Tom Lake

ALEXANDRA JACOBS, THE NEW YORK TIMES

"With Tom Lake, she treats us — and perhaps herself — to a vision of a family beautifully, bucolically simple: nuclear, in its pre-bomb meaning ... Isn't a prudish novel — the flashbacks are to the 1980s, when parents hovered a lot less — but it is a resolutely folksy, cozy one ... A quiet and reassuring book, not a rabble-rouser."

RACHEL COOKE, THE GUARDIAN (UK)

"Strangely peaceable ... I should say also that at least in the beginning, I found the constant interruptions to the story of Duke (the mythology of Duke!) caused by the comings and goings at the Nelson's cherry orchard very frustrating ... But such frustrations do not last. The reader comes to understand how integral they are to Patchett's purpose, which has to do in part with the nature of storytelling. She knows exactly what she's doing, just how much to say or withhold."