‘Tom Lake’ by Ann Patchett

Lara and Joe Nelson live on a cherry orchard in Michigan. During the year 2020, their three 20-something daughters Emily, Maisie and Nell have all returned home, waiting out a period of lockdown (rest assured, this is definitely not a pandemic novel*).

It’s cherry harvest time and farm labour is in short supply, so the girls must help their parents pick the cherries, something they’re not entirely enthused about.

The girls know that their mother was once an aspiring actress who had a summer romance with Peter Duke; a man who went on to become a famous Hollywood star. To pass the time in the orchard, the girls ask their mother to share the details of that summer with them.

At this point, the chapters move back and forward in time, between 2020 Michigan and 1988 in the same State, primarily at the ‘Tom Lake’ theatre company.

Ann Patchett is known for her controlled, intelligent writing and this novel is no exception. I loved that the story saw only the good in all of the main characters and that Lara displayed so much genuine affection for her husband and girls. The book exudes cozy appeal with the details of the Michigan farm house, Lara’s evenings quilt making and sewing, and the description of the meal times the family shares.

While there was a little bit of everyday family drama, the story is refreshingly free of any of the deep trauma storylines that seem to be so popular in contemporary fiction. There are no open door scenes and no characters yearning for a life they haven’t managed to accomplish.

I enjoyed the orchard theme which brought back fond memories of my teenage summers. My friends and I all picked cherries in Central Otago, and because it was well before everyone had a personal audio device (even discmans were rare) we entertained ourselves singing songs from the school musical, until the older workers could take it no more and eventually told us to shut it! This detail was really the only thing that stuck out to me in the book, that the 20-year old women in 2020 weren’t picking fruit with their earbuds in!

The audiobook version has been narrated by Meryl Streep. Due to geographic restrictions it isn’t currently available on LibroFM for New Zealand users, but fingers crossed that changes soon as I’m certain it would be a great way to experience this book.

*Except that it highlights one example of a good pandemic story, where an adult family came together and make the most of their lockdown conditions.

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