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In the Lake of the Woods Tim Obrian is the well-known American novelist who writes in his In the Lake of the Woods about his experiences in Vietnam War. The genre of the story is a typical war novel; however, in contrast to many horror war novels it has a charm of its own. In the lake of the Woods tells the amazing story of John Wade and his wife. John Wade is a politician, who has recently sustained a political defeat during the campaign for the United States Senate. Wade and his wife Kathy decided to move to Lake of the Woods (Minnesota). Shortly after their arrival, John found his wife missing and tries to find her.
The novel offers several assumptions on the real causes of Johns wife disappearance, and, unlike the average novel, the author leaves the final decision up to the reader. In the Lake of the Woods is a psychological echo of Vietnam War. The novel shows how the complicity in war crime committed many years ago may have impact on his life and future. Can the reader try the protagonist?
Should the individual be responsible for the things in the past? All these questions are open for reflections by the author of the novel. Tim Obrian speaks poetic, but clearly-cut and human language in the best traditions of American literature. The author claims that although the book contains original information from the real world, including the information about the real places, persons and events, it should be read in the capacity of fiction alone. The first chapter dwells on the relationships of John Wade and Kathy. The chapter leaves a shrilling impression of desperate desire to be happy regardless of all.
The couple wants to believe that their personal happiness should succeed against all the odds in molding the universe to its own purposes. After the campaign was failed, Wade and Kathy move to the Lake in the Woods. It is a wonderful place, with plenty of trees, with the dock and the boathouse and the narrow dirt road that came through the forest and ended in polished gray rocks at the shore below the cottage (OBrien 1). There were no towns, no people and no roads at all, and the wilderness was all one thing, like a great curving mirror, infinitely blue and beautiful, always the same (OBrien 1). This isolation, this solitude was the only thing the couple strived for. They had to have rest from everything, from the civilization with its merciless rules, and from the misfortunes and failures Wade came across with.
Although the election was lost, they wanted to believe that it was not the absolute and crushing thing it truly was (OBrien 2). They dreamt of a better life, new house with all the details, a fireplace, a library, a huge house full of childrens laughter, holidays in luxurious hotels, and all other joys of untroubled and serene life, and it did not matter that these things were expensive and impossible (OBrien 2). They wanted to be happy at any cost, but the reality impolitely reminded them of their collapse, although they tried to hide it. It was some sort of a wishing game (OBrien 3) that reminded the behavior of an ostrich who hides his head in the sand in the face of danger, trying to ignore the reality and to believe that it was not really so terrible (Obrian 3) and that they could make it better. In the Lake of the Woods is written by a simple and exciting language that captivates the reader from the very beginning to the very end of the novel. Tim Obrian manages to create an unforgettable atmosphere of suspense and adventure, while masterly branching out to the flashbacks of the most important events in the protagonists past.
Definitely, the novel has a specific social and cultural context. Tim Obrian often refers to the United States political structure and presents a wonderful mixture of clear-cut political terms (US Senate, candidates, and campaign, etc. ) and vivid metaphors and synonyms. This interesting literary style sets the novel apart from the other war-like and political-like American novels. Vietnam War gave a perfect material for Tim Obrian's literary activity. The author writes in realistic manner contiguous with harsh naturalism. Tim Obrian tries not to decorate the heritage of the war and shows that the man is not alien to weaknesses during the war and peace times.
Despite clear-cut intention to show the war experiences, the author also examines the destiny and twists and turns of life of an individual in family and society and places high emphasis on achieving the balance between the development of a personality and its responsibility before the humankind. It seems that Tim Obrian's novel is alien to generalizations and other vague narrative styles. On contrary, it presents a wide diversity of literary elements. The author evidently wants to show many-sided personality of the main character of the novel, along with focusing attention on the most important issues related to Vietnam War. Many of these issues bear metaphysical character and show the reader the innovative literary methods, self-absorption and reflexivity.
It seems that the author considers traditional literary techniques to be ineffective and wanted to brighten up the novel by reviving the memories of Vietnam War experiences. To put it differently, Tim Obrian develops post-modernist responsiveness in his novel and isnt content with the facts; to succeed, he twists the words to suit his own purpose and to refresh the context of Vietnam War. Bibliography Obrian, Tim. In the Lake of the Woods.
Penguin Press, 1995.
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Research essay sample on Lake Of The Woods Vietnam War
