So be sure to post your thoughts about the book and its ending! First, check out this AP English Lit blog where students have posted their thoughts.
http://yhsapenglish.edublogs.org/2007/09/15/in-the-lake-of-the-woods-o%E2%80%99brien/
Your post should be of an interesting length and should address the following:
Topics to consider in your post:
• the elements of fiction (point of view, setting, plot, character, and theme);
• author’s intent;
• author’s style (mood, tone, syntax, detail, diction); and
• connections to class discussion, other books read this year, or concepts from the course
And check out this college blog:
http://collegian.lasalle.edu/en/16/6/699/
Text and speech of O'Brien about the Vietnam War:
http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/WritingVietnam/obrien.html
You might find this interesting:
His award-winning novel, The Things They Carried, has been called one of the finest volumes of fiction bout the Vietnam War, and Stewart O'Nan, in his Vietnam Reader, called The Things They Carried "a mysterious blending of the real and the imaginary." O'Nan said it makes us feel the loss of friends and innocence, and the resulting confusion that gives the war a deeply personal resonance. Growing up in a small town in Minnesota, the son of an insurance salesman and an elementary school teacher, Mr. O'Brien was a self-professed dreamer and a self-taught magician. He once said that he was inspired to be a writer by his father's personal account of Iwo Jima and Okinawa which had been published in the New York Times. He could not have known, then, reading his father's clippings, how close he had come to what would be the ultimate truth of his life. He was drafted into the army and sent to Vietnam as an infantryman; he spent the tour of his duty in Quang Nai province and was stationed in My Lai one year after the My Lai massacre. From a small Midwestern town to Vietnam is, we can imagine, a very long journey, and somewhere on that journey, the writer inside Tim O'Brien was freed. But he was more than merely a witness to the tragedy of the Vietnam war. He was hit by shrapnel in a grenade attack and awarded the Purple Heart. Like his father, he had written and published personal accounts of the war which had made their way into Minnesota newspapers. When he returned from Vietnam, he studied for his doctorate at Harvard's Kennedy School, and while doing so, he experienced his personal accounts into a book which would be, of course, his first. So with the publication of If I Die in a Combat Zone (Box Me Up and Ship Me Home), he began his writing career.
I did not like the ending. I didn’t like how you had to solve the mystery of Kathy’s disappearance. To be honest, I think that Kathy ran away. I think she ran away because she just wanted to be happy. After they had their talk about what happened in John’s past, Kathy I think, felt threatened. She no longer felt “happy” with John. So that’s why I think she ran away. To be honest, I don’t understand why John killed the plants. It was a little random. I thought it was foreshadowing that he killed Kathy. But towards the end of the novel, it was never explained what really happened. That’s why I don’t approve of the ending of the novel.
ReplyDeleteTo me, I think that O’Brian’s intent was to piss the reader off by not telling the reader what happened to Kathy. In the Lake of the Woods was a good book. But since there wasn’t a “real” ending, it was a waste of a book. The way O’Brian set up the book was interesting. I like that way he presented part of the story, then evidence, then a hypothesis, and then a flashback into John’s life. It was interesting to find out the way O’Brian thinks. One think I don’t like is the way that most of the characters in the novel are just quotes, like Kathy’s sister. Another thing I didn’t like was the section that explained when John’s father had died; John wanted to kill his father for dying. I liked how that part was set up. I didn’t like John’s feelings though. You can’t kill someone who is already dead.
But over all, I enjoyed reading the novel. I just did not like the ending. And just to recap, I think Kathy ran away late that night, on a boat. She left so late the waters were rocky. Since it was dark, Kathy couldn’t see where she was going, and lost control of the boat, and crashed and died. That’s my conclusion to the story.
Despite the seemingly ever-growing grim mood of the novels we've been reading, I still find myself enjoying them. In the Lake of the Woods was no exception, O’Brien’s beliefs about the validity of story-truth versus factual truth a prevailing trend in his works. The novel centered itself on John Wade, a man running for the United States Senate, and his wife Kathy. Unbeknownst to others around him⎯even his wife⎯ John’s past was riddled with ill memories. His father was an alcoholic, frequently putting down John for his interest in magic tricks. However, John still loved his father to the point of where, after his father’s suicide, John re-imagined his father being present in his life (albeit, much more nurturing), in the mirror in the basement. There was also the matter of John’s future involvement in the Vietnam War and the My Lai Massacre, which developed within John a twisted sense of himself and the world around him. Eventually, this dark past returns to haunt John and Kathy, forcing them to flee the society they once claimed as home, into the “Lake of the Woods”, a place where John’s struggles finally come into light as Kathy, the center of his life, disappears.
ReplyDeleteOverall, O’Brien develops the novel through his use of the idea of fictional truth versus factual truth. Many of the other characters in the novel, such as Kathy’s sister Patricia, notably create possible scenarios to explain the reasons of Kathy’s disappearance. Even John himself begins to develop such scenarios; one told of Kathy simply deciding to leave by foot, while another offers the possibility that John may have killed her in his frenzied rage against all objects within the cabin. There was no concrete evidence to really prove any of these scenarios, displaying the extent of the mass confusion the characters are trying to weed through. O’Brien also utilizes flashback to expand upon John and Kathy’s relationship. Through these quick glimpses at the past, the audience is able to learn about how John experienced Vietnam, and the effects that his life had upon Kathy (the stress of being a politician’s wife and her personal sacrifices to continue to be with John).
The ending of this novel honestly bugged me. I figured O’Brien, being a writer of the Postmodernism era, would probably do this, though I was hoping at least to have some sort of confirmation on how Kathy died. But it appears that O’Brien wants his audience to piece together the mystery for themselves; to see their thoughts on how, in the end, the Vietnam War had a profound effect on the lives of all the characters. While pure speculation at best, after reading this novel and The Things They Carried, it’s quite clear to see that no matter how much time passes, the atrocities of man in war will still hang over society. In the Vietnam War, or any war in general, people are brought to do unspeakable things to each other; they lose themselves in the struggles, they bring the entire nature of the war into themselves so that they become the war, much like how John became Vietnam after his return. He took into himself the faces of the dead, the buzzing of “the flies”; his personality split between one that was able to live within the morality of society, and another that coexisted with the immortal war that waged within him.
Actually, this is how I believed Kathy disappeared; the side of him that took in Vietnam caused John to go on his rampage on the plants. Although he loved Kathy, she represented to him all the things he despised; the alcoholic antics of his father, and the very society which had dispelled him and his fellow soldiers for being part of a war that they put their lives on. Thus, the Vietnam-John killed Kathy, and dumped her (and the sheets) into the lake; dropping away the society that shunned him to see how they would feel if they had been put into his place.
Forgot to mention:
ReplyDeleteThe coupling of magic and politicians to me seemed like O'Brien satirizing the system of politics. In the novel, it was noted several times how magic and politics were alike in the sense that they were both an illusion, or as Carbo said, an indicator for "an unhappy childhood". In modern times, it seems as though politicians never give straight answers to public questions, instead opting to not reveal their secrets, much like how a "good magician never reveals their secrets." I think O'Brien was correct in this belief; politicians seem to just want to create an illusion that they're perfect, but chances are that they've had more than their fair share of blunders and secrets.
In Tim O’Brien’s in the Lake of the Woods, the plot and story line is developed with flash backs of the main character, John Wade’s, childhood. Struggling with the death of his alcoholic father who was abusive to him as a child, I believe John Wade’s problems in later life namely with his attachment to Kathy, have to do with how he was brought up and the fact that he felt angry and abandoned by his father.
ReplyDeleteJohn Wade lives with his past haunting him and holding him back in his life while Kathy wants to move forward. In some ways they seem to be very alike but also at some points polar opposites of one another.
The ending to in the lake of the woods is as intriguing as it is complicated and in depth. Depending on the reader’s interpretation and study of the book, you can decide what happened to Kathy. That perhaps it was a happy ending and they went to Verona, or perhaps she left because she was so sick with unhappiness, or, In my opinion the true ending, that John Wade is guilty of killing her. I noted numerous quotes in which I find the authors insinuation, that bluntly, John wade, after watering the plants with boiling water he brought the tea kettle into her room and while watching her sleep poured the water on her (it is arguable weather he is conscious of what he has done or not) he boils her to death and puts her at the bottom of the lake.
Now that I think about it, I believe that while he killed her he took on his other persona, Sorcerer, his alter ego given to him while he was in the war. At one point he is so wrapped up with it that while he is writing Kathy, he frightens her and she writes him that someday, “he might make her disappear.”
I believe that his wanting to be a magician and a politician had to do with him making things disappear, trickery and manipulation, which she was onto. This fear caused him to be compelled to kill her and so he did while under the influence of “Sorcerer”
When Patty comes to visit and when John gets the neighbors and authorities to start a search party, they soon start to suspect him.
John comes to terms with what he has done and in conclusion wishes to commit suicide, although O’Brien in the end also insinuates that they live happily ever after, I believe, like John Wade’s life is an illusion.
LAST TIME I SWEAR
ReplyDeleteI meant to add it into that big thing:
"They say one man is the cancer, the other is the blade that makes the cut." - Emmy the Great
Pretty much, John and Kathy's relationship is parasitic to the point of where they're basically killing each other, much like the twin snakes eating each other than John discovered in Vietnam.
/alex
Brianna Corbitt
ReplyDeleteThe novel, In the Lake of the Woods is based upon the devastating events that occurred during the Vietnam War, which shares many similarities with Tim O’Brien’s other novel The Things They Carried. The reoccurring theme of a soldier’s struggle to deal with many issues after returning home such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) appears in both of these novels. In the Lake of the Woods includes a much more violent view on the matters during the war. O’Brien purposely ends his novel vaguely in order to let the readers decide for their selves what actually happened to Kathy concerning her disappearance. The in depth details that were included in the “evidence” section resulted in many different possibilities to the disappearance. Since O’Brien wrote this novel in that way, depending on the discernment of the reader they will conclude different things. I loved O'Brien's comparison to John's life as a politician and a magician at the same time. This is a excellent comparison because politicians are in fact magicians...just a bit more political and less human. Politicians have the ability to deceive others and make them see what they want them to see --that's the brilliance about being involved in politics. Overall I enjoyed this book because it makes you think much more than any usual novel.
Based on the conclusion of the novel, one can assume one of two things could have occurred. Based upon the interviews, one can see the many sides of John, all of which were revolved around magic in some way. His military friends from Charlie Company called him Sorcerer, his father called him Little Magician, and his wife Kathy also fed into his magic. Magic helped conceal the truth and bring about this false sense of hope and stability within his life. He would twist things around and try to view them from a different prospective or pretend the truth was a lie and try and mask what he didn’t want to believe. With the incident with PFC Weatherby, he killed him for no reason and tried to pretend it didn’t happen. Now with Kathy, one can say that John was the one who murdered her. The evidence could support this statement because there was a teapot in the cottage, and he could have poured the boiling water one her, just like he had done with the plants. Due to the war and growing up with an abusive father, John was left unstable. He was fixated on war and this desire of animosity and he brought this back home with him. The reminisce of the war still lingered within him and he could have taken out his anger on his wife, and then took the boat to dispose of her body.
ReplyDeleteThe setting of the Lake of the Woods helps support this theory as well. O’Brien uses fog in both The Things They Carried and within In the Lake of the Woods. The fog symbolizes this feeling of unsteadiness and confusion, and leaves one unable to decipher the truth. In both novels the protagonist was left unsure of what was reality and what was fiction. John was left in a haze and therefore killing Kathy and making her disappear was just another magic trick for him, but due to his unstableness, he was left unaware of his actions.
One can also draw to a different conclusion by saying Kathy simply left John in the cottage. John and Kathy’s life revolved around trying to be happy. Their collage life was full of happiness, but once John entered politics, it left their marriage unstable, just as John had been. All Kathy wanted was to have a family and to have a house of their own, and John stripped that dream from her. They had the chance to start a family, but John forced her to have an abortion, thus ending her happiness. Kathy could have taken the boat and left to try and find a new life of her own, a life of which didn’t contain politics and deception. I believe the ending of the story is left a mystery because it allows the reader to draw their own conclusions. Everyone interoperates the evidence in their own way and it gives them the freedom to choose the fate of Kathy.
Running through the novel is a theme of deception, and threaded through that is the constant presence of self-deception. It is possible therefore that Wade killed his wife and buried the fact in his mind behind smoke and mirrors. Like his performances in front of audiences, and during campaign were he tricked them into buying a certain image of him, he stood in front of mirrors and built himself a world where his father is alive, where they are happy, and perhaps a world where he did not kill his wife. Wade, in his mind and letters, brings up the idea that one plus one equals zeros, perhaps hinting that their love, and drive for happiness has killed them both. However, this only one of the many possibilities, with others being bridges between chapters leaving the ending swirling over the lake in the Minnesota fog. In true Tim O’Brien fashion he lets the reader build part of the story as he constantly contradicts the possible outcome in his hypothesis chapters, building a postmodern novel that plays with the ideas of truth and deception. By leaving the strings of the book hanging and ending the novel by sending Wade out into the middle of the lake with an unknown motive O’Brien pulls together the theme of questioning reality and to let the reader share the responsibility of the author and craft a reality with the pieces that Obrien has left them.
ReplyDeleteO’Brien tells multiple stories simultaneously, bringing the commentary from the footnotes of the evidence chapters into the narrative to add perspective to Wade’s time in Vietnam and to add depth to the sections. Like The Things the Carried, In the Lake of the Woods is a splintered narrative told in a series of interlocking fragments that reveal the story in small windows. This adds layers to the story that the reader has to sift through to try and get their hands on the truth. Also like in The Things They Carried O’Brien constantly shatters what is considered to be truth leaving no easy answers for the reader. He leaves both novels swirling in the mist, constantly question truth, reality, and what a true story even is. The narratives turns in on itself questioning its own legitimacy in a metaphysical trail throughout the book and raising new questions in each chapter. In the Lake of the Woods uses its setting in the foggy Minnesota wilderness to mirror the ephemeral nature of the narrative, and it’s ending, and multiple points of view, in the narrative and evidence section, attempt to pierce the fog from different angles. The culmination of the novel creates vacuum that requires the reader’s input to fill, and piece together the story.
Tim O'Brien uses his signature style to great effect in the novel “In the Lake of the Woods.” The book is written using a style that is similar to in media res, yet still very much remains it’s own unique thing. This style makes it easier to leave the reader to his/her own theories rather than spell (pun intended) out too much for them. He can skip over details that would allude to any real revelations, while providing whatever information he needs, and whatever amount he dictates necessary. The story itself has a depressing and moody tone to it, which contrasts with the hopeful hypothesis section at the very end.
ReplyDeleteT Throughout the entirety of the novel John is consistently bottling up the truth about his paranoia and guilt. It’s impossible to speak about his problems without giving my opinion about what happened to his wife. It would only make sense that John has killed her. She’s at the bottom of the lake, sleeping with the fishes. John’s issues stem from his childhood and Vietnam intensifies them. As a child he would use magic to escape his abusive and alcoholic father. He was trapped between his feelings of neglect and his respect for his father. He had no option but to retreat into his magical ambitions, his personal escapism method.
When he is in Vietnam he writes to Kathy using his persona “The Sorcerer”. It’s obvious that he’s using this to escape from the horrors of war, which in itself references a theme present in “The Things They Carried”. He once again returns to this bad place at the lake house. His wife’s disappearance is reminiscent of a disappearing act. She's dead.
Ledibel Rivera
ReplyDeleteI am quite upset with the ending of this novel because my wanting to know what happened to Kathy is what kept me wanting to read the book. In the end of the novel it didn't really say what happened to kath we really had to base what happened to her on our opinions. Over all i really did enjoy reading the novel because it was a mystery where i really had to pay attention to all of the facts in order to be able to figure out what happened to kath. What i really liked about this novel was how O'Brian made the character John a magician and it really tied in with the illusions in the novel. This book showed how the Vietnam war not only affected the soldiers who fought in it but it showed how it affected their family members as well. Although the ending disturbed me i loved the book. I especially enjoyed how the book showed what every character in the novel thought of Kath's disapperance this allowed me to base my own opinion of what happened. I believe that John killed Kath because in the pages 271-275 it says that he burned her with hot water. I believe this chapter was put in the novel for a reason, to tell us that he killed her.
I found the cliffhanger In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien to be quite frustrating. However, O’Brien’s postmodern tactic of letting the reader decide the fate of the Wades is an effective way to engage the reader into the novel. O’Brien tampers with the tradition of literature. Instead of a linear story like most novels he uses fragmentation to build the suspense in the novel. For character development of both John and Kathy, John has flashbacks of his fatherless childhood and college experiences. His involvement in magic as a child continued out throughout his life. The author shows that there is a commonality between magic and politics. Both fields master in the art of manipulation and holding power your audience doesn’t. In the chapters “Hypothesis” O’Brien lists several possibilities of how Kathy could have disappeared. For example, Kathy could have been John’s accomplice in her own disappearance or John could have dumped her body in the lake. The setting takes place in northern Minnesota where John and Kathy Wade vacation to try to escape from the political world where John and Kathy have marital problems due to John’s involvement in the Vietnam War. O’Brien has a common theme of war and how veterans deal with their war experiences after leaving the battle field (i.e. The Things They Carried).
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the book, I believe that John and Kathleen Wade were lost at lake. The objective the couple hoped to reach (at least in their minds) was to be happy and get from their past. I believe that it was true to human form to want to want be happy but life gets in the way. So it feels like there’s no other choice but to run away. The events of John’s life could have lead up to the inevitable, such as the tense and misguided relationship between him and his father, spying on Kathy because of his fear of her leaving him, or the massacre of Thuan Yen during the Vietnam War, even loss of the election.
ReplyDeleteOf course John would seek human affection after not receiving it as the son of an alcoholic father. When he actually had a love that was true of course he’d be afraid of losing it to the point he’d become obsessing over watching and protecting it.
In dealing with war, away from morale and humanity; the peer-pressure to follow orders was crucial but unnerving. It wasn’t exactly kill or be killed, the men brainwashed to believe everyone was enemy whether a sniper or innocent civilian. John knew that what he was doing was wrong which is why the souls of whom he killed, the old man with the hoe and comrade PFC Weatherby haunt him throughout the novel. It’s agreeable to say that John’s just as guilty as the rest of his platoon for not bringing the gruesome tale of slaughter at Thuan Yen and My Lai to light as his comrade Richard Thinbill requested.
Like everyone else John needed a coping mechanism to deal with the horror and neglect he had been through. His “alternate personality” as a magician was made to attract an audience, to get attention but more importantly, love. As a boy John liked looking into mirrors to project the illusion his father’s approval, his love for his son. As a soldier then politician John became the Sorcerer, a man who performed magic to cover up his past and leave his audience in awe of him. The misfortunes and distress that John experienced as a child into adulthood, being with Kathy, is explanatory for wanting to leaving into the lake of the woods with just the illusion of a better tomorrow.
No matter Kathy’s hatred for politics for taking her chance at a normal life with kids or her affair with the dentist she supported John until the end. It’s believable that Kathy went out into the lake of the woods to get away from miserable past and present that took away her chance at a happy future, which is all she ever wanted.
Kathy put her life into her marriage with John and therefore sacrificed her dreams to raise a normal family to politics. For that reason it’s understandable why she would resent politics.
The dentist seemed to be pure distraction from Kathy’s life of politics, her misery. But, in the end, she loved her husband, no matter her sister’s objections.
Some may say what John and Kathy were cowards if this was the conclusion. But others like me may see as realistic since all they had left to go on was the fantasy of the house in Verona with nice furnishings and a busload of kids.
Marissa & Shayla
ReplyDeleteThis was a very good book to read. The ending on the other hand was not that great. We thought that the ending could have been stronger. It would have been nice to see what really did happen to Kathy at the end of the book. being able to figure out what happened was what kept me reading but then to not figure out what happened to Kathy it was disappointing. We thought that the ending could have been stronger that what it was. It was as if Tim O'Brian wanted us to make up our own ending of the book. It was all based on our imagination, if we wanted to find Kathy we could and if we thought that she died then she did. There was no really clear ending in the book of what happened to kathy. We think that John might have killed Kathy becuase as said in the story he pours extreamly hot water on her. Also with John being involved in the Vietnam War it gave us a better understanding of why John acted the way that he did. Once someone is in the army all that they experiance never goes away. They have to live with the pain for the rest of their life. Many people that come back home from the war they start to act crazy they dont remember how to live there life with out thinking about all that they had to go trough. This book also shows the stuggles that the family of the solider have to go through. Once they have left and come back they will not be the same person that had left you how ever months ago. army families have to go through alot of struggles of trying to bring that family memeber back to the person they once were.Having to go through certian situations can be harder for someone that has just came out of the war. When they want to just live life to the fullest it can be hard for them becuase all that they can think about is the terrible expericances that they had to go through during the time of war. The memories of what happended to them will nver leave them. It is as if the memeories of the war is haunting them and will be haunting them for the rest of their life and they can't do anyhting to change that. There is nothing for them to do to escape from what they had to go through. Thats why John turns to magic to help him through the stressful times. I think that the flashbacks were very helpful also because it also showed us how John grew up. Feeling neglected from his father, that why we think that he was so into magic because it would let him escape for sometime while he live in his so called abusive relationship with his father. The evidence also help us to think what might have happened to Kathy. Throught out the book we were given hints of how Kathy disapperared even through we never really figure out what happened to Kathy.
In the Lake of the Woods, I think it is safe to say that the ending was a disappointment. Even though, we as the reader, knew that we wouldn't get to find out about Kathy's mysterious disappointment, we still hoped that there would be a hint leaning in one direction or the other about what really happened to Kathy. In the end, it is up for the reader to hypothesize based on the evidence given throughout the book on what they thought happened to Kathy. O'Brien gives us the tools needed to make up our own theories about John and Kathy, and the basis of their relationship. John Wade is under suspicion since the beginning of the book, the trauma he faced in Vietnam changed his ability to react rationally to him and Kathy's relationship and the humiliating lost and destruction of his career. I believe isolating themselves up in the lake of the woods was the last straw for John, and this led him inevitably to kill Kathy. He was no longer sane as the reality of what happened in Vietnam became a reality he could no longer hide behind smoke and mirrors as he was accostumed to. John never fit in much, even since he was a kid, he limited himself to becoming a magician who spent his time alone perfecting the gift. So when he went into war, it was easy for him to becoming peer pressured into becoming a brainwashed machine who killed everything in sight at war. He lost his moral compass there at the Vietnam War, and therefore his obsession with his love for Kathy wasn't normal. This is way I was led to believe that John committed the ultimate act of killing his wife before she had the chance to escape his cycle, like the two snakes who would eat eachother until there was nothing left.
ReplyDeleteTim O'Brien wrote this story just to aggravate the reader! He just lets our minds wonder and leaves us unhappy with the fact that we never really know what happens. The ending was filled with a bunch of questions, I don't want questions or uncertainty i want facts! The tone of the whole book set us up for the ending though, by making John not to sure what happened to Kathy. My opinion was switching back and forth throughout the book because of he different evidence, weather is was pointing towards John killing Kathy or Kathy just simply disappearing. It just irks me that I'm never to sure at the end. I like the way he switches from fiction and non-fiction. The factual thing is what makes this story really seem real and makes me interested and the fiction is what is the most interesting. The chapters about John in the army are basically what made him the frantic man that he was. He watched people get murdered and he himself took lives. This is on of the things that could lead us to believe that John killed Kathy, even though she was the love of his life. The boathouse doesn't help making John look guilty, it's in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden his wife disappears? That is why some of the people quoted found him guilty.But yea back to the ending of this book, I didn't completely hate it but i feel like it wasn't even an ending but like it was more along the lines of the beginning. The whole book felt like the beginning. It left me wanting more and it made me want to write my own ending to the story, good book though.
ReplyDeleteThe elements of fictions it increases the enjoyment keeps the audience wanting to know what’s going to happen next, because I was reading the book and it was interesting I just wanted to know what was going to happen next it was just the nature, how the story was told. The author, argue and debates and cannot be reconstructed from writing. The text that is being writing all has a meaning. The author’s mood and tone is irritating. The event might have been John's last great magic trick, a disappearing act. John and Kathy would have planned her disappearance, and to have John join her later on, after the search efforts had been called off, leaving them to a new start at life. . Enjoyed how they broke down every character, so you will know their characteristics, so you’ll understand their acts. Overall the book it kept me wondering what happened to Kathy. It bothered me that I couldn’t figure what happened next. Dealing with the author doing that thought the whole book, interesting book!
ReplyDeleteYour post should be of an interesting length and should address the following:
ReplyDeleteTopics to consider in your post:
1. I think O'Brien did a pretty good job handling all plot elements, although I thought that Kathy's character was a bit forced. However the bits with John, they were very good. The only bit that upset me was how John seemed unnaturally calm and non-indignant during the investigation for his wife; up until then I could connect with John's character, but the lack of indignation and frustration at the absence of others' understanding, especially Pat's, really seemed like a discontinuity in his character, and made John feel incomplete.
2. The ending was a curve-ball, and it does make you think. Maybe, since everything the reporter said was a construction of his imagination, maybe the Sorcerer and his wife did play a final trick and orchestrate everything to start a new life. Or maybe they didn't, maybe the Sorcerer did truly kill his wife, wrap her in the bedsheets, take the Evinrude out, and dump her. It's hard to say, and, if I haven't learned anything from this novel, or from life and general, there's no way to know the truth about anything, meaning I won't make a guess. There are too many possibilities, too many unknowns and speculations, for me to be able to make a judgment.
I am human, and I accept this.
ReplyDeleteJohn Wade is a very interesting character who was exquisitely developed through out the story. I like how O'Brien would present us with a part of the story and then later explains why it happened to John. This was a very interesting way to develop the plot and the main character. The flashbacks into Johns life were confusing at times, as flashbacks always are but they were definitely very explanatory of John's many emotional and mental issues.
ReplyDeleteThe ending was annoying. I hate cliffhanger endings that make you have to question what you're reading. I wish the author would take ownership of what they're writing and finish the story how they think it should be. I can't even say what I believe happened at the end because it's a book so it's not like there is a scenario that REALLY happened so its irrelevant. The possible endings were that he became overpowered by his alter ego the Sorcerer and poured the scalding water over his wife Kathy and then threw her body into the lake or that she got on a boat and left when the waters were rocky and she died.
Overall, I really enjoyed O'Brien's style of writing. He is very talented and the story was very interesting even though the ending pissed me off.