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In the Lake of the Woods

3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 · rating details · 7,721 ratings · 720 reviews

First published to critical acclaim by Houghton Mifflin, Tim O’Brien’s celebrated classic In the Lake of the Woods now returns to the house in a gorgeous new Mariner paperback edition. This riveting novel of love and mystery from the author of The Things They Carried examines the lasting impact of the twentieth century’s legacy of violence and warfare, both at home and abr...more

Paperback, 336 pages

Published September 1st 2006 by Mariner Books (first published 1994)

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Nov 04, 2012 Kristen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, fiction

Tim O’Brien makes me want to be a writer, not because his writing in any way inspires me, but because he makes me think writing isn’t so difficult at all, clearly any asshole can do it. That sounds harsh for as much as I enjoyed this book, I both enjoyed it and at the same time thought it wasn’t very good. You know who would love this book? Caris. Enough said.

So what’s the book about? Kid of an alcoholic father uses magic and illusion to cope, goes to Vietnam, witnesses horrifying massacre, fal...more

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Mar 19, 2011 K.D. Oliveros rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: Judith Loucks, Sue and Teresa

O'Brien gives you the different options for an ending. Decide for yourself. Whichever you choose, after closing this book, you'd feel glad that you've read it. Extraordinary. There's nothing like this among the 400+ novels that I've read so far.

An ex-Vietnam War army turned politician, John Wade has lost his bid to the Senate. He and his wife, Kathy are debt up to their necks. Married for almost 2 decades, Kathy, 38, has been dreaming of having a baby. Busy with his career, John thinks that it i...more O'Brien gives you the different options for an ending. Decide for yourself. Whichever you choose, after closing this book, you'd feel glad that you've read it. Extraordinary. There's nothing like this among the 400+ novels that I've read so far.

An ex-Vietnam War army turned politician, John Wade has lost his bid to the Senate. He and his wife, Kathy are debt up to their necks. Married for almost 2 decades, Kathy, 38, has been dreaming of having a baby. Busy with his career, John thinks that it is not yet the right time or maybe there is a deeper reason: his unhappy childhood or the secret of what happened in Vietnam. One day, John wakes up and finds that Kathy is gone.

When we got married, did we tell all the stories of our past to our spouse? If the answer is no, how did we choose which ones to tell and which ones to keep to ourselves? Now that we are married, how much of our lives do we share with our spouse? When we arrive home at night, do we tell each and every detail of our day? How do we choose which ones to tell and which ones to keep to ourselves?

"Kill Jesus!" is what John shouts in his dream. Beware guys, your secret can come out while you are dreaming and your wife is just there by your side wondering what those nightmares mean. So, even if you don't share everything, if it stinks, it will be known to her sooner or later.

This book was recommended to me by 3 of my friends here in Goodreads. Three ladies. Maybe they think that I would probably learn a lesson from what happened to John and Kathy *chuckle*. Just kidding. O'Brien writing style is exceptional: At least 5 stories run in parallel (current, Vietnam, college days, John's childhood days and what could have probably happened) plus those chapters on exhibits which are composed of excepts from interviews related to the investigation of Kathy's disappearance or the John's war criminal case and even related literatures (quotes from Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, for example) on those. Normally, in this kind of storytelling approach, I would be confused and it would take me a long time to finish the book, e.g., The Known World by Edward P. Jones, as a recent read. But here, reading was a breeze and totally enjoyable because of its fresh approach and it leaves you a space to think: interpret the story and choose the ending that you want to believe happened.

Thanks J, S, and T. Keep on recommending! :)
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Sep 28, 2007 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Readers who don't need all the answers

This is Exhibit A for the concept of "unreliable narrator" - rather than dropping clues along the way to revealing the answer to a mystery (in this case, why and how Kathy Wade, wife of recently disgraced politician John Wade, disappeared), In the Lake of the Woods draws out all of the possible hypotheses for the disappearance, gives evidence to back each one up - and then never gives you a definite resolution. It's a great use of literary technique, and a truly compelling read.

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Jun 03, 2012 Drew Jameson rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book has made me shudder at least six times. Astoundingly good. Tim O'Brien has such a subtle mastery, it's almost frightening to read his work. He introduces a seemingly innocuous line on page 10 that sticks out just enough to make you wonder what it's true relevance is, then when he finally reveals it, a hundred pages later, it's devastating. As in The Things They Carried, O'Brien tells a riveting story that reverses back on itself multiple times, and also directly addresses the dilemma o...more This book has made me shudder at least six times. Astoundingly good. Tim O'Brien has such a subtle mastery, it's almost frightening to read his work. He introduces a seemingly innocuous line on page 10 that sticks out just enough to make you wonder what it's true relevance is, then when he finally reveals it, a hundred pages later, it's devastating. As in The Things They Carried, O'Brien tells a riveting story that reverses back on itself multiple times, and also directly addresses the dilemma of storytelling, and the blurred lines between fiction, non-fiction, and truth. How do you tell a true story? How do you know what's true? Why do we need to uncover secrets we can never truly know?
The story itself is not overly complicated: a promising young politician named John Wade suffers a crushing defeat after a dark secret from his past in Vietnam is revealed. Shortly afterwards, his wife disappears and Wade becomes a suspect. We see the story in the present, curl back to see Wade's experiences in the war, which are as chilling as any I've ever read, his relationship with his wife when it at first seemed to be innocent and loving, and see Wade's painful childhood where he first began to keep secrets from his loved ones and himself. Alternating chapters also hypothesize how events may have played out, while others present pieces of evidence as decontextualized quotes, both from characters testifying about the events in the story, and passages from real world biographies of major political figures and other works on relevant non-fiction. In footnotes that appear mostly in Evidence chapters, the narrator becomes a character, trying as desperately as the reader to tease a thread of meaning and truth from the dark. The narrator's identity remains as ambiguous as what really happened to the wife. This further problematizes the fiction/non-fiction line, as the narrator seems to have much in common with the author, but the other characters are supposedly creations of his imagination. This asks the question, how different is fiction from non-fiction? In both, the author and the reader struggle to find something true, something that is unknowable and unreachable.
The latter half treads water for a time and over-explains ideas that are already clear, but the ending pulls every idea together beautifully.(less)

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Aug 09, 2012 Steven rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: general-fiction, mystery, 2012

Good book, good language, strong and poignant message about the things we do to ourselves for the sake of ideals/love/happiness/whatever.

I liked the book. It was good and the message was strong. This is not something you read to find out what happened to John and Kathy at Lake of the Woods but what made them who they were up to the point where the story begins. It's a story about what makes a person who he/she is, the choices, the delusions, the hopes and dreams, the failures, and sometimes, th...more

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Jan 09, 2012 Stuart rated it 4 of 5 stars

While Denis Johnson's 'Tree of Smoke' may be the single best American novel about the Vietnam war, Tim O'Brien, who has made writing 'Nam stories into something of a cottage industry, has put out three terrific books that, taken as a whole, achieve something far more compelling and significant. The first, 'The Things They Carried,' is an extremely personal look into the dehumanization and commodification of the war, told with faux-bureaucratic detachment as a series of inventory lists. The secon...more

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Nov 16, 2011 Matt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, own

I'm not a writer by any means. I like to think that my head contains somewhat original thoughts. The process of transferring those thoughts into coherently structured paragraphs has always been a challenge for me. But I digress.

I was blown away. Definitely one of the best books I've ever read. It had the potential to be a jumbled, confusing mess of a novel, but O'Brien deftly preserves a perfect balance between mystery and romance. It really is a seamless and fluid combination of bitter memories...more

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Jul 07, 2008 Sherry rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Sherry by: Sue T

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. ***Spoilers***
I was intrigued with the mystery in the first third of the book. When the narrator tells the reader that we will never know what happened, I became impatient & apathetic about the plot. I didn’t care for any of the characters except maybe Claude & Ruth. I kept reading because Sue thought highly of the book. The last third of the novel, really redeemed any misgivings I had. O’Brien takes on so much historic scope & psychology with this novel. It is not just about Vietnam...more ***Spoilers***
I was intrigued with the mystery in the first third of the book. When the narrator tells the reader that we will never know what happened, I became impatient & apathetic about the plot. I didn’t care for any of the characters except maybe Claude & Ruth. I kept reading because Sue thought highly of the book. The last third of the novel, really redeemed any misgivings I had. O’Brien takes on so much historic scope & psychology with this novel. It is not just about Vietnam, it is about any war. It is not just about Wade running for office, but what it means to be a politician with all eyes on you. The magician theme that runs through the novel is very effective, but O’Brien keeps the magician’s secret & doesn’t give us a true ending, a true resolution... A few years ago, this would have driven me crazy, but now I respect the literary devise that he uses in not giving us a tidy ending, because it goes along with his theme of not ever knowing people, history or secrets in the human heart. (To interject a little pop culture here, it is not unlike what David Chase did with the ending of the tv show The Sopranos.) The reader needs to pick the best hypothesis. The other characters in the book also have their own theories of what happened. Ruth wants the couple to have run off together & get a fresh new start & live happily like her & Claude do. I guess that is why I like their characters so much. They are happy with each other & still have faith in others. However, I don’t think that is the hypothesis I will sign up for. I think Wade would be capable of harming Kathy. I think he would be capable of anything, like Vinny Pearson did, but I’m going to hold out a little more hope for humanity than that. Wade is mentally ill. He was before he went to Vietnam. He is not innocent of what happened there. I am not without sympathy about what happened to the soldiers in the village of Thuan Yen (absolutely no excuse for their behavior, but O’Brien does a good job of pointing out that they are not the first, nor, unfortunately the last men to violently kill civilians in a war), but once he decided to remain silent AND alter his records, in my mind, he went from “bystander” of the massacre to “manipulator”. He was creepy. Kathleen, though, was stupidly impotent. I there is one criticism of the novel is that I don’t think O’Brien really gave me a good enough picture of why she would stay with him. I can’t buy the lost in love angle. And that is why I don’t really care for her character... This of course means that I don’t think she left him that day on the lake. I don’t think she had it in her. I think she got lost, and Wade either committed suicide or went away to relive his nightmares by himself somewhere in Canada. I think Wade lied so much that he doesn’t even know what happened. He knows he was capable of harming her, and because he has become so good at forgetting trauma, he knows he could’ve made her murder “disappear” in his memory also. But I don’t think he did hurt her. Sue is right about O’Brien’s use of time & narrative devises, fresh & effective. The structure works very well to tell this story. I am glad I didn’t stop reading the book, because this is one book I will be pondering for a long time.

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Jun 06, 2008 Josh rated it 4 of 5 stars

Tim O'Brien writes pretty much exclusively about Vietnam. In each outing he seems to explore a different facet of the war, or of life afterward.

In the Lake of the Woods is in a way a mystery that serves as a metaphor for post traumatic stress disorder. John Wade, a veteran, and his wife retreat to a cabin in Minnesota after he loses a bid for the United States Senate–Loses after the very events he has spent years hiding from everyone (including himself) are brought to light in the press.

John wak...more

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Nov 25, 2007 Matthew rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people in need of some pulp plus

all in all, it was a well told story that ended up to be all that you thought it was going to be. there were a few moments in time when i thought things were going to turn sour, but o'brien did the right thing by keeping it interesting. the basic story is of a senator who looses his wife. physically, emotionally, metaphysically...yes...all of these in some way or another. we spend the diration of the narrative trying to figure out how he lost her, the judgements attached to that statement (from...more

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May 06, 2008 Yulia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: criminal-intent

About a war vet-turned-politician and amateur magician who may or may not have killed his wife, this is one of the few books I think I'd appreciate more had I read it after school. But at 17, I was endlessly annoyed by not knowing the "truth" in the story. Arguably, I was easy to annoy back then and I annoyed many people at the same time, like my English teacher, who wasn't impressed by my listing of relevant pages to refer to for various themes in the book. When I got to college and saw academi...more

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Jul 22, 2010 Benjamin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, vietnam, war, first-edition, edition, signed, 2009-read, mystery, politics

The first 40 pages of this book almost had me put the book down. I couldn't stand the "evidence" chapters. They seemed so gimmicky and lazy. I kept reading however and for the most part enjoyed the rest of the story. [return]There are some truly well written passages, but I just couldn't get past the "footnotes as narrative" mechanism for telling this story. Perhaps it� s the history buff in me. Perhaps it� s my undergrad memorization of the Chicago Style Writing Manual. Whatever it is, using fo...more The first 40 pages of this book almost had me put the book down. I couldn't stand the "evidence" chapters. They seemed so gimmicky and lazy. I kept reading however and for the most part enjoyed the rest of the story. [return]There are some truly well written passages, but I just couldn't get past the "footnotes as narrative" mechanism for telling this story. Perhaps it� s the history buff in me. Perhaps it� s my undergrad memorization of the Chicago Style Writing Manual. Whatever it is, using footnotes to indiscriminately describe fictional and nonfictional elements just irked me. From the get go, I knew that there was not going to be an official ending to this mystery. But by the time I got to the end, Tim O'Brien was inserting footnotes in the "evidence" chapters describing his personal feelings and takes on the characters as if they were real people. This really bothered me because these were fictional characters he created and he seemed to be trying to give us another point of view on them by implying that he really didn't know what they were up to. Post-modern some might say, but as far as story telling goes it was just confusing and it really didn't help me think about it in any new way. It just seemed like poor writing. [return]I will give him this: the character of John Wade was a messed up dude, even before the war. A very convincing creeper. I really couldn't figure out why Kathy was in love with him. He didn't really exhibit any healthy qualities. Perhaps Kathy just found all the stalking and lack of communication romantic? Anyway, the chapters that dealt with the war were the most fascinating to me, and makes me want to read more something nonfiction by Tim O'Brien.[return]Also, the setting of The Lake of the Woods was a good pick and he did a great job of making me feel the emptiness and monotony of the place, in spite of its apparent beauty. I ended up exploring the google earth Lake of the Woods for a good half hour, and indeed it is immense and foreboding. I could easily see someone getting lost in a boat out there. I also liked the cartographic anomaly of � The Angle� and how this could have been incorporated more into the book.[return]So, what does Mr. O'Brien want us to get out of this story? Some things come to mind: the Vietnam War could make a kinda creepy guy into a really messed up creepy guy; or in the end it doesn't really matter if a guy gets away with murder, there is no point in having closure. Perhaps it is just that society can never be the judge of complex human lives. Was it ambiguity that O� Brien was going for? Or maybe he just couldn� t make up his mind.[return]Overall, a pretty good story, scarred by creative yet confusing use of post-modern footnotes.(less)

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May 15, 2013 Joey Gold rated it 3 of 5 stars

Tim O'Brien is a writer who places honest emotional energy before understated literary sophistication; this means, in other words, that you will have a weak reading experience if you are very cynical. There are inelegant cliché's, and many melodramatic passages that give unnecessary slowness to the plot's pace. Reading "In the Lake of the Woods" might feel like talking to someone interesting, yet not overwhelmingly bright (but definitely not idiotic), who rambles on with touching sincerity that...more Tim O'Brien is a writer who places honest emotional energy before understated literary sophistication; this means, in other words, that you will have a weak reading experience if you are very cynical. There are inelegant cliché's, and many melodramatic passages that give unnecessary slowness to the plot's pace. Reading "In the Lake of the Woods" might feel like talking to someone interesting, yet not overwhelmingly bright (but definitely not idiotic), who rambles on with touching sincerity that can be admired or ridiculed – depends how open-minded you are at the particular moment of the conversation. The good thing is, O'Brien is a rare talent; a writer clearly smart yet not obligated to deluge his stories with sinister snobbishness. He isn't afraid from vulnerability.

John Wade, the central character who moves with his wife Kathy to a remote lakeside cabin after a failed election, has many different, shadowy layers; from his quirky youth, during which he became obsessed with practicing magic tricks in his basement (which raged his alcoholic, macho father) to his meeting with Kathy in college (where he would spend whole days spying on her), and finally – perhaps the darkest corner of his past – his involvement in the gruesome My Lai massacre in Vietnam. Although his quiet, sneaky personality doesn't seem to alter dramatically when he returns home, he is subtly shell-shocked from this bloody war crime. He grows somber, prone to cold-decision making and unusual indifference. For example; he convinces Kathy to have an abortion, against her wishes, because fatherhood might complicate his political career, his campaign.

Well, he loses miserably. The Senate will do without him. Laconic, disheartened, this middle-aged couple lethargically moves to the Lake of the Woods, a lush Minnesota area by the sea. She disappears one morning. When anxiety becomes unbearable, he gets the local police patrolling in the freezing waters, and takes his neighbor's boat out in the deep himself.

The story is quiet yet somewhat labyrinthine, an interesting combination. No wicked conspiracies. No endless streams of dangerous minor characters. Just two people, honestly and roundly documented, undergoing unique circumstances.
The weak spots of the novel are lengthy chapters entitled "Evidence". These are mainly lists of quotes and objects, like amateurish police work, semi-related to the story. Sometimes the quotes are by family members, sometimes by real-life historic figures (who are obviously not speaking directly about the story). I just found it flat-out silly. Maybe one or two of those chapters were actually convincing. Personal footnotes from O'Brien are also frequent; another distraction.
I find a powerful resonance of truth in his work, but he is no Joyce, Bellow or Kundera; you really, REALLY, have to be a master of language to justify all this postmodern trickery. Why all the decoration? Why not stick to the powerful story? "Fat City", a book with a very different story but a similar sense of stripped-down honesty, is great because it doesn't try to be something it isn't; no weak, cheaply-crafty superficiality. "In the Lake of the Woods" has 40 or-so redundant pages of pure stupefaction, a downpour of phony ink blocking the book's way from being great.
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Apr 03, 2013 Dan Contrino rated it 5 of 5 stars

An amazing book. Actually, one of the best books I've ever read. I was in college, when I read it, many years past the Vietnam War but it really affected me. John Wade's attempt to conceal huge chunks of his life and his fascination with magic to his need for love are easy themes to relate to and are explored extremely well. Some might be turned off or disturbed by his stalking of his own wife but it is a theme in a few of O'Brien's books as well as his own life, according to an article written...more

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Oct 02, 2012 Molly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: a-fireplace-in-winter-of-the-prose, outside

I've been ready to throw so many poorly written books out the window recently that coming to Tim O'Brien's novel was such a sigh of relief--I knew what I was doing though, as a lover of the more popular The Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato. O'Brien is good, so deeply, deeply good.

I love the way in which you can trust the journey: the reader can fall in love with the couple, or at least believe in their love, that it will survive and overcome this devastating election, but as the narr...more

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Sep 26, 2012 Regina Lindsey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Lt. Governor John Wade and his wife, Kathy, have retreated to a cabin in rural Minnesota after a crushing defeat in John's Senate run after his connection to Thuan Yen in the Vietnam War comes to light. Within days Kathy goes missing.

Told in disjointed sequences through chapters that give the Wade's story from intial meeting through the time of disappearance and those entitled "Hypothesis" and "Evidence" a disturbing, psychological profile of John comes to light.

While O'Brien is often critic...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Sarah Funke rated it 5 of 5 stars

The thing about Tim O'Brien...that's a terrible way to start a sentence, but I'll go with it. The thing about Tim O'Brien is that he has a book for every reader.

He's got old school craft, but is dazzlingly versatile, without being showy.

The Things They Carried will always be, to me, one of the achievements of 20th-century writing in English, of any genre. Going After Cacciato is terrific, too, though perhaps it's reached a slightly smaller audience.

I finally got around to In the Lake of the W...more

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Jun 03, 2012 Bóbó rated it 3 of 5 stars

I stumbled across this book in a charity shop on Hyndland Road and picked it up because I recently listened to an audio recording of O'Brien reading out his most famous work 'The Things They Carried', a story that, in a Perec-like way, gives an emotional depth and intense realism to a troop of soldiers in the Vietnam War by confining itself to describing the many things, weapons, tools, pictures or letters from home, that the men carry into battle with them. As with that story (and most of Tim O...more I stumbled across this book in a charity shop on Hyndland Road and picked it up because I recently listened to an audio recording of O'Brien reading out his most famous work 'The Things They Carried', a story that, in a Perec-like way, gives an emotional depth and intense realism to a troop of soldiers in the Vietnam War by confining itself to describing the many things, weapons, tools, pictures or letters from home, that the men carry into battle with them. As with that story (and most of Tim O'Brien's back-catalog) 'In the Lake of the Woods' is heavily concerned with aspects of America's involvement during the VIetnam War and the after affect that the war had on the men who fought there, a perspective that O'Brien is particularly capable of occupying as he served as an infantry man in the war from 1968 to 1970

In the Lake of the Woods is not without faults, but none the less it is a gripping story that, though published in 1994, experiments with many elements of fictional writing that we have recently seen in writers such as Mark Z. Danielewski and Jonathan Safran Foer.

It is, at it's heart, a mystery. John Wade and his wife Kathy have retreated to a remote Cottage at Lake of the Woods, a large body of water on the borders of Ontario in Canada and Minnesota in the United States. They have gone there to escape after John's humiliating loss at a primary election for the U.S. senate. The loss came on very suddenly after his connections to war atrocities in Vietnam were reported by the media; connections that he had managed to hide from everyone, including his wife. Staying in the cottage, they are trying to rebuild their life and find out who they are and what they are to one another, now that they no longer have that goal in sight.

One morning John wakes up and Kathy is gone, so is the boat and some of her clothing. He remembers odd things from the night before, but cannot seem to remember what exactly happened or in fact whether anything happened at all. No sign is ever found of Kathy by the local law enforcement and from the get-go doubt is thrown on John's innocence. The book then precedes to introduce various witness accounts from family members and people involved in the search for Kathy along with literary and historical references to missing persons and American war crimes, in particular the massacre at My Lai, which John is shown to have been present at during his time served in the Vietnam War, back when he was known by the nickname 'Sorcerer'. Several hypothesis are offered, both from the nameless author figure (who has a reigning presence in the book) and by direct interviews with the other characters. In the end it is left for the reader to decide which hypothesis pleases him best, as no true resolution is offered as to what truly happened to Kathy Wade. The book is left as an unsolved mystery.

O'Brien's descriptive language is a true beauty to behold. Descriptions of the lake and its surroundings are brief and factual but carry an element of crystal clarity captured by the little, visual elements. This is shown in a description from one of the many hypothesis about what happened to Kathy:

"From the bottom of the lake, eyes wide open, Kathy Wade watches the fish fly up to swim in the land of sky blue waters, where they are pinned like moths to the morning moon." (p. 289)

These quiet and still images are particularly effective when compared with the harsh and confusing descriptions of John's memories from the Vietnam War, most of whom have the feel of a nightmare or a bad acid trip:

"He found a young woman laid open without a chest or lungs. He found dead cattle. There were fires, too. The trees and hootches and clouds were burning. Sorcerer didn't know where to shoot. He didn't know what to shoot. So he shot the burning trees and burning hootches. He shot the hedges. He shot the smoke, which shot back, then he took refuge behind a pile of stones. If a thing moved, he shot it. If a thing did not move, he shot it. There was no enemy to shoot, nothing he could see, so he shot without aim and without any desire except to make the terrible morning go away." (p. 64)

Where the book mainly falls down is in the presence of the unnamed author figure who pops up on occasion in the footnotes to comment on the events of the story or on the comments of the people that he has interviewed about the event (he is shown as the one who has gathered all of the evidence and the quotations) but in particular to comment on his own desperate search for the truth, to find out what really happened that night in the cottage at Lake of the Woods. This presence feels like an after effect that is mainly there in order to throw unanswered or rhetorical questions at us; questions that the reader is already asking himself. It feels like a case of unnecessary hammering-in to highlight these questions in this way, and readers rarely cherish being hit over the head with message and meaning.

That being said, fans of Danielewski's House of Leaves and it's enigmatic narrator, Johnny Truant, should be interested in hunting down this novel (even though it is written 6 years before House of Leaves was). It is readable and over all does a neat and interesting job of walking the line between experimental meta fiction and psychological thriller.(less)

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May 11, 2012 Brian Romano rated it 4 of 5 stars

O'Brien kept me guessing the entire book. Sounds a little cliche but its just the truth. The book is told mainly through different periods in John's life: his childhood with an alcoholic father, his dark career in the military during the Vietnam War, and present day (with flashbacks of recent memories). O'Brien approaches the resolution in a way I've never experienced before. He comes at it in more a circle rather than a traditional straight line. He starts out broad, then gives information with...more

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Dec 06, 2011 Jeena Khan rated it 1 of 5 stars

First of all, this book made me realize how much I generally like most books that I read. Because this was a screaming exception.

This is the basic summary of the story: In the Lake of the Woods is O'Brien's portrayal of a historian or biographer's attempt at piecing together the mystery of the disappearance of Kathy Wade. Kathy's husband, John, recently lost a primary election to become Minnesota's Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate after his involvement in the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam w...more

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Nov 14, 2011 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

I read this on the recommendation of a friend, who described it in a way that gave me chills.

(view spoiler)...more

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Nov 10, 2011 Roland rated it 3 of 5 stars

In one respect, at the core of In the Lake of the Woods is an unsolved mystery behind a woman’s disappearance. But also of great focus are the demons lurking within her husband, the politician John Wade whose Vietnam past returns to derail his campaign unexpectedly.

Wade was a child magician who, as a soldier, was nicknamed “sorcerer” and prided himself in making things “disappear.” His involvement in his wife’s disappearance remains an open-ended question by book’s end, but the war incident he...more

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Apr 07, 2011 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars

When a student I am tutoring described this book to me (as a result of my asking about an assignment concerning it), I wasn't at all interested. However, I make it a habit to read the works my students are reading so I am able to help them better.

I was thrilled by it. I had only read The Things They Carried before this, but I'd rate this one right up there with it.

John Wade has issues. His father committed suicide when John was young, but the two had never been close. He never received a complim...more

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Jul 20, 2010 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature, psychological

One could say that this book is a mystery or a thriller, but they would be missing the point. It is about the psychology of a man who has experienced the loss of his father and the brutality of the Vietnam War. I really appreciated that this book was written by a Vietnam veteran, and it felt completely and terrifyingly true and real as a result. I don’t believe that any movie or book that I’ve ever seen/read comes close to conveying to me just what war can do to a human being (except maybe Apoca...more

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Feb 02, 2010 John Brassil rated it 3 of 5 stars

As with the other book of his I've read, "The Things They Carried", Tim O'Brien draws heavily on his experiences in Vietnam to create a portrait of contemporary American conflicts in morality. The title refers to a remote vacation spot in northern Minnesota, to which John and Kathy Wade flee after his failed senatorial bid. The unveiling of that story and the reasons for it is told in a series of flashbacks and imagined possibilites interspersed with chapters of supporting "documentation", some...more

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Jan 02, 2010 Daniel rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, mystery

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Oct 25, 2009 Lori rated it 4 of 5 stars

Tim O'Brien has written a novel that successfully explores the question of what is truth and illusion. Is an event the truth because it happens or is the truth what we believe happens? John Wade and his wife Kathy are recovering from a devastating political defeat at an isolated cabin on the shores of a Minnesota lake. One morning John awakens to find Kathy gone and the mystery begins or so the reader thinks.
Kathy's disappearance is the surface mystery, while the real mystery in this story is wh...more Tim O'Brien has written a novel that successfully explores the question of what is truth and illusion. Is an event the truth because it happens or is the truth what we believe happens? John Wade and his wife Kathy are recovering from a devastating political defeat at an isolated cabin on the shores of a Minnesota lake. One morning John awakens to find Kathy gone and the mystery begins or so the reader thinks.
Kathy's disappearance is the surface mystery, while the real mystery in this story is what has made John Wade the man he really is. Is he the slick politician and loving husband that he appears to be or is he a murderer? O'Brien reveals slowly through the book that John Wade was a lonely boy who was taunted by an alcoholic father, who then retreats into a world of magic tricks and illusions. After his father commits suicide, he creates the father he always wanted by envisioning him in his mind behind the "mirrors" he has put up to block the painful memories. Later, O'Brien begins to tell a stunningly graphic and horrifying tale of Wade's tour as a soldier in Viet Nam. The reader is thrown again and again into the agonziing re- telling of his memories of the My Lai Massacre. Wade's personna as the "Sorcerer" helps him endure these memories without going crazy. Wade covers up this event both psychologically and phyically by altering the records, but eventually things unravel when the fact of this incident becomes public.
O'Brien brilliantly uses third person narrative with fictionalized "interviews" from friends, family and people who knew the Wades as well as accounts of the investigation into the My Lai Massacre and finally different quotes from various historical events to give a real feeling to his work. As a reader you are drawn into this story as if you are reading a real event in the newspaper, it gives it a very eerie quality. There is a narrator of this story, not displayed in the traditional sense, but by small comments that appear in the footnotes of the interviews and finally taking a larger role in the end of the novel, perhaps echoing the readers point of view.
This is not a mystery in the traditional sense and frustrating to some readers may be the fact that there is not a tidy ending. There are no neat conclusions and the reader is left to ponder as is the narrator, the various hypothesis and eventual outcome of John and Kathy. This is a unique, dark tale that is more about the human psyche, the tricks we play ,secrets we keep and as in the story, there are no neat endings. (less)

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Sep 01, 2009 Linda Lipko rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a real page turner, creatively beautiful and exquisitely styled. It is an exceedingly unsettling and disturbing tale weaving history and mystery together.

John Wade, is a 41 year old Viet Nam veteran whose recently failed Minnesota senatorial bid shatters his facade of success. As a child John was an illusionist and as an adult politician he honed these skills.

Seeking solace from defeat, John and his wife Kathy vacation in the deep Minnesota woods where John's tether to reality snaps. A v...more

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Jul 09, 2009 Jake rated it 4 of 5 stars

After years of rubbing ripped-up, vaseline covered copies of The Things They Carried and If I Die in a Combat Zone all over my naked, supple flesh, I finally branched out to my boy Timmy O's straight-up fiction. Suffice to say that I now have a new volume to love tenderly.

Seriously. I was a little hesitant to start in on his outright fiction because his fictionesque memiors affected me so much. I just figured that imaginary tales wouldn't hold the same power. And while this one didn't measure up...more

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Jul 18, 2007 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this in a Postmodern Lit class back in college, but the book stays with me even today. Being in DC resident now, I can appreciate this novel even more--carrying a terrible secret that can devestate your political career. But the book goes beyond this simple idea: it analyzes a marriage and is set in a foggy sort of setting, the couple's lakehouse retreat. The relationships explored and the flashbacks retold are strong points to this book. I found it quite compelling and mysterious.

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About Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien matriculated at Macalester College. Graduation in 1968 found him with a BA in political science and a draft notice.

O'Brien was against the war but reported for service and was sent to Vietnam with what has been called the "unlucky" Americal division due to its involvement in the My Lai massacre in 1968, an event which figures prominently in In the Lake of the Woods. He was assigned to...more

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If I Die in a Combat Zone: Box Me Up and Ship Me Home

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Quotes from In the Lake of the Woods

“We are fascinated, all of us, by the implacable otherness of others. And we wish to penetrate by hypothesis, by daydream, by scientific investigation those leaden walls that encase the human spirit, that define it and guard it and hold it forever inaccessible.” — 17 people liked it

“I cannot remember much, I cannot feel much. Maybe erasure is necessary. Maybe the human spirit defends itself as the body does, attacking infection, enveloping and destroying those malignancies that would otherwise consume us.” — 15 people liked it

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