Linny tells Nancy about her latest acting gig. In this one, she actually did some acting! Linny and Nancy look forward to seeing each other in a couple days. Nancy had never read Ann Patchett, but has wanted to, so she was very excited about our book this month. This month, we discuss Patchett’s latest book, TOM LAKE. Ann Patchett is the author of nine novels and has written five books of nonfiction. She has also published three children’s books. Patchett has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including a National Humanities Medal, the PEN/Faulkner Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her books have been New York Times bestsellers and her work has been translated into more than thirty languages. She is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today. TOM LAKE is set in Northern Michigan during the Covid epidemic. Our main character is Lara, who is being pestered by her adult daughters to tell them the story of her acting and romantic relationship with Peter Duke, a famous actor. They’re sort of looking for entertainment because the three daughters have returned home because of the pandemic and they’re deep into cherry picking season - that is, picking each cherry by hand. It’s grueling and tedious work! As Lara tells them most of the story, the daughters reconsider everything they thought they knew about themselves and their parents. Linny enjoyed the book and thought it was easy to follow the changing time periods, something she could not say about other books we’ve read! Nancy has not read any books set during the pandemic yet, but liked the way Patchett replicated the insulated/isolated feel of the pandemic. She resonated with Lara’s feeling of safety while the rest of the world is struggling resonated. Linny and Nancy liked discovering the slow unfolding of Lara’s life, including the origin of her daughter’s names. Linny hasn’t seen OUR TOWN, but she found that even though so much of the book is about the play, she was able to follow it and she now wants to see a production of OUR TOWN. Nancy has seen several productions of OUR TOWN and says she cries every time she sees it. Nancy reflects that in her Author’s Note, Ann Patchett writes: “I thank Thornton Wilder, who wrote the play that has been an enduring comfort, guide, and inspiration throughout my life. If this novel has a goal, it is to turn the reader back to OUR TOWN, and to all of Wilder’s work. Therein lies the joy.” Linny and Nancy laugh over the fact that the three sisters thought they knew their parents’ lives better than they did. At various times, over the weeks Lara is recounting her story to her daughters, they keep correcting her. It’s clear that they’ve filled in the blanks of her life in ways that suit their idea of who she was. In some ways, they are curious about her life, but in other ways, they have a set idea of who she is that they don’t easily let her break out of. For example, they don’t know basic things about their mom, like that her birth name was Laura and how she became Lara. Despite that, Linny really like the three sisters and that they are different from each other and how they each have a different stake in wanting to know their mother’s story. There is a sort of twist past about the middle of the novel where we finally understand who Lara’s husband and the girls’ father, Joe, is in Lara’s story. Linny was confused by this and texted Nancy. Linny and Nancy laugh that Patchett kept Joe’s identity purposely hidden until then and they totally fell for her tricks! Nancy says another twist she didn’t see coming is that Lara and Peter hook up while he’s in a psychiatric hospital which leads to an unwanted pregnancy and abortion. Lara has never told Joe or her girls about this and she continues to withhold that information from them. Nancy says she always feels that people want two things from the people they love: they want to be known and they want to be loved for who they are. She wonders if this is a step for Lara in being more “known” to her daughters. Linny agrees. Linda notes there were some red flags in Lara’s relationship with Peter Duke. Nancy mentions that Linny likes a good romance and wonders whether she found the romance between Lara and Joe satisfying. Linny says she would have like more information about Lara and Joe’s relationship! Nancy thinks Lara was a better actor than she claims to have been but Linny thinks Lara’s assessment of her limited acting skill was accurate. Linny and Nancy discuss the cherry farm as a place all the Tom Lake crew loved and that was probably part of the attraction Lara had for Joe. Linny thinks it was sad that the day at the farm was Peter Duke’s one happy memory. She does think Lara should have checked with Joe before agreeing to allow him to be buried there, though!