#tom lake

[aseaofquotes]

Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

[princessofbookaholics]

currently reading 🌿

[frannyzooey]

[pristineeee]

Tom Lake Review

From the start I was quite enamoured by the prose. It isn't a work that is trying too hard, and it uses the fact that the protagonist, Lara, is retelling a part of her life to her grown children to its favour—in that way, it is gentle and light. It encapsulates what I think of as literary fiction, not driven by plot, and exploring the connections between Lara and her previous paramour, her children, her husband, and even of people who have long since been left behind like Veronica. 'Nothing much' does happen in the book, but that's evident from the plot. It's reflective not demanding, and also very much human. I didn't agree with Lara all the time, but I still appreciate it. It felt like a mystical summer town and the glory of a quaint cherry farm.

It also weaves the pandemic into the narrative in a way that feels completely natural. It creates this contained, almost suspended world, which gives space for memory and reflection to unfold. It doesn’t drive the story, it holds it in place. And acknowledging that was appropriate for its own design. Also, apparently, there's an audiobook voiced by Meryl Streep? I, unfortunately, missed out and read the book with my own inner voice.

[oxymoron0-o]

There is no explaining this simple truth about life: you will forget much of it. The painful things you were certain you'd never be able to let go? Now you're not entirely sure when they happened, while the thrilling parts, the heart-stopping joys, splintered and scattered and became something else. Memories are then replaced by different joys and larger sorrows, and unbelievably, those things get knocked aside as well, until one morning you're picking cherries with your three grown daughters and your husband goes by on the Gator and you are positive that this is all you've ever wanted in the world.

—Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

[dk-thrive]

For so many years I have kissed him. For so many years I have not kissed another soul, and there is a deep and abiding comfort in this.

— Ann Patchett, Tom Lake: A Novel (Harper, August 1, 2023)

[notthatitreallymatters]

I don't remember ever looking at my mother this way, like I could eat her down to the bone then wipe my bloody mouth on her hair.

Tom Lake - Ann Pachett

[gcballet]

Ordering my TBR yet again, where should I start this week?

Titus Groan (1946) - Mervyn Peak

Motherthing (2022) - Ainslie Hogarth

If We Were Villains (2017) - M.L. Rio

My Brilliant Friend (2024) - Elena Ferrante

Hamnet (2020) - Maggie O'Farrell

Tom Lake (2023) - Ann Patchett

Voting ended onMar 9, 2025