Tom Lake - by Ann Patchett

A beautiful tale of life reflection from a mother’s perspective. I really enjoyed this book.

Ann Patchett does it again with a great book!

This book is really something special. Let me start by saying that the audiobook is an absolute MUST for this. I don't care if you're "not an audiobook person," you will be entranced by Meryl Streep's pitch perfect narration as she brings Ann Patchett's gorgeous writing to life. This book is like sitting in a meadow as a gentle breeze wafts over you. Like your best friend playing with your hair. It's bottled nostalgia combined with perspective that only time can bring. It's sweet, it's funny, it has my whole heart and soul. And while anyone would love this, this is most especially for theatre people. I truly couldn't recommend it more!

This is possibly the best novel that I have ever read. It’s not just the unique story line, the characters and their complex relationships, it’s the skillful craft of Ann Patchett’s writing that are the foundation that hold it all together. So many sentences resonated with me, and a few even made me laugh out loud. Parts may be confusing to some readers because the author often goes back in time to retell (selectively) her short-lived life as an actress experiencing a summer fling with an actor who later rises to stardom. She’s recounting it to her three daughters who are named after her character’s name plus two other special people in her life. That confused me at first. I loved the ending too— a full circle where my questions were answered and everything is tied up with a bow. I always use the Public Library as the source for my free reading. This book is one that I am actually going to buy, not only for myself to keep on a shelf which I will read again and offer to guests, but I’m also buying two as gifts. That’s how much I love Ann Patchett’s novel “Tom Lake.”

This book is SO BORING! There was maybe 10 pages of the story I actually wanted to know more about or found interesting but other than that, it’s terrible. The timeline is constantly changing without any warning. There are names from past and present that are the same (but different people). Do not read

One of her best novels yet.

Sloppy main character with no sense of morality who makes a plethora of choices that show the worst of human traits. This work is defeating to the female character. Even worse is the continual message to the younger females that it is ok to put blame of them for the choices of their mother. Main characters is composed of self serving choices, inability to grow, allowing her and any other females body to be used immorally and to continue this pattern indefinitely. No lesson is ever learned and the main character does not evolve. She creates three other females-daughters, people she can force into being in her life because she ran out of people that would stick around and put up with her. The constant through the book is her toxic behavior of dragging anyone she encounters through her past. Women are portrayed as dull, incapable of having sense of happiness without a male factor using them for their body only, and are stripped down to being an object that is effortlessly manipulated. It doesn’t stop there unfortunately; the main character continues the unhealthy behavior towards the one descent male in her life-her husband, mistreats him, while at the same time is always looking for another male to sweep her off her feet and carry her with her arms around his neck (this really is the authors choice description) not to the future but to her past. Main character chooses to stay in an imaginary play in her mind and seeks the world to be just that, fully knowing that it never will be, but again this is her, gloriously narrated, choice. The delicate description on the sleeves of the book is misleading, making one assume that this will be an uplifting read involving wondrous relationship dynamics, when it truly is the opposite.