The 1994 novel In the Lake of the Woods chronicles the rise and fall of Vietnam veteran-turned politician John Wade and his wife, Kathy. After secrets from John’s past surface during an election, his political aspirations are crushed. The couple seeks refuge in a cabin on Lake of the Woods, a remote wilderness area in Minnesota. As the past wreaks havoc on John’s career, marriage, and psyche, Kathy mysteriously disappears, never to be found again.
War
During Vietnam, John Wade witnessed and was involved in atrocities. While this is not uncommon, he tried to cover them up. The novel reveals, throughout the course of the story, the dilemma John faced about admitting what had happened or trying to hide it. Hide it he does, so successfully that it goes undiscovered for twenty years.
The secrets are so horrific that John buries them deep, so deep that they are removed from even his own conscious thoughts. However, as O’Brien, a Vietnam veteran himself, proves throughout the book, the war leaves its mark permanently. John suffers from nightmares and blackouts that torment him, causing him to say and do things that he otherwise wouldn’t. The war keeps coming back to haunt John, and there is no escape.
Mystery
Kathy’s disappearance from the cabin on Lake of the Woods is the central mystery plot of the novel. One morning John wakes to find her gone, with only vague half-memories of the previous night. Search crews look for Kathy everywhere, including on and around the property they Wades had rented, but nothing is ever found. This is a mystery that will go unsolved, with O’Brien titling several chapters “Hypothesis,” projecting guesses about Kathy’s whereabouts.
The disappearance of John’s wife isn’t the only mystery left unsolved in the book. John’s own involvement in the disappearance, the true nature of their marriage, and John’s mental stability all raise more questions than answers through the novel. It is a book of wondering, guessing, and trying to discern the different between appearances and reality.
That is why it is fitting, it would seem, that John Wade was a magician, nicknamed Sorcerer while in the army. Mystery surrounds the Wades and the novel, continually keeping the reader questioning and thinking about possibilities and what the ambiguity of the novel means. Overall, In the Lake of the Woods is a dense, foggy, compelling novel, full of “hypothesis” and what-ifs.
O’Brien, the Real Sorcerer
O’Brien’s protagonist knows magic. He plays tricks on people, including himself, throughout this book. However, the real magic is the handwork of the author, O’Brien. Behind paradoxically gorgeous prose and brutal content, this novel is a masterful meditation on the unknowable. O’Brien keeps secrets, only revealing the plot, themes, and meaning behind the story in jagged pieces. The reader is in a constant haze, wondering about the nature of humans, war, and reality itself.
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