Tom Lake: A Novel
by Patchett, Ann
- Used
- Condition
- Used - Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0063347725
- ISBN 13
- 9780063347724
- Seller
-
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Harper Large Print. Used - Very Good. May have light to moderate shelf wear and/or a remainder mark. Complete. Clean pages.
Reviews
On Nov 20 2023, a reader said:
Tom Lake is the ninth novel by award-winning, best-selling American author, Ann Patchett. As the world turns upside down with a pandemic, Lara's three daughters come home to their Michigan orchard to help with picking when their many regular pickers cannot. In their early- to mid-twenties, Emily, Maisie and Nell are picking the sweet cherries that urgently need to be harvested. And as they work, they insist that Lara tells the full version of a story they've heard before, one that features star of stage and screen, Peter Duke.
When she was sixteen, Lara (then Laura) Kenison was helping with auditions for the play her small New Hampshire town was putting on, Thornton Wilder's Our Town. Without any acting ambition of her own, by the time she had listened to numerous young women making a poor job of Emily Webb, Laura, stage name now Lara, decided she could do better. And it turned out to be so. She had a real knack for the role. A reprise of the role in college, where a Hollywood director spotted her, and she was suddenly in a movie.
Eventually, she's once again playing Emily for the summer stock theatre season in Tom Lake, Michigan, where an unknown, but very attractive young actor is playing Emily's father, Editor Webb. The chemistry between them is instant, and neither holds back.
Lara's account of what happened at Tom Lake that summer is interrupted by questions, comments, exclamations and criticisms from her three quite different daughters and, very occasionally, a contribution from their father.
Not every intimate detail is shared; some of the things Lara recalls, she keeps to herself, but: "I look at my girls, my brilliant young women. I want them to think I was better than I was, and I want to tell them the truth in case the truth will be useful. These two desires do not neatly coexist, but this is where we are in the story."
Patchett evokes her era and setting with consummate ease. Her characters spring to life and stir a myriad of emotions. Her descriptive prose is wonderful: "She could get more information across with an eyebrow than other people could with a microphone… her thoughts passed across her forehead like a tickertape" and her turn of phrase marvellous: "… It's the weight of the past that's pinned us there…". And no reader could ask for a better plot. This is quite possibly the best novel of 2023.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Magers and Quinn Booksellers (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 1397915
- Title
- Tom Lake: A Novel
- Author
- Patchett, Ann
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0063347725
- ISBN 13
- 9780063347724
- Publisher
- Harper Large Print
Terms of Sale
Magers and Quinn Booksellers
Please contact us immediately if you are unsatisfied with your order. Returns accepted within 3 weeks of delivery. All returns must include original packing slip.
About the Seller
Magers and Quinn Booksellers
Biblio member since 2006
Minneapolis, Minnesota
About Magers and Quinn Booksellers
Magers and Quinn Booksellers is the Twin Cities' largest independent book store. We sell new, used, rare, and out-of-print books.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Remainder Mark
- Usually an ink marking of some sort which indicates that the book was designated a remainder. In most cases, it can be found on...
- Shelf Wear
- Shelf wear (shelfwear) describes damage caused over time to a book by placing and removing a book from a shelf. This damage is...