A Giant Puzzle

In The Lake Of The Woods by Tim O'Brien

I decided to read this because I offered it as an option for literature circles for my Pre-AP classes a couple of years ago. I liked The Things They Carried by the same author, and my students who read this raved about it, so I thought I'd give it a go. On the whole, I liked it.

John and Kathy Wade are vacationing in northern Minnesota, right after John lost an election for congress. Apparently, things came out about his involvement in the Vietnam War, and how he and his company killed a lot of innocent people. Kiss of death for any kind of political career.

One morning, John wakes up but Kathy is not there. He remembers weird things from the night before, but doesn't know if it is connected to Kathy's disappearance. Once it becomes evening again, he starts looking for her because he is worried.

The story is told in a bunch of different genres. There are chapters about John's time in Vietnam. There are chapters that are flashbacks to his early years with Kathy. There are chapters that are told from Kathy's point of view. There are chapters of evidence, and chapters that offer varying hypotheses as to what happened to Kathy. I enjoyed most of the chapters, but I could have done without the Vietnam ones. For some reason, they just didn't resonate with me, which is weird, given that the book I liked by this author is about the Vietnam War.

This was an interesting read, and I am glad I finally took the time to read it.