In The Lake Of The Woods

IN THE LAKE OF THE WOODS

by Tim O’Brien

 

Nominations: Dublin Longlist 1996, NY Times Finalist 1994

 

Date Read: August 16, 2023

 

In The Lake Of The Woods is a thriller about a failed politician with a very dark side. After losing his father to suicide at a young age, John Wade recedes further into the magic tricks that his father gave him so much grief over. He realized this magician part of himself was secret and separate from his outward facing self.

 

In college, with a plan for politics and the charm to back it up, he meets and falls in love with Kathy. Not only does he fall hard for Kathy but he becomes obsessed with Kathy. He begins stalking her to find out where she goes, who she sees, whether she’s faithful. She consumes his mind and day and life. Until, that is, he leaves for Vietnam.

 

In Vietnam, John soothes his platoon mates’ anxieties by his magic tricks, that it’s all just a big illusion. There’s nothing to fear. They nickname him Sorcerer. And tapping into that inner self that is secret, he participates in unnamable atrocities, some not of his own devising like the massacre at Thuan Yen, but others like killing his platoon-mate. Before he returns to the states, he buries these events deep within himself but he now knows what he’s capable of. He knows there’s a side of himself that isn’t quite real.

 

He returns to the states and to Kathy and his life proceeds along his chosen path – marriage, politics, success. He becomes Lt. Governor of Minnesota and runs for Senator where his ass is handed to him in the primary. His career is instantly destroyed. In an attempt to regroup, John and Kathy head to a cabin in the woods to decompress and plan their next steps. Mired in debt, their relationship teetering due to Kathy’s (and the rest of the world’s) discovery of what John was up to in Vietnam, they have a lot of hurdles right now. Some would say insurmountable hurdles.

 

After being there for only a few days, Kathy turns up missing. And we never find out exactly what happens to her. There are searches and hypotheses and evidence but no body and no boat. Most likely, John, acting as the Sorcerer, makes her disappear. Some believe he’s capable of it and others don’t. There’s no resolution.

 

John escapes in a borrowed boat and heads into Canada to disappear. What becomes of John is never resolved either. Does he hide out in the woods for a while and then reappear in Winnipeg? Does he succumb to the elements never to be found? Who knows?

 

While I enjoyed this overall, I found it to be a rather weak read. I was never that thrilled and never that curious about what happens to John. I was more curious about Kathy. I am actually surprised that the New York Times found it their top five books of that year. C’est la vie.