Tom Lake: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

At dinner that night, Nell asks Joe how he felt about Duke. In a mild tone, Joe says that he liked him, just like everyone else did. He subtly sidetracks the conversation by recalling aloud that Duke could do a handstand. He also reminisces about Duke’s brother Sebastian, a tennis-player-turned-history-teacher who almost went pro as a teen. Joe makes his customary exit from the dinner table, saying he has work to do in the barn. Emily offers to go with him and help, but Joe tells her to stay back and listen to the story.

In the story, Lara goes to a table read and meets the rest of the cast. Duke introduces her to everyone, spending the same amount of time describing every person whether they’re a famous actor or a member of the local community playing a minor role. Everyone greets Lara warmly. Finally, Duke introduces the director, Mr. Nelson. Albert Long praises his skills profusely, but the director demurs and gets the read started. Lara delivers her lines with total confidence, knowing the role from front to back at this point. Eventually, she even leaves her script closed. Duke delivers an understated, sensitive performance, and Lara feels like he’s paying close attention to her.

As they read the funeral scene in the third act of the play, Lara realizes that she’ll soon age out of the role of Emily. Just like the older women she saw auditioning for the part at her high school, she’ll soon grow out of it. She resolves to do the very best she can at Tom Lake, hoping that she can give one last good performance—or that if she does well enough, she might be able to play Emily on Broadway after all. At the end of the table read, Mr. Nelson congratulates the cast, and the woman playing Mrs. Gibbs tearfully praises Lara.

Back in the present, a neighbor calls Maisie’s cell phone and asks her to help them with a calf who has diarrhea. As she leaves the table, Emily decides to go back to her house, and Nell stands to go help Joe outside. After Maisie leaves, her dog Hazel tries to follow her, whimpering when Lara keeps her inside. Lara kneels and pets her, encouraging her to be brave. She tells the dog that lack of bravery is where she went wrong in her own career—but that she still doesn’t regret anything that happened.

Lara thinks about the next scene in the story. In it, Duke catches her after the table read and asks to show her the lake. Mr. Nelson stops her on her way out and tells her his number is on the schedule if she needs anything, but Duke tells him cheerfully that she doesn’t need any help. As they walk out, Lara asks Duke if Nelson is famous. Duke explains that he is, to an extent—he’s directed an Off-Broadway play, which makes him too famous to be working at a summer theater company. None of them know why Nelson is there, but they’re all trying to impress him. Lara calls Duke’s performance at the table read impressive, and Duke kisses her. He coaches her through smoking a cigarette, and they go back to her room together to have sex.

Back in the present, Joe comes inside to find Lara sewing alone on the couch. Alone in the house, they think about having sex right away. Joe asks her where she is in the story, and Lara wonders aloud if she should have ever started telling it in the first place. Joe looks at her with a tinge of sadness on her face and tells her that their daughters were too insistent for her to avoid it. As it is, Lara is skipping the parts where she and Duke have sex. Joe prods her, asking how well she remembers having sex with Duke. Lara, wanting to spare Joe’s feelings, claims her memory is foggy. She knows that Joe can see through her lie, however. He asks her to wait for him while he takes a shower.