In the title of this month's essay, I juxtapose the name of a well-known, bestselling novelist (who recently published her ninth novel entitled Tom Lake) with that of a super-celebrity fashion designer whose business is easily worth billions. What could those two names have in common? My assertion: They both use branding to pull off their success. Yes, Ann Patchett, the darling of the literary world, used branding techniques to drive her latest novel to the top of the New York Times Bestseller List.
In the case of Ralph Lauren, his organization might photograph a model wearing the designer's dress or blazer in an exclusive setting, aboard a yacht, or at a social club in Manhattan. The photo's background puts establishment Americana on display. We interpret it as not only upscale, but also authentically American. Why not add in a historic American flag from the War of 1812, or a yacht-racing trophy won in the early 1900s. That's how Lauren achieves a double rub-off effect. His brand is buoyed up as it captures both the essence of upscale and the essence of Americana at the same time.
But that's a fashion ad. How could a renowned, best-selling novelist such as Ann Patchett use the rub-off effect in her novel?
How many of you know of a theatrical play entitled Our Town by Thornton Wilder first produced in 1938? A show of hands, please? Our Town is not only one of the best loved, and utterly heart-rendering American plays ever written; it also captures the essence of growing up in rural New England. For generations, it's been produced so often by so many high school and university drama groups and studied by so many American literature and drama students, that Our Town and the characters in the play and many of the events that happen in it are iconic. I contend that the play content is written on the DNA of what it means to be American.
I readily admit this has nothing to do with Texas, and everything to do with capturing a prototypical "back East, establishment" America. Not to be forgotten: Over the last forty years, the Lauren organization has also extensively mined the imagery of The Old West. For decades, until cigarette advertising was outlawed, one could hardly tell the difference between a Marlboro ad and a Ralph Lauren jeans ad.
Our Town captures the essence of everything honest, true, New England, and by extension, American values.
Ann Patchett's newest novel, Tom Lake, uses the play Our Town as chief analog, metaphor, and prop. It's the backdrop of her novel as much as a quaint New England harbor setting, or a rodeo might be used as the cultural backdrop of a Ralph Lauren ad. There's a second marketing icon being served up that is also extrmerly appealing: Tapping into the world of wannabe famous and journeyman actors playing summer stock in regional theaters across our United States.
In addition, in Tom Lake, we have our first-person narrator weaving a tale that everyone would recognize from our recent past: It takes place during Covid lock-down, when her three grown daughters return home to pick the family cherry orchard harvest in Upper Peninsula Michigan. During Covid, agricultural workers (read: migrant workers) were extremely scarce, so the story angle of daughters coming home to save the cherry harvest is both plausible and appealing.
The opening pages of the novel gives us the first-person narrator's account of how at about fifteen years of age, she was selected to help organize the auditions for a local theatrical group's production of Our Town.
In the opening pages of the novel, we learn—it's very funny—not only were most of the auditions horribly bad, but their poor quality convinced our fourteen year old narrator to try out for the part of Emily. She is immediately given the role.
Ann Patchett weaves her tale around two different productions of Our Town that our cherry-orchard-owning mother played in. She tells her daughters her story of playing opposite this not-quite-famous actor in summer stock theater years later as they're all harvesting cherries. By the way, not only did she immediately win the part in the community theater production in New Hampshire; she then goes on to be recommended by the director for summer stock production in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and also for a Hollywood film that—after a lot of back and forth—eventually is made and released. She was not intended to be the star of that film, but due to her looks and talent, and much to the chagrin of the intended Hollywood star, she steals the movie. Early buzz about the movie? Everybody in Hollywood can't stop talking about the performance she put in.
That's how Tom Lake becomes an Our Town writ large: A regional, summer stock production staged in "The Tom Lake Region" of Michigan, our Emily in Our Town begins an affair with an at-the-time newbie actor who goes on to become a very famous Hollywood movie star. Well, somehow, from the way our story-telling mom tells the story to her daughters who are still harvesting their blessed cherries during Covid, one of the daughters gets the idea that perhaps her father was this big movie star and not her actual father.
It's all so crazy, all so unlikely, yet I must confess, I love it. I eat it up. Every bit of it. I can't get enough. Even the part about a mother going on to her grown daughters about the soon-to-be famous actor boyfriend she was sleeping with that summer. Like the mother's cherry-picking daughters who can't stop listening, we readers of this novel can't stop reading...or picking out favorite cherries of our own to gorge on.
Tom Lake wallows in celebrity. The novel dwells in our unshakable fascination with celebrity along with our love of Our Town, and Yankee-New England rural stereotypes (never mind that most of it takes place in rural Michigan). It tugs at our American heartstrings.
And that's how Tom Lake sucks you in--innocuously, innocently--and makes you want to believe. Hey! I might as well have been daydreaming over a Ralph Lauren Polo advertisement, except that reading Tom Lake is far more engaging. And that's how Tom Lake uses marketing positioning and the rub-off effect to maximize delicious story-telling.
By the way, this is not the first time Ann Patchett has referenced other artworks in her novels so she can discuss the magical aspects of how art works on us and opens us up to meaningful experiences.
I've only read one of Ann's other novels, Commonwealth. In Tom Lake, I can attest, the art analog is so much more convincing because Our Town is such a beloved, authentic, and rich American play; because celebrity is a never-ending source of fascination for us all; and because the daughters coming home to rescue the cherry harvest tugs at our heartstrings.
