Rating: 
Summary: What I thought...
Review: I thought this was a pretty good book. Except I didn't like how it was written. I didn't really understand the hypothesis chapters until after a while and that made it kind of confusing to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Love, Murder and Vietnam
Review: Towards the end of this book, I kept noticing that nothing had happened since the beginning--and yet I was still sitting on the edge of my chair. The mystery's told in circles, all in flashbacks, so it fills in background each time through.I particularly liked how the author structured the novel. He focuses on just a few themes--love, mirrors, magic, politics--and works them through, slipping the images back into the story. Then, every two or three chapters comes one consisting entirely of quotes. They're either by characters in the book or from outside sources: magicians' handbooks, politicians' biographies, war accounts. These give perspective, develop the plot in offhand remarks, and also provide a nice rhythmic change--short quote, footnote, short quote, footnote--from the smoother, often lyrical passages in the rest. The plot you can read about elsewhere--a marriage breaking down, a disappearance, a career ending when old secrets surface. It delves into the psychology of deception and repression, of control, of disappointment and searching for approval . . . bobs around, and comes up revealing a few more pieces of the puzzle. An engaging, well-crafted book.
Rating: 
Summary: This is the end!
Review: Back in the old days, the "Army" liked to shoot soldiers for demonstrations of "Cowardice" (the unwillingness to return to battle and its scenes of carnage) or temporarily hospitalize them for treatment of "Shellshock" (the total nervous collapse of the soldier during or after battle). Neither approach seemed to help very much. This novel tells the story of an untreated case of what is now known as "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" as it effects a veteran of the Vietnam "Conflict". Here, the old notion of "Shellshock" is revealed in its latent and most sinister form: the total personality disintegration that can occur years after the original trauma (in this case, the atrocity of War). The novel is disturbing. It should be. The prose of the story is excellent , the interweaving of memory, hallucination and reality disorienting in the extreme. A masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Vietnam story...
Review: Tim O'Brien is best known for his fantastic short story called
(approx) 'What they carried' (sorry for mangling that, I can't quite recall the exact name). It's often given as an example of great descriptive craft in writing programs and is a great story. He again tackles what he knows: Vietnam, and the effects that combat there had on the narrator. The imagery he gives of the time spent in Vietnam are gripping to say the least. I'm not certain whether I liked the ending or not. Can't say too much about that though, can I? As with some books I review, I'd say don't pay full price for this one, but read it if you get the chance!
Rating:
Summary: Powerful
Review: I read this book in one sitting, and I didn't even realize it because I was experiencing rather than reading. Tim O'Brien is the most unpretentious, careful, and technically inventive writer of our time.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, horrible
Review: There is some utterly beautiful writing in this novel, and its author takes bold new approaches in telling a gripping story. It all works; sometimes extremely well, sometimes a bit tenuously, but on the whole it works. The small cast of characters are portrayed with incredible depth and seem very real. My only reservations are that some of the war scenes take a pretty strong stomach to get through, as does O'Brien's use of the phrase "making yum-yum" when describing a passionate encounter between the protagonist and his wife. Both the violence and this phrase sickened me about equally, but if these things don't deter you, it's a great book.
Rating:
Summary: I won't waste words
Review: If you are the slightest bit intrigued by this book or the author, put your mouse to work and order. It is a portrait of the secrecy within marriage, It is also a sort of parallel history of the American experience in Viet Nam and war in general. You will think about this novel for years to come. Did he or didn't he do it? Did IT even happen? These are gripping but ultimately secondary issues. Buy it NOW!
Rating:
Summary: Character development from the top down
Review: The use of flashback and fictionalized quotes is weaved seamlessly into this mystery novel. It is a mystery of character as much as of plot as the sequences defined above serve to slowly reveal the personal history of a middle aged couple who are recovering from a recent political setback. As the history unfolds their lakeside retreat takes on more significance as each are struggling with facing the truth about their pasts. A well written and thought provoking work that is difficult to put down. O'Brien's writing on Vietnam is absolutely searing.
Rating:
Summary: Exploration of deception and ambiguity
Review: Tim O'brien utilizes symbolism, personification, and the exploration of unsolved issues to venture into the nature of human deception and ambiguity. O'brien's symbolism of a mirror and personification of nature to describe devastating scenes while encompassing unsolved issues explore deception and ambiguity. Tim O'brien utilizes the symbol of a mirror of walls to explore human deception and describe the terror of John Wade's personal issues. Within the statement, "he felt calm and safe with the mirror behind his eyes...where he could turn bad things into good things and just be happy," O'brien suggests the mirror as a symbol of general human deception. The mirrors seem to serve as a shelter that shields John Wade from interaction with reality. O'brien avoids conclusion of the causes of this deception, rather he uses it as a representation of a universal mask worn by many to hid themselves. O'brien goes on to skillfully personify elements within Thuan Yen, thus providing the reader with an ambiguous atmosphere to journey into. O'brien's description of Wade's initial arrival to Vietnam was majestic and ambiguous as "the wind seemed to pick him up and blow him from place to place". In this personification the wind seems to hold the force of lifting Wade and placing him were it sees fit. The wind seems to take away Wade's strength and inhibitions to do as he pleases. Soon after O'brien quotes, "the sunlight sucked him down a trail towards the center of the village". Once more nature is brilliantly personified. By personifying the sun O'brien gives nature the surreal power of controlling Wade's actions. This world, in which Wade feels he has no control, creates a living nightmare for his character and the reader. It also is a contribution to the ambiguous atmosphere and haunting tone. These two entanglements of rhetorical strategy are bind to create what O'brien calls chapter of "Evidence". Chapter's of evidence are filled with excerpts from false books, interviews of characters, and testimonials from Wade's war buddies. Here O'brien creates more ambiguity by addressing issues, but giving no resolution for the reader to rely upon. In doing this O'brien seems to bind reality and fantasy. This haunts the reader because there is no clear line between what is there and what may just seem to there. O'brien gives no set stop and go points , thus the reader wonders abroad without guide and direction. O'brien goes on to comment, "Love and War are the same thing," which suggests that deception is a manifestation of frustration. This is seen in Wade's fight to rid himself from the horrifying truths of Thaun Yen. This analysis serves as a clear exploration of betrayal, deceit and ambiguity, but not as a solution. O'brien's venture towards just laying down the facts and letting the reader rely on themselves to draw conclusions intensifies the suspense and ambiguous nature of the book. The Chapters of "Evidence" and "Hypothesis" further thoughts of "Is this real?" Thus, revealing to the reader why O'brien is considered the master of wartime deception and mystery.
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Summary: Ghosts of the Past
Review: In his novel In the Lake of the Woods, Tim O'Brien uses motifs, imagery, and foreshadowing to show how John Wade's attempt to erase his past bring him to realize that your past never dies, no matter how skillfully you cover it up. In the novel, O'Brien uses Wade's childhood to foreshadow events that will take place later in his life. One example of this would be Wade's special talent of practicing magic. O'Brien uses Wade's practicing of magic to foreshadow the tricks that Wade will try to play later in life, such as his cover up of his participation in the massacre at My Lai, as well as the ultimate disappearing trick he performs at the end by fleeing the police investigation of his wife's disappearance. Also, when Wade's father commits suicide, he uses mind tricks such as conversations with his dead father to help him cope with the grief he is feeling. This foreshadows that later in life, such as after the massacre, he will be forced to use those tricks again in order to help him forget the things he did in My Lai, as well as the things he saw others do. Another example of this would be Wade's meeting of his wife in college. He spies on her constantly because he does not trust her faithfulness. This secret activity that he keeps from his wife foreshadows that there will be other secret events that he will keep from his wife later on. Later in the novel, Wade is drafted into the Army during Vietnam. O'Brien uses intense visual imagery to describe Wade's experiences in the war. One example of O'Brien's use of imagery is this passage: In the second week of February a sergeant named Reinhart was shot dead by sniper fire. He was eating a Mars bar. He took a bite and laughed and started to say something and then dropped in the grass under a straggly old palm tree, his lips dark with chocolate, his brains smooth and liquid. (39) This passage shows what kind of things the soldiers in Vietnam saw, and why Wade had to use his mind tricks to help him forget the things he saw. Another example of imagery is when Wade describes his accidental shooting of a Vietnamese civilian: He would not remember raising his weapon, nor rolling away from the bamboo fence, but he would remember forever how he turned and shot down an old man with a wispy beard and wire glasses and what looked to be a rifle. It was not a rifle. It was a small wooden hoe. The hoe he would always remember...he would look up sometimes to see the wooden hoe spinning like a baton in the morning sunlight...see the old man shuffling past the bamboo fence, the skinny legs, the erect posture and the wire glasses, the hoe suddenly sailing high and doing its quick twinkling spin and coming down uncaught. (109) Besides his use of imagery during the war he also begins to establish motifs of Wade's childhood during the war. One of these motifs is the forgetting trick that Wade is once again forced to use after he shoots the old man in My Lai. Another motif would be the "mirrors in his head" that O'Brien eludes to when explaining how Wade hides behind the mirrors in his head to get away from his past. After the war, Wade extends his tour a year and becomes an office clerk. During this time he destroys all evidence of his involvement in the massacre, and creates a whole new military history for himself, another disappearing trick. When he returns from Vietnam, Wade enters politics and is soon elected as the lieutenant governor of St. Paul, Minnesota. He likes politics because he likes the manipulation that goes along with being a political figure. This manipulation is a motif of his manipulation of objects as a magician and his mind and history as a soldier. He then decides to run for Senate, but is crushed by his opponent when it is uncovered that he was a participant in the massacre at My Lai. He and his wife retreat to a cabin where, one day, she is found to be missing. The police step in and find nothing to tell them where she is. All that they know is that the boat is missing and they suspect she is either stranded or drowned in the lake . One cannot help but wonder however, if this was just a disappearing trick on her part to escape the man she no longer feels she can trust. In the end it is found that Wade murdered his wife in a fit of rage, by pouring boiling water on her face while she is sleeping. The reader uncovers this by O'Briens repetition of the "puffs of steam " rising from Kathy's eye sockets during her campaigning with Wade. Finally, Wade realizes that the police are getting closer to uncovering him and he decides to split using the neighbors boat. His departure is another example of a disappearing trick. In conclusion, O' Brien's use of motifs, foreshadowing, and imagery make this book the ultimate mystery wrapped in a love story. He explains to the reader that the past will always come back to haunt you. In this case, the past came back and ruined John Wade's life. One would like to think of Wade as a completely innocent man who was torn apart by the war and destroyed by its aftermath. But, with his perfection of magic and manipulation, O'Brien asks, "Could the truth really be so simple? So terrible?"
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