BOOK TALK by Deborah Savadge

WIT journal: Do yourself a favor and read the new Ann Patchett novel, Tom Lake, before Reese Witherspoon makes the mini-series with perhaps, if they haven’t aged out of it, Meryl Streep as retired actor Lara Kenison, and the three Gummer daughters as Lara’s children. The novel begins with community theatre auditions for Our Town and spends a lot of time in a cherry orchard. But the main backdrop is an upper Lower Michigan summer stock company, the Tom Lake of the title, which is producing Cabaret, Our Town, and Fool For Love in repertory.