book was part of my 2023 Reading Off My Shelf Challenge

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.

The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.

Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives, they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.

Paperback, 352 pages

Published April 30, 2020

 by Bloomsbury Publishing

3/5 stars

Part of my Dec 2019 SweetReadsBox, I am finally doing some serious reading off my shelf this year.  I have only read Ann Patchett once before with State of Wonder (I recommend it).

That being said, I did find this read and Tom Lake very conducive for an audio read.

Spanning many years in the life of Danny, it is through his voice that most of this story it told. Danny is a young boy when his mother leaves, it is this event that frames his life and then with the sudden passing of his father yet again, leaves it mark.

Danny and his sister Maeve have a very close relationship, there is a bond that ties them together that only siblings who are abandoned, truly understand.

I did a hybrid read with the majority of my time was through the audio with Tom Hanks being the narrator. One can’t go wrong listening to Tom Hanks. The Dutch House is a thought-provoking story of family. There were some twists that I didn’t anticipate. Very much a telling story of two siblings that might have been a tad too long.

Although this is not one of my favorite Ann Patchett books, it was still an entertaining read.  I did read her most recent release, Tom Lake which I hope to review next week.

This book was part of my 2023 reading off my shelf challenge.