Book Review: "Tom Lake" by Ann Patchett

“There is no explaining this simple truth about life: you will forget much of it. The painful things you were certain you’d never be able to let go? Now you’re not entirely sure when they happened, while the thrilling parts, the heart-stopping joys, splintered and scattered and became something else. Memories are then replaced by different joys and larger sorrows, and unbelievably, those things get knocked aside as well, until one morning you’re picking cherries with your three grown daughters and your husband goes by on the Gator and you are positive that this is all you’ve ever wanted in the world.”

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett is a brilliant author whom I have read books by before. I loved The Dutch House and Bel Canto, I have enjoyed State of Wonder and I read Commonwealth on my M.A degree. Her newest book entitled Tom Lake is an exploration of family, secrecy and relationships in a world that can feel less like Ann Patchett and more like Anne Tyler. Her experiment with this novel I think was making it revolve around three sisters whilst actually being about the mother and her relations. It is a wonderful view of the dark side of familial interest and what happens when things do not quite match up and people realise the patterns are different.

The story is just this: a mother who has three daughters revisits her life before marriage when she once had a romance with a man who became a famous actor, after this it is about her daughters and how they navigate their own relationships and the world. It is about the way in which she becomes distant from her daughters and tries to get close to them again. It is about how the mother told the girls about that romance at one time, detailing how she was once young and in love. It is a beautiful story of becoming who you are and the way in which the mother attempts to relate to her daughters, despite some of the outbursts by Emily, she is still their mother and has a close impact on their lives that I do not think many mothers have upon their children today.

Though it may deal with slightly different ideas, Ann Patchett's writing is unmistakable and an act of complete style. She is both atmospheric and has us learn about the characters through the ways in which they speak. The tone of the mother, as an example from this text, is something almost soft and caring - like the book itself is being maternal towards the reader. She is atmospheric in the sense that her entire life revolves in the present around the personalities of the three girls she has raised. Tensions gain momentum when Emily has an outburst at her mother, demanding to know who her real father is though her mother insists it is the man she is currently married to. At the behest and prodding of her daughters, she finally breaks and tells them all about that romance that happened when she was younger - a whirlwind that could only be discovered and realised in fiction. A book about revisiting the past and why it is sometimes a good idea to get a bit nostalgic, Ann Patchett reminds us that our memories do matter from time to time, though it may not be a good idea to live there.

The experiences that she had at Tom Lake with this famed actor have a huge impact on the rest of her life, shaping what comes to be her maternal and loving personality, but often at a cost of turbulent love. Ann Patchett weaves gold through this novel, a fictitious love affair and a family willing to listen to a mother's past life.

In conclusion, I am waiting for what Ann Patchett writes next, she has a style that is almost too good to imitate and more than often, her novels that revolve around family and love are intrguing as they are powerful. Her writing is fluid and flows like a calm river, bounding between tensions of past and present and the way she deals with time is almost always too good to miss - flashbacks come in spades.