Michigan, Cherries & Ann Patchett’s New Novel

My mom and I have a 1:1 book club where we read a book at the same time and get together for a couple of videcalls to discuss. We recently read Ann Patchett’s newest novel, Tom Lake, which is set in Northern Michigan. 

I found one question in a Q & A exchange with Ann Patchett on the blog of the British bookstore Waterstones to be a bit amusing. She was asked “Tom Lake is such a beautiful setting for the novel – is it inspired by anywhere that you have visited?”

She responds: “Yes! The beautiful setting in Traverse City was inspired by beautiful Traverse City, Michigan. I started going there more than twenty years ago when I was sent to the neighboring town of Petoskey, Michigan, on book tour for Bel Canto. Over the years I’ve made close friends in the area. It’s one of my favorite places. When I started writing the book, my friend Erin took me to see a family fruit farm. I wanted to live there.”

Maybe I’ll give the Waterstones writer a little slack since I assume they are British, but it should come as no surprise that beautiful Traverse City (which is named in the novel) was inspired by beautiful Traverse City!

The novel takes place at a summer stock theater on the fictional Tom Lake and on a family cherry farm presumably in the Leelanau County area. As the novel unfolds, the reader becomes familiar with some of the workings of cherry farms, but to learn more, I read a June 2023 article with content developed by Traverse City area Local 9/10 News station about what it takes to grow Michigan’s cherries. 

• 70% of cherries grown in the United States are grown in Michigan totaling over 100M pounds a year. This volume of cherries is valued at about $280M. 
• There are a number of conditions that make Michigan ideal for growing cherries – notably a soil that drains well. 
• Maintaining cherry trees is a year-round effort – keeping them protected from mice through the winter, pruning them by hand and fertilizing in the spring, and harvesting in the summer. This can be done by hand or with mechanical shakers.

In the novel, there are a number of characters who are deeply moved by the farm and the land and are eventually shaped by it. This is Ann Patchett’s sweet spot as a writer from my perspective – digging into both the expansiveness and limitations of human emotions and connections. 

Her writing brings the reader there too – laying in the grass, gazing at delicate tree branches and sky with water somewhere not too far away.