Tom Lake

In her youth Lara Kenison had a short career as an actress before marrying Joe Nelson, a cherry farmer in northern Michigan. This novel takes place during the covid pandemic lockdown. Their grown daughters have pressed the pause button on their lives and are hunkering down with their parents. Emily plans to take over the farm later on with her fiance whose parents own a neighbouring farm and would have been there in any case. Maisie is studying to become a veterinarian and Nell hopes to become an actress. Because there is a shortage of farm workers mother and daughters spend their days together harvesting cherries. To ease the tedium Lara tells the story of a summer long ago when she performed the role of Emily in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town in Tom Lake, Michigan. The girls are particularly interested in their mother’s short romance with Peter Duke who later became a famous movie star. That’s it. I like Ann Patchett’s writing so I soldiered on, waiting for something to happen. The ending provided an interesting twist but it was too little too late. Patchett weaves the past and present seamlessly yet the story seems contrived and insubstantial.