An Orchard of Recollections
There’s something bittersweet about cherries. Their fleeting season, their tendency to bruise, the way they stain your fingers as you pluck them from the branch. In Ann Patchett’s luminous new novel Tom Lake, cherries serve as both backdrop and metaphor – ripe with nostalgia, tinged with the knowledge that all sweet things must end.
Set largely on a Northern Michigan cherry farm during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tom Lake interweaves past and present as Lara, a former actress turned farmer’s wife, recounts to her three grown daughters the story of a long-ago summer romance with Peter Duke, now a famous Hollywood star. As Lara’s memories unspool, Patchett crafts a rich tapestry of love in its many forms – youthful infatuation, enduring partnership, the fierce devotion of parents to children. At its heart, this is a novel about the stories we tell ourselves and others, and how those narratives shape our understanding of who we are.
A Cast of Compelling Characters
Patchett has always excelled at creating fully realized characters, and Tom Lake is no exception. At the center is Lara – thoughtful, self-deprecating, grappling with the choices that led her from a promising acting career to life on a rural farm. Her three daughters – practical Emily, empathetic Maisie, and dreamy Nell – are distinct personalities united by their curiosity about their mother’s past. Joe, Lara’s steady, salt-of-the-earth husband, provides an anchor of quiet devotion.
And then there’s Peter Duke – charismatic, volatile, forever young in Lara’s memories. Patchett resists the urge to paint Duke as a straightforward villain or hero. Instead, he emerges as a man of contradictions – magnetic yet unreliable, passionate but self-absorbed. Through Lara’s recollections, we see him not as the polished movie star he would become, but as an unformed young actor on the cusp of fame, full of potential and flaws in equal measure.
A Meditation on Memory and Storytelling
Layers of Narrative
One of Patchett’s great strengths as a writer is her ability to craft layered, non-linear narratives that feel as natural as memory itself. In Tom Lake, she moves fluidly between past and present, allowing Lara’s recollections to unfold organically as her daughters interject with questions and commentary. This structure mirrors the way we actually tell stories—with digressions, clarifications, and the occasional prodding from our audience.
The novel’s framing device—Lara recounting her past while she and her daughters pick cherries—provides a gentle rhythm to the storytelling. Just as the women move from tree to tree, filling their buckets, so too does the narrative progress in manageable chunks. It’s a clever way to pace a story that spans decades and touches on weighty themes.
The Malleability of Memory
Patchett explores how our memories shift and change over time, colored by subsequent experiences and the stories we choose to tell ourselves. Lara admits to gaps in her recollection, moments where she’s unsure if she’s remembering events as they actually happened or as she wishes they had. This acknowledgment of memory’s unreliability adds depth to the narrative, inviting readers to consider how we all shape our personal histories.
Themes of Love and Loss
The Many Faces of Love
Tom Lake presents a nuanced exploration of love in its myriad forms. There’s the heady rush of first love between Lara and Duke, intense but ultimately fleeting. In contrast, Lara’s relationship with Joe unfolds slowly, built on a foundation of shared values and mutual respect. Patchett also delves into familial love—between parents and children, between siblings, and the chosen family we find in close friends.
The Roads Not Taken
A bittersweet undercurrent runs through the novel as characters contemplate the paths their lives might have taken. Lara wonders what might have been had she pursued her acting career. Her daughters grapple with their own life choices in the face of an uncertain future. Even Duke, despite his worldly success, seems haunted by a sense of what he left behind in that Michigan summer. Patchett handles these “what ifs” with a delicate touch, acknowledging the power of nostalgia without wallowing in regret.
Patchett’s Prose: Elegant and Insightful
Readers familiar with Patchett’s previous works (The Dutch House, Commonwealth, Bel Canto) will find her trademark elegance and insight on full display in Tom Lake. Her prose is deceptively simple, with moments of startling beauty that catch you off guard. Consider this description of Lara’s first encounter with Duke:
“Duke was so happy when Sebastian was there, we were all so happy, but still, Sebastian’s visits unsettled things, almost as if his calmness allowed Duke to be crazier than he usually was, like a kid who’ll throw himself off of ladders once he knows someone’s there to catch him.”
In a few deft sentences, Patchett conveys volumes about the dynamic between the brothers and Duke’s propensity for self-destructive behavior.
A Timely Reflection on Isolation and Connection
While the COVID-19 pandemic serves primarily as a framing device, its presence adds resonance to the novel’s themes of isolation and connection. The enforced togetherness of lockdown creates the opportunity for Lara to share her story with her daughters, bridging generational gaps and fostering a deeper understanding between them.
The Power of Art and Storytelling
Theater as Metaphor
Patchett uses the world of theater—specifically, a production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town—as a rich metaphor for life’s impermanence and the power of memory. The play’s themes of appreciating life’s simple moments echo throughout the novel, as characters grapple with the swift passage of time and the bittersweetness of nostalgia.
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
Tom Lake is, at its core, about the stories we construct to make sense of our lives. Lara’s recollections of her time with Duke have shaped her understanding of herself and her choices. Her daughters, in turn, have created their own narratives about their mother’s past. Patchett gently probes how these stories can both illuminate and obscure the truth, and how sharing them can lead to deeper connections and self-understanding.
A Minor Quibble
If there’s a criticism to be made of Tom Lake, it’s that the present-day sections occasionally feel less vibrant than Lara’s recollections. The daughters, while distinct personalities, sometimes blur together in their roles as an audience for their mother’s story. However, this is a minor issue in an otherwise beautifully crafted novel.
Conclusion: A Triumph of Storytelling
Tom Lake cements Ann Patchett’s reputation as one of our finest contemporary novelists. With its deft exploration of memory, love, and the passage of time, it’s a novel that lingers in the mind long after the final page. Like the best of Patchett’s work, it combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics and the human heart.
Readers who enjoyed the multigenerational storytelling of The Dutch House or the exploration of chosen family in Commonwealth will find much to love here. Tom Lake would also appeal to fans of Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge series or Alice Munro’s short stories, with their nuanced portrayals of ordinary lives and the weight of the past.
In a time when the world often feels fragmented and uncertain, Tom Lake offers a gentle reminder of the enduring power of love, memory, and the stories we share. It’s a novel to savor, like the fleeting sweetness of a perfect cherry on a summer afternoon.