Wednesday, August 02, 2023

2023 book 146

 Ann Patchett's Tom Lake

Hooray for new Ann Patchett! This one is set in the early days of the pandemic, and involves a woman and her three twentysomething daughters, picking cherries in their cherry orchard, as the mother tells them stories about her life when she was a young actress, and how she briefly dated an actor who later became very famous. I will say I probably missed some literary allusions here, being generally unfamiliar with both The Cherry Orchard and Our Town (which features prominently), but it didn’t affect my enjoyment at all. The narrative voice immediately drew me in and I was hooked the whole time and just wanted to give all these women hugs (and some other characters too—Joe!). So good and so completely satisfying. A.

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