CW Room

Author: Ann Patchett

Narrator: Meryl Streep

Tom lake is a fictional novel about a woman telling her adult daughters a story during the pandemic about her life. Her young adult dalliances with fame, how she got there and what happened since.

The book is told in alternating timelines where the current timeline is ongoing while the main character tells the story of her past.

Tom Lake, written by Ann Patchett, is not based on a true story. I listened to the audiobook version on audible narrated by Meryl Streep and this was half the reason I found this book to be the raging success it was.

Once again, I listened to this book over a 1000 piece puzzle set on a farm, which is fitting for this book as the teller of the story and her daughters live out on a farm.

Narration by Meryl Streep

While the story of the book was engrossing and well written (and I’ll get into this in the next section,) I need to emphasise that the choice of Meryl Streep for the narrator of this story was perfectly matched.

The woman is set to be of similar age to Meryl Streep, which helps to immerse the listener into the story. The immersion only increased due to my familiarity with Meryl Streep’s talent and legacy in her acting career. Main character Lara begins her story by acting in a play and that’s

Furthermore, Meryl’s voice acting for different characters was elegant and fitting to each character and remained consistent through out the entire book. It helped to differentiate different characters in dialogue before they were identified in the text and allowed you to feel part of the conversation. You truly felt like the mother, wife and main character in the story.

Setting

I’ve heard tell of opinions that critique Ann Patchett’s choice to set this book during the pandemic as it throttles creativity and disallows the reader to escape from their reality.

I wholeheartedly disagree with this opinion. How many of us live on farms, go around picking fruits every morning or even spend time hearing our parents life stories everyday?

I venture to think most of us don’t even have a backyard, and if we do we don’t spend much time there. This book is a different life that many of us did not grow up in nor are we used to.

This setting did not only create a beautiful setting to imagine the main characters in, but also saved time on having to send characters home due to logic and the passing of time.

It kept the story consistent while taking brisk, refreshing breaks to catch up with the current timeline, getting reactions of different characters, updates on thoughts of different people and connections between the current timeline and the past.

Writing Style

The story was well written and very well paced. I feel the need to mention that the English level was fluent as, unfortunately, I’ve come across one too many books recently where self-publishing authors just aren’t proofreading their books well enough.

Fortunately, the book was consistent in it’s language. the characters maintained their voiced through out the story and you’re able to discern the speaker not only by Meryl Streep’s acting, but by their reaction to different events and the language they use.

An early, less spoilery example of character language come from Nell, the daughter who’s dream is to become a famous actress. Nell’s reactions to her mother’s first success on the stage in the first chapter was awe and admiration. She was envious of her mother’s past self and her bravery.

In that instance, you are introduced to Nell, her dream, tone and language towards her mother and the stage. Her voice comes back during various parts of the book when you would expect it to and remains consistent as the book goes on.

This does not make the book predictable as you are not sure what Nell will say. Rather, it gives the book a comforting presence as you grow close to the characters and you come to know them as you would your friends. You suspect they will have an opinion about things and you become eager to hear what it is.

Ann Patchett’s style of writing applied this level of comfort to the whole book and made it irresistible for me to keep listening to. The story setting as well as Meryl Streep’s voice acting, of course, were instrumental in taking the comforting aspecy of this book to a whole new level. That said, this could not have been possible without Ann Patchett’s excellent structuring and consistency.

Character Development

While much of this book takes place in static locations that change very little, still the characters are constantly learning and changing over the course of the plot. Character development in Tom Lake is dependent on the advancement of the story.

Every character, including those in the current timeline pandemic story, organically find themselves maturing and improving over the course of the few weeks it took Lara to tell her tale.

To keep this spoiler free, elements of teenage angst, growing pain tantrums and sibling conflicts were explored in this story by way of reminiscence and communication between characters.

As you grow up, you are naturally more inclined to carry with you some hurt or disappointment from your younger days. Much of the growing in this book was relevant to getting past grievances and impactful events in their lives through revealing them and making peace with them.

The family support that these daughters and mother have was a wholesome dynamic that deposited further credit into the comfort element of this story. It was juxtaposed by the conflicts – some of which were funny and others which were personality-changing.

Should I Read Tom Lake?

Yes, but you would be missing half the fun if you did not listen to it – at least your first time around. This book was wholesome, cozy and immersive. It was a soothing way to sink the 11 hours and 22 minutes that it took to listen to this book while being productive with kitchen or recreational tasks like my puzzle.

If you’ve read this book, do let me know how you experienced it and what your thoughts were. Also, if you enjoyed this blog, check out my other book blogs written about books of varying genres.

I also write fictional short stories and blogs about being in my 20s era, Travel Blogs and Food Blogs. Happy reading!