Thoughts on In the Lake of the Woods

Before reading the book, I thought I wouldn't like it because of the author. I had read The Things They Carried in my literature class and found it boring. Thankfully, this book was a lot different and highly more enjoyable to read.

I was confused at many parts of the book but I see this as a positive; it means that I had to think about what was really going on. It reminds me a lot of watching Asian horror movies. At the end of the movie, the director pulls some weird stunt and I'm left thinking about the whole mystery. The chronology of the book sometimes made it difficult to understand and I wondered why O'Brien chose to put that specific scene at that specific point.

The whole plot of the story was very interesting. I liked how this book was unlike other things we've seen in class. Instead of the main focus being on the war, O'Brien used the war to tell of the damaging effects the war had done on Wade. It really got me to thinking how Vietnam veterans now are still probably affected and they'll have to live with this throughout their whole lives, just like what that man said from Hearts and Minds. It also had me sympathizing for the families of the veterans because just like Kathy, they must also deal with the aftermath of the war but don't know how to really help because they themselves weren't present and have not experienced the same things.

One concept O'Brien presented was the image of love through the two snakes. I thought this was a creepy way to show love. 1 +1 = 0. I understand that two people are suppose to be consumed by each other but the thought of two snakes eating each other from the tail to the head just kept appearing in my mind. It disgusts me and makes me think that Wade's love was the obsessive kind which I guess it was with all the secret spying. A better interpretation of love to me would be something less gruesome like 1 + 1 = 1.