5 books to read if you loved 'Tom Lake'

"The stories that are familiar will always be our favorites."

“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.”

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Tom Lake easily topped my best books of summer list with its precise prose, reflective tone, and warm family story—not to mention the snippets of small town summer theater, Midwestern setting, and influence of Our Town. If you finished Tom Lake and crave another book about family, friendship, and fate, today’s short list of recommendations is for you.

Books to read after Tom Lake

Good Company by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney. Just before her daughter’s high school graduation party, Flora finds her husband’s wedding ring—the ring he told her he lost over a decade ago. To make sense of her present circumstances, Flora must reminisce about the past, looking back on how she and her husband built their lives around their friends, their daughter, and their struggling theater company. Weaving back and forth through multiple perspectives and timelines and set against the backdrop of NYC theater and Hollywood fame, this friends-as-close-as-family story poses questions about the people we grow up with, the secrets we keep, and the paths we didn’t take.

Zorrie by Laird Hunt. Set in rural Indiana, this slim novel depicts the story of a woman whose life was shaped by iconic moments in history: the Great Depression, radium factories, WWII, the invention of the internet. Yet its focus is surprisingly tight, giving us a clear idea of what “living through history” really means: falling in love, helping your neighbors, and (if you’re lucky) traveling the world. Reflective, somber, and stunning, Zorrie’s story encompasses grief, joy, and bravery in a quiet slice-of-life style.

Congratulations, the Best is Over by R. Eric Thomas. This pairing may be due to recency bias, as I finished it simultaneously with Tom Lake, but 1. I believe R. Eric Thomas’ work touches on similar themes, and 2. he spends a few funny moments discussing his therapist’s love of Ann Patchett, so I think it works. In his sophomore memoir-in-essays, Thomas shares stories about falling in love, getting married, losing loved ones, and living with anxiety in anxiety-inducing times. Much like his first memoir Here For It, his humor absolutely shines through, but this collection features a more vulnerable, soul-baring storytelling that I deeply admired—and, like Thornton Wilder and Ann Patchett, poses the question: “what are we all here for, anyway?”

Middlemarch by George Eliot. At one point in Tom Lake, Lara packs Middlemarch to read in a waiting room, and I don’t think this was a random choice. Eliot’s tome is about ten times longer than Tom Lake or Thornton Wilder’s brief play, but they work so well in conversation together. I can’t help but think of Eliot’s final lines in relation to the other works: “for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs." If you choose to pick up this worthwhile classic, allow Novel Pairings to guide you with Part One and Part Two episodes featuring critical analysis and contemporary pairings.

Bomb Shelter by Mary Laura Philpott. Throughout Tom Lake, our narrator Lara remarks on how safe and warm she feels with her whole family at home on the cherry orchard, despite the terrifying news of a global pandemic ravaging the wider world. Her motherly reflections on when the girls were little, on witnessing their maturity as grown women, and sharing her stories as a way to cope reminded me of Mary Laura Philpott (who, funny enough, worked at Patchett’s bookstore for a time). The themes of Bomb Shelter mesh well with Tom Lake, but it’s also Philpott’s writing style—she beautifully makes space for reveals and evolving reflections over the course of her essays and writes with such tenderness, humor, and hope.

Bonus

Our Town by Thornton Wilder. In her author’s note, Patchett writes: “I thank Thornton Wilder, who wrote the play that has been an enduring comfort, guide, and inspiration throughout my life. If this novel has a goal, it is to turn the reader back to Our Town, and to all of Wilder’s work. Therein lies the joy.” You can view a PBS-aired production of Our Town on Youtube or download the play on Hoopla and finish it in around one hour. I highly recommend it.

Extra Bonus

Chekhov’s plays make subtle appearances throughout Tom Lake as well, with both story and dialogue nods to The Cherry Orchard and Three Sisters. If you can stomach a far more depressing view than that of Our Town, these seminal works may be worth checking out. (Or, in my English teacher opinion, at least worth reading the synopses on Sparknotes or Wikipedia.)

If you enjoyed this new post format, I’d love to hear from you! Leave a like or comment and please share this free newsletter with a friend.

Chelsey

Some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links. If you shop these links, I earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting my work in this way.