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Summary
Chapter 11
Lara knows Joe is preoccupied for the rest of the night, overwhelmed with thoughts about whether any of their daughters will have children and the future of their farm if there’s no next generation to take it over. She’s ruminating on the issue herself, as she longs for grandchildren. Lara knows that she must not say this to Emily, because having children must be a choice she makes with Benny, but she can’t let go of the regret and sadness she feels. The family head to Grand Traverse Bay for a lake day the next morning, and the conversation about kids begins again as they rest after a swim. Emily expresses her fears about bringing children into a world with an uncertain future and looming environmental collapse. She’s also worried about giving birth and reminds Lara that the character Emily dies in childbirth in Our Town. Emily also confesses that as a child, she was traumatized by an event where her parents burnt unproductive fruit trees, and that she thinks of that whenever she thinks of children.
After they’ve finished enjoying the water, the family relax on the beach, eating and talking. Emily asks Lara what her happiest day during that summer at Tom Lake was, and Lara surprises her by saying it wasn’t a day at the theater. Lara recalls asking Mr. Nelson, the play’s director, what his plans were after the production ended. He explained that he’d be helping his aunt and uncle with their cherry farm and suggested she visit them; it’s revealed that it’s the very same cherry farm, and that Mr. Nelson is Joe. Lara decides to visit the farm using Pallace’s car, but Duke insists that he, Pallace, Sebastian, and Lara all go together.
Chapter 12
On Monday, Lara, Sebastian, a tense Duke, and Pallace travel to Traverse City to visit the cherry farm. Lara buys linen napkins at an antique store as a gift for Joe’s aunt and uncle. Upon arriving at the farm, Mr. Nelson (a younger Joe) greets them. In 2020, Lara’s daughters point out that Duke has actually been in their house, which thrills them. Lara continues, describing how the group met Joe’s aunt, Maisie Nelson, and her husband, Ken. Joe gives them a tour of the farm, explaining the different types of fruit trees on the property and showing them particularly beautiful views.
The group walk past the family cemetery and Duke jokes that he’d like to be buried there. He goes in and lies down on one of the graves. Sebastian is horrified and chastises him, and Duke huffily gets up. They continue their tour somewhat awkwardly. In the present, Joe breaks the spell by entering the room and asking where they are in the story. The daughters ask him if he was in love with Lara when she first came to the farm, and he responds that he likes the idea, but he wasn’t. The girls then ask how Joe could have left his career as a successful director to become a cherry farmer. Joe tells them that he’s had two separate lives and was totally satisfied with both. Lara and Joe both maintain that they did not fall in love while at Tom Lake.
Analysis: Chapters 11 & 12
Joe’s thoughts about the future of the family farm and his concern over whether his daughters will continue the Nelson legacy show tension between his personal wishes and his moral responsibilities. Throughout his life, Joe has seen the farm as a constant. His family have
owned it for generations, to the extent that unless you’re born a Nelson or marry into the family, there’s no way to be associated with the farm. As such, Three Sisters Orchards represents his family’s legacy and the things he wants to leave behind for those who come after him. He and Lara both feel a sense of panic and futility when they hear that Emily isn’t planning on having children. Aside from their desire for grandchildren, Joe worries that the farm will fail on his watch. Without a new generation to take over, it may not survive. Breaking cycles in this novel is usually a good thing, as they tend to be destructive. In this case, though, the idea of ending the cycle of the Nelson family’s stewardship of the farm is quite the opposite.
Emily’s conversation with Lara about having children further explores this theme of diverging paths and cycles ending. Emily fears for the future, worried about the world her potential children would inherit. She keeps up with current affairs while her parents try to ignore them, and she is far more up to speed with the pandemic and the devasting effects of climate change than Lara or Joe. Her concerns echo a familiar tension in Tom Lake: individuals must choose between pursuing roles they know or forging their own paths. There can be no middle road. This comes to a head when Emily references her namesake, Emily Webb from Our Town. She reminds Lara that Emily dies in childbirth, and that it’s a frightening responsibility to take on. Emily’s two paths—motherhood or childlessness—each carry their own consequences, and Emily remains deeply unsure of which direction to take.
Emily’s recollection of resenting her parents for burning the old fruit trees also touches on this, and references Tom Lake’s theme of repeating cycles. The cyclical nature of life on the farm—where trees that no longer bear fruit are destroyed to make room for new ones— ties into the story’s exploration of repeating generational patterns. As an adult, Emily knows that the trees needed to be destroyed, but as a child she was impotently furious about them being disposed of while her parents threw a party around the flames. This childhood trauma is juxtaposed with her current position as the daughter most likely to take over the farm. Emily knows she’ll probably have to do similar things herself, which is part of what saddens her about her future. While she once loathed this symbolic destruction of the old to make room for the new, she now faces having to take on that responsibility herself.
When Lara returns to her story, she shares that her happiest moment during that summer at Tom Lake didn’t take place at the theater, but at the cherry farm. This is a small but important revelation, an explicit admission of the way Lara’s past affects Lara’s present. Her story about Duke is not simply about a summer with a celebrity, but about the process of understanding her own choices and what they meant in the larger arc of her life. The moments that defined her weren’t all tied to the glamorous excitement of her time with Duke. The reader also gets an insight into Joe’s perspective on the subject. When Joe says he’s lived two lives and gotten everything he wanted from both, it demonstrates his ability to accept the choices he’s made and how they’ve shaped him. He doesn’t ruminate on his past as a director because he doesn’t need to. He chose to come to Michigan, he chose to be with Lara, and he chose to live without regret. Joe’s statement reflects a deeper sense of contentment and self-awareness than even Lara feels. Unlike Duke, who consistently sought more—more attention, more love, more wealth—Joe took the long view and decided to commit. Even if Nell and Maisie can’t understand why he would choose to, by giving up fame and influence Joe gained exactly the life he wanted.
