Tag Archives: books

The Monday Book – Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

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Guest review by Janelle Bailey, avid reader and always learning; sometimes substitute teaching, sometimes grandbabysitting, sometimes selling books

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

This one grabbed my head and heart in soooooo many wonderful ways.

I understand exactly why and how this book did this to me, and it may or may not, then hit every reader exactly the same. My deep fondness for the play Our Town and my own “having” of adult daughters were two-fold connections in complex ways to this novel.

One can definitely enjoy this book without having a deeply personal connection to Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, but if you, reader, have never read it before OR did in high school but don’t remember it at all, I recommend reading it again now–or watching it–before taking on the gorgeousness that is Tom Lake.

If, instead, Our Town long ago or more recently took up residence in your heart and soul because you taught it and/or read it aloud so many times that you lost count a long, long time ago, or at any point in time played a role in it…then you are in for an absolutely amazingly allusive and immersive treat–and that much like a homemade version of whatever treat from your past would most awe you in some stranger serving you a plate of it that tastes JUST LIKE you used to enjoy, and the whole thing will take you right back to some time or place or experience that you’ve not thought of for a long time, maybe, but once the buttons on the time machine are all pushed, it all comes right back to you and immediately–the smells, the taste, the view from the cemetery, the entire and wholesomely encapsulating feel of it all.

For this mom of adult daughters, there are additional connections to be made as well. Knowing as I do that Ms. Patchett does not have children of her own, I found these things as she presented them to be much more Our Town-like and idyllically nearly utopian-ideal-unreal, as well…and yet I aspire to the kind of connections she describes here…hope for yet someday.

For the reader of Tom Lake who has neither Our Town nor adult daughters in their own experiences, there is still an absolutely beautiful story to read here that will take anyone back to their own coming-of-age-ness and pondering the things that happened which contributed to the adults they’ve become. It enriches one’s personal history, as I see it, making important the little things that got us each to “here,” to consider, even, that perhaps they are worthy of storytelling/sharing as well.

Truly, none tell stories quite as well as Ms. Patchett does. Here she resurrects Thornton Wilder’s voice–perhaps that is hers–to bring it all back to life again: New Hampshire, Our Town, LA and the high (and low) acting/movie life, Tom Lake and summer stock, New York, and this absolutely beautiful orchard and family farm in Michigan–home–as well as all that unites this family: Emily, Maisie, and Nell home in the spring of 2020 to generously listen to their mom’s stories.

This is an absolutely gorgeous read.

Come back next Monday for another book review!

Cruising, Seeing the Scenes, and Reading

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It is with some trepidation that I embark on my first long cruise, ever. Jack and I have done overnight from Scotland to Belgium. I sailed once from Ireland to France as a student. But this is our first time on a floating city tour boat.

We wouldn’t normally want to do a cruise, especially as COVID rates are on the rise again, but this is the Alaskan fjords. Of all the things I have wanted to see in the world, only Alaska and Finland’s fjords remain—well that and hiking the W in southern Chile, and my friend Cami and I are doing that for our sixtieth birthdays.

I have sought advice from many friends who have lived in Alaska or gone on a cruise with Royal Caribbean. They have poo-pooed the need for waterproof clothing unless we plan to do serious hiking (we don’t).  They told us to book the Skagway scenic rail adventure (we did). And they said pay extra for a balcony room and don’t buy the internet package.

My friends are very smart people. I plan to spend the seven days of sailing and port-hopping sitting on said balcony, low-alcohol cocktail in one hand, book in the other. I will be writing or reading books all week long on the balcony, happy as a clam, emerging only to visit the heated adults-only pool at the far end of the ship, or hit up those famous buffets I keep hearing about.

Five books are packed in my bag, and one is on my computer: Immune is the story of how our body’s defense systems work, and while it came out at the time of all-COVID all-the-time it’s about viruses and bacteria. I like the way the author writes (having started the book twice and gotten interrupted by life and other circumstances). He was describing sizes of a defense cell and an attacking virus once, and he said, “Picture an average height person staring at a bunny.” That makes it accessible.

I have Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Nope, never read it. (That’s probably grounds to revoke my Appalachian card.) And I have a collection of short stories from a local author under the charming title of The Widow’s Guide to Edible Mushrooms. That’s fun because I’ve started mushroom foraging of late, and because my first story for West Virginia Public Radio as an Inside Appalachia reporter is on the recent rise in popularity of mushrooms.

Then I have my friend Janelle Bailey’s debut, An Invitation to Read, in manuscript form on my computer. I’m looking forward to returning the favor she did for me during my NYT Short Story Contest rounds (made it through Round 3!). Janelle did a LOT of reading and content editing on the fly. (The deadlines go down to 24 hours by round 4.)

All in all, between the waves and the words, I am looking forward to forgetting I am on a floating city and cozying up in my fleecy sweatshirt to some non-stop writing and reading time. And of course gawping endlessly at the scenery, weather permitting. Sail by, mad world.