In the Lake of the Woods

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Summary: in the lake of the woods
Review: In the lake of the woods is a great book The way Tim O'Brien arranged the chapters was very unique and the evidence chapters really added a little something extra. There are flashbacks to Vietnam, John Wade's Childhood, His Campaign, and then there is the present in which there is a lot of suspense. In some ways the way the chapters went back and forth kind of annoyed me but I think it was necessary in order to get the full effect and if it hadn't been set up that way it would be harder to understand the characters. I've never read a book like this before and I can't say that I've ever read a mystery or suspense book. It was truly an experience for me- I found myself skipping pages to get to the end more quickly and find out what happened, hopeing for a happy ending. It was a very sad book, and somewhat disturbing but it was well written and I enjoyed it. I would recommend it to anyone.

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Summary: Darkly compelling
Review: I hesitated to recommend this novel, but it is so powerfully written, and some of the scenes -- particularly the more horrific ones -- are so vivid that I had to recommend it solely on their strength. (I won't reveal the particulars of one very powerful scene, but I am sure the graphic events described in excruciating detail will stay with me for a very long time.) The main problem I had with the novel is that it focuses almost completely on two incidents in the main character's -- failed politician John Wade -- life: his participation in the massacre at My Lai during the Vietnam War, and an incident at an isolated cabin on the shores of a northern Minnesota lake that took place many years ago. Granted, these are the pivotal events of Wade's life (as is the suicide of his father, which is also continuously touched upon), but the narrative constantly circles these two pivot points, so that after several chapters it feels as you are going over the same ground over and over again. As a reader, you crave some new information, and the horror loses its power to horrify after a while, particularly in the Vietnam scenes. The book spirals back out of this pattern at the end when it becomes very dark, very disturbing and very engrossing yet again. Another reason I liked this book was its narrative structure; it reads like the unfinished manuscript of a frustrated true-crime writer. This unnamed narrator gradually transforms into another character in the story whose obsession with what happened at the Lake of the Woods and the mystery of Jack's wife's disappearance there drives the story forward, past the endless recycling of the two key events. The mystery is never neatly solved, which may annoy some readers, but I enjoyed the ambiguity and the opportunity to make up my own mind about what happened between the husband and wife in the dark night by the lake of the woods.

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Summary: OK, I get it already
Review: Let me preface this by saying I'm a huge fan of Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," which is a brilliant portrayal of the Vietnam experience.

"In the Lake of the Woods," however, came as a disappointment. O'Brien uses language beautifully but the plot of this one is thin. I knew from the first chapter what was going to happen, but continued reading in the hopes that somehow I'd been mistaken. No such luck. The ambiguity (did he kill his wife or not?) praised by other readers held no appeal for me.

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Summary: 'Hey, Sorceror, how's tricks?'
Review: At first I was ready to condemn this book because it hinges on a psychological mechanism which is too readily apparent. Instead of being a gradual unveiling of a man's psyche, most of his problems are obvious from the beginning. He practied magic as a boy, and in Vietnam was awarded the nickname 'Sorceror' - and through the whole book you get phrases like 'the trick was to forget' and 'the trick was to make her love him and never stop,' and past a certain point you want to scream that you _get it already_. You get why he behaved the way he did, and what problems it caused. There is no real suspense; and, in the end, his character is not really all that complex. O'Brien also has the annoying habit here of liberally using quotes from other documents to demonstrate things which he could have shown in the lives of his characters - sometimes, the quotes work well, but sometimes they don't. It's difficult to believe he could have gotten through even one writer's workshop without someone telling him: "Show, don't tell," and using quotes from pyschology textbooks and magician's manuals is as rankly telling as any narrative device.

Still, I have to conceed that O'Brien is an amazing writer. He has values, a sense of the real world, and a way of insistently asking important questions which give him a powerful style. In the Lake of the Woods may have been flawed in conception - may not have been as good as a book with its premise could have been - but it's still, in the end, an enjoyable read. After reading The Things They Carried - which is just on a whole other level from this book - I wondered if O'Brien could write a good narrative which wasn't firmly based on his own past, and I think he certainly can, but that it will take some more work.

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Summary: good, yet incomplete
Review: In the Lake of the Woods is a very well written classic. It does manage to keep your interest alive and your fingers turning the pages; however, after reading the book, one is left with an incomplete feeling becuase the author leaves the reader no actual ending. The reader is left up to decide in his/her own head what happened. For me, reading a book is a process you go through. The author gives you some background information, sets up his climax, and then ends it with a bang. If one step of the process is cut short or completely left out, the book feels empty. Although O'Brien did an excellent job writing the book, after the time I put into reading it, i wish he would have just gone ahead and ended it for me.

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Summary: This book is horrendous
Review: In The Lake of The Woods is terrible. It is without a doubt one of the worst books I have ever read. The characters are annoying and I can't bring myself to like them. The book has absolutly no climax or ending. I would rather read Tale of Two Cities 1353151515135 times then read this piece of garbage again. But, if your into really boring books that think they are smart and funny then you should read this. Why the author ever wrote this book is beyond me, he should retire.