Play Book Tag discussion

This is a warm and wonderful book by Ann Patchett. It reminds me of her memoirs, more than her novels (which were sometimes colder or more edgy.) It revolves around a family who owns a Cherry Orchard in Michigan. Their children all come back home to help when Covid disrupts their jobs and the farm’s ability to hire all the workers they need. (Don’t worry, it’s not a story about Covid.) The mother once dated an actor who later became famous. A news item about him makes the girls want to hear the whole story about the summer their mother met him while working at Tom Lake, a summer stock theatre group, also set in Michigan.

The story is beautifully constructed and I enjoyed it as much as any of her other books. I really enjoyed both the summer stock story, and the present day story. I especially liked the way she portrayed each of the daughters, and how their relationships with their mother differed. It reinforced my belief that every child brings out different things from their parents, and every kid in the family gets a different version of the mother. The audio is performed by the talented Meryl Streep. She was just perfect, without being too dramatic.