Tom Lake by Ann Pratchett *****

In Tom Lake by Anne Pratchett, Lara Kenison Nelson begins life with her grandmother in New Hampshire where she learns to sew everything from alterations to wedding dresses and ends up married with three grown daughters on a cherry farm in Michigan. In the interim, she stars in a movie, and as Emily in Thorton Wilder’s Our Town. She has a summer romance with Peter “Duke” Duke before he becomes a famous actor. The book is set during the cherry harvest where she recounts her life to her grown children. A beautiful romance of family, love, and finding your place to stay.

Literary references to Our Town and The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov. The author acknowledges Thorton Wilder, but not Chekhov. I assume that means that The Cherry Orchard is no longer protected by copyright. The book follows and refers to Our Town extensively. Lara is the best Emily Webb, and she names one of her daughters Emily. Her husband, Joe Nelson, is the stage manager. Peter Duke plays Emily’s father, Mr. Webb. Throughout the book, Our Town is drawn upon for metaphors. All that aside, the book is easy enough to follow if the reader is not familiar with Our Town by Thorton Wilder.

The daughters are Emily, who will one day take over the family cherry farm; Maisie, who is studying to be a vet; and Nell, who hopes to be an actor, as her mother once was. Maisie is a vet student, but she is kept busy by the neighbors.

The book has a lot to say about global warming, marriage, sewing, vets, and theater.

“We weren’t particularly interesting,” I say. Good marriages are never as interesting as bad affairs.

“Ramona’s a nice dog,” Nell says. Maisie nods. “She was very good. She had seven puppies so it took a long time. I got the window open and turned on the overhead fan. You can’t believe how awful puppies smell.” “Everything you do smells,” Nell says.

We all wanted to stay, me and Pallace and Sebastian and Duke and Joe. The difference being that Joe was a Nelson, and he did the work to make sure that there would always be Nelsons.

Not having children: We’re going to have to stop putting in cherry trees.” “No,” Joe says. “I really cannot stand this,” Maisie says. “It’s not going to be cold enough for them anymore. We’re going to have to start thinking about wine grapes, strawberries, asparagus.” “So plant the grapes,” Joe says. “It doesn’t mean you don’t have children.” “It sort of does,” Nell says. “Once you think about it.” “You, too?” Joe asks. “Have the three of you signed a pact?”

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