Thoughts on "In the Lake of the Woods"

My opinion on "In the Lake of the Woods" is a mixture of like and dislike. There were aspects of it I definitely liked, like the unique structure of the book and different perspectives it takes. But its not like the book made for an easy read! The flashbacks to the war, and John's recollection of the massacre were extremely vivid and disturbing. The way the author describes each and every instance so clearly really takes the reader back to the war, which is not really my cup of tea.

Furthermore, I never really understood what the problem was between Kathy and John. I mean, if she didn't like politics, she should have just told him! But perhaps this is just a matter of perspective. I'm not really one to beat around the bush, so the frustration that Kathy and John felt within their relationship only irked me, and I never really felt any sense of understanding as to why both of them felt so tortured within their own relationship. It just seemed like they were inflicting pain upon themselves for absolutely no reason.

But I did like how the book ended. Its ironic, because I absolutely despise books with no concrete endings. If I had it my way I would never allow books without a solid ending to ever be published. But sadly such is not the case. Which, in this particular case, is a good thing. Because if the author had chosen to tell us exactly what had happened to Kathy, then the impact felt at the end would not have been so enormous. Because of the uncertainty of it, the reader is left to ponder upon various aspects of the story, and we feel the need to think about each and every circumstance, each and every twist and turn that led to the very end of John + Kath. The detrimental effects of the Vietnam War on John are so profound because of the fact that we never really knew how it all ended. There was no solid resolution. Both John and Kathy were just two lives that were torn apart because of this war. And that's why the ending works.

Overall, the book was a fast read. Honestly, you just wanted to get right to the ending to see how it all played out. Yeah, the scenes from the war were pretty gruesome, but that was not unexpected. And yeah, the ending isn't exactly an "ending". But for some reason its the perfect ending for this particular book. I'm not saying I absolutely loved this book. I didn't. But I'm not saying I hated it either. Because it wasn't a bad book. It was just different.