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It’s spring 2020, and the world is quarantining. Lara’s three grown daughters all come home to the family orchard in northern Michigan, in large part to help harvest the cherries. As they pick throughout the day and spend more time together in the evenings, the girls ask their mother to tell them the story of the time she dated Peter Duke. Duke is now a famous actor, and Lara had a brief stint as an actress in Hollywood in her late teens and early twenties. The two met before Duke rose to stardom, as they acted in Our Town at a theater company in Tom Lake, Michigan.
The story alternates between the past and present. The Covid epidemic plays a very small part, to bring them together and to reflect a bit of the feelings of that time. The focus is on these four women who have an opportunity to get to know more about each other because of the time they have together. Readers get caught up in the story Lara tells her daughters about what led her into acting in the first place and how she felt about it and about Duke. Then we get to enjoy the girls’ reactions to their mom’s story, and to things they hadn’t heard before. Their father then walks in to the story and contributes his two cents’ worth, and it’s fun for all to learn how he and Lara met and got together.
Tom Lake is largely light and warm, a tale that shows how, for some, family love and relationships had opportunities to grow during what was otherwise a challenging time. Being a mother of four daughters myself (all but one grown), I found the give-and-take between this mother and her girls a sweet reflection of my relationships. It’s a great book to read when you’re not looking for an angsty or sad tale of difficult family relationships.
Rated: High. Profanity includes 12 uses of strong language, around 10 instances of moderate profanity, about 15 uses of mild language, and about 20 instances of the name of Deity in vain. Sexual content includes lots of references to sex, but not many scenes with much detail. A reference is made to a woman having an abortion. Violence includes two men fighting and causing some visible injuries.
