Summary Of In The Lake Of The Woods By Tim O Brien

In the Lake of the Woods is a book about a man who comes back from the war in Vietnam and moves into a cabin in a town called In the Lake of the woods, but shortly thereafter his wife goes missing and he tries to find her while battling other things.

Tim O’Brien is an American author from Austin, Minnesota. He was born on October 1st, 1946. He enrolled and studied at Malcalester College. He graduated from the in 1968 with a BA in political science and also a draft notice. At first he was against the war but reported for service and he was deployed to Vietnam with what has been called the “unlucky” American division due to it be involved with the My Lai massacre in 1968, which was an event that was a key thing in the book, In the Lake of the

It tells us about the many letters that Kathy would write to John all throughout the war. Then it jumps back in to the present day and the narrator suggests that maybe Kathy had drowned in a boating accident. Or that maybe she saw John sleeping and wanted to let him sleep so she left and went for a long walk. Maybe she went to drive the boat around the island. Then it goes on to tell us about how the county sheriff flies in from Bandette and his name is Art Lux. He tells John that they still have not found Kathy but they are still looking intensely. John tells him he will do anything to help. Then it gives us more evidence about Kathy’s disappearance. And it flashes back again to John’s days in Vietnam. It talks about the grenades that they would use and how they injured people. Then the narrator gives another hypothesis of possible reasons for Kathy’s disappearance. Maybe she got lost at sea, or she left to go with her lover. Or she took the boat out and it ran out of fuel. It then says within two days of Kathy’s disappearance there is over one-hundred people searching the lake for Kathy, but no sign of her is found. (Florman and Kestler

He is the protagonist of the novel. He is a Vietnam War veteran and a politician whose career comes to an end and it’s revealed that he was involved in the famous My Lai Massacre. He loves to perform magic tricks mainly because when he was a kid he thought it would bring his father back to life. When he was a kid he and his father had a troubled relationship. His father criticized John for being his weight to carry around, which caused John’s father to kill himself. It’s implied in the novel that John now feels a deep need to be loved and also praised because of his bad relationship with his father, but later in college John meets Kathy who he follows through everything. But when John’s political career ends, he and Kathy go to a cottage for a vacation but after a few short days Kathy mysteriously disappears and naturally John is the person of suspicion. But the narrator leaves it up to us whether John was haunted by the bad memories he had of Vietnam and he took it out on Kathy and hid her body or if he was uninvolved in her