Are You My Book Twin?
I read a book last week that felt so personal to me. The words and phrases were so similar to what I've written in past book reviews that I worried mine could be misconstrued as plagiarism. In I'd Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel (of Modern Mrs. Darcy), she writes at length about our reading lives and the joy of finding a book twin (someone who enjoys all the same books as you). I always find it interesting to get to know the books and what role they play in our reading lives. As much as Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano made me weep, many of my real-life friends found it quite the slog. The way the much anticipated Tom Lake by Ann Patchett has been regaled by many…it fell completely flat for me. Wait… weird. All three of these books were written by Ann(e)s. That wasn't planned.
I wanted to enjoy Tom Lake, and while it didn't read slow, it didn't sweep me off my feet. I asked one of my best bookish friends what she thought of Tom Lake, knowing she is a Patchett fan, and she felt it and loved it on a deep level. What did I miss? I should go back and read it again. What I'm learning about my reading life as of late is that I'm drawn to really human stories. Silly, tough, boring and plain… I like them all. Tom Lake should be the peanut butter to my jelly, and in searching for quotes to share, the prose is exquisite.
Tom Lake is the story of a mother re-telling her four daughters of the romantic affair she had with a now-famous Hollywood actor while in her early 20s. Before either was famous, before she met her now husband, before she had her daughters, before she settled into her adult life on a cherry farm, it is not a book built on regret or looking back with longing. Still, Patchett explores in great measure the personalities of each daughter in the story and allows the reader a breadth of understanding into why each of them is curious to know their mom better. It unearths long-held misbeliefs and gives grace to each of them and for the lives they've each chosen.
"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."
"When I go down the hall and find Maisie and Nell asleep in their twin beds, I see them both as they are and as they were: grown women and little girls."
"I don't see why you have to give up one for the other," she says. "You don't have to," I tell my daughter. "You want to. You wake up one day, and you don't want the carnival anymore. In fact, you can't even believe you did that."
"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. Those two desires do not neatly coexist, but this is where we are in the story."
I don't feel pressured to like every book I read, but I can't help but feel like I've missed a good one in Tom Lake. I trust my friend and know what it takes for a book to earn her respect. While I've yet to find my book twin, I am more eager than ever to forge along in my reading life to find one. Maybe it's you. What did you think about Tom Lake?
