"Emily" plays Our Town in high school and summer stock and ends up on an Apple farm. ( )

The Short of It:

Tom Lake will capture your heart.

The Rest of It:

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. ~ Indiebound

Oh, how I loved this one. It starts off a little slow but once you get into it, it’s very hard to put down. The family dynamic has a very strong pull. These sisters, sharing their stories, their hopes and dreams while working in the orchard will absolutely capture your heart. And their mother, Lara and how she chooses to share snippets of her wildly exciting times as an actress will satisfy any theater kid at heart.

I won’t lie though. It’s not all fun and games. As glamorous as being a lead in a show is, in this case a summer production of Our Town, it has its drawbacks as well. For one, Lara’s infatuation with Peter Duke has her throwing all caution to the wind. A young girl, so in love, is bound to find heartache. No?

As Lara shares bits of that summer with her girls, they begin to put things together and although they thought they knew their mother quite well, they realize that she is her own person and perhaps not everything is to be shared.

I was a theater kid in high school and of course, both my kids went down that same path so it was no surprise how much I enjoyed Tom Lake. You don’t have to be a die hard theater kid to love this story though. It’s about love, the importance of family, the friends we cherished as young adults, and how a life comes to be. Sometimes not exactly as we imagined it but sweet, nonetheless.

Do yourself a favor and find a copy of this book. ( )

DNF @2 hours
This is like an incredibly boring version of the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo but it’s just about one man. And the person telling the story doesn’t know how to just get to the good bits - did not care to keep going.

This is a wonderful story told by the narrator, Lara Kenison to her adult daughters as they pick cherries at their farm near Traverse city Michigan. The story involves Lara’s youthful success as Emily in a small town version of Our Town by Thornton Wilder. She is discovered and then leaves her home in New Hampshire for Los Angeles where she is scheduled to appear in a movie. With many delays to the movie, she wins the part of Emily in a summer stock version of Our town at Tom Lake, Michigan. Her male counterpart Peter Duke goes on to become a famous movie star whereas Lara’s life takes a different path. The story moves back and forth between the 1960s and the pandemic. The three daughters Emily, Maisie and Nell are at home because of the pandemic and to help with the huge cherry harvest. The young women want to know the true story of what went on with Peter Duke and how Lara ended up married to a famer
This story is told so gently, the dialogue reveals the love between the sisters and their parents, the different personalities and relationships between Lara and her girls.
The character development is excellent, the beautiful landscape of the lake and the surrounding panorama add an important ambience to the story.
Great book ( )

Ann Patchett is probably one of the best women's fiction writers out there. I usually don't read romance novels, but a Patchett novel is always a lot more than just the romance. This story centres around a mother and her three grown daughters. They, along with the father, live on a Michigan cherry orchard. The book is built around the mother talking about her early life to her three girls. As she recounts her story, the present-day life revolves around the past story in a seamless way. The book is set in the spring of 2020, and the pandemic is running rampant around the world. The story unfolds as the mother and daughters are picking cherries in the orchard. As Lara recounts her past as a young woman in the theatre and movie world. The past history is mostly about Tom Lake, which is a northern Michigan lake where Lara was performing summer stock theatre. Ann Patchett's no-holds barred look at family dynamics and family evolution through the years is the strong glue that holds this book together and allows seamless transitions from past to present. I must read more Ann Patchett books. I really enjoy her straightforward narrative style. The fact that the book was narrated by Meryl Streep made it extra special. ( )