A remarkable novel from the National Book Award-winning author of 'Going After Cacciato' and 'The Things They Carried', which combines the power of the finest Vietnam fiction with the tension of a many-layered mystery. In a remote lakeside cabin deep in the Minnesota forests, Kathy Wade is comforting her husband John, an ambitious politician, after a devastating electoral defeat. Then one night she vanishes, and gradually the search for Kathy becomes a voyage into the darkest corners of John Wade's life, ...
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A remarkable novel from the National Book Award-winning author of 'Going After Cacciato' and 'The Things They Carried', which combines the power of the finest Vietnam fiction with the tension of a many-layered mystery. In a remote lakeside cabin deep in the Minnesota forests, Kathy Wade is comforting her husband John, an ambitious politician, after a devastating electoral defeat. Then one night she vanishes, and gradually the search for Kathy becomes a voyage into the darkest corners of John Wade's life, a life of deception and deceit - the life of a man able to escape everything but the chains of his darkest secret.
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Add this copy of In the Lake of the Woods to cart. $12.97, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2006 by Mariner Books Classics.
John's political career is finished after it suffers a devastating defeat when stories of a Viet Nam massacre cover-up surface and are connected to him. John and his wife Kathy escape the ridicule of the public eye to their lake cabin in the deep woods of Minnesota. While at the cabin, Kathy disappears without a trace. Did she leave with her lover, flee alone, or did John, in his increasing insanity, kill her? Or are John and Kathy planning a deep woods escape across the border to Canada to live out their lives in obscurity? The story is told throughout in the voices of others. It is extremely well-written, haunting and near impossible to put down. Not for the squeamish, it is never-the-less, one fantastic read.
Maggie1
Jan 31, 2008
Magic, Reality & the Vietnam War
What really happened to John Wade when he was a soldier in Vietnam? And what really happened to his recently-missing wife, Kathy? O'Brien's book traces John's life from childhood to present, just after John's failed bid at running for Congress. We get snippets of truth and differing perceptions as the people in John's life, from Kathy's distraught relatives to John's childhood acquaintances, offer pieces of the puzzle, sometimes only one line at a time. A great read, but not for someone who needs absolute answers about "what really happened." You'll have to decide for yourself as you read this sometimes graphic and often haunting story.
