In the Lake of the Woods is an amazing journey into memory ands madness - the madness of war, the madness of past sins, the madness of staying with someone you are scared of. This book is not easy. It takes you into various levels of uncertainty and mystery. We all live with our pasts. Some are more fraught with pain than others, but all shape who we are today. The main characters of In the Lake of the Woods, John and Kathy, both have many layers of hurt and pain to deal with. There are many options presented, but none are settled on. There is mystery and depth here.

"What drives me on, I realize, is a craving to force entry into another heart, to trick the tumblers of natural law, to perform miracles of knowing. It's human nature. We are fascinated, all of us, by the implacable otherness of others, and we wish to penetrate by hypothesis, by daydream, by scientific investigation those leaden walls that encase the human spirit, that define it and guard it and hold it forever inaccessible. ("I love you," someone says, and instantly we begin to wonder -- "Well, how much?" -- and when the answer comes -- "With my whole heart" -- we wonder about the wholeness of a fickle heart.) Our lovers, our husbands, our wives, our fathers, our gods -- they are all beyond us."

That passage sums up the book well for me -- how impossible it is to truly know another. We all have secrets, and many of us even keep secrets for ourselves.

I generally don't like stories with ambiguous endings -- I like to know what REALLY happened, as we all do. I will make a huge exception for In The Lake of the Woods, because it is such a beautifully crafted book -- the story is so well laid out, and the possibilities so well explored, with the "evidence" doled out just so -- that I am simply amazed at O'Brien's storytelling powers. I enjoyed thinking about both the mystery of what happened to Kathy Wade and the mystery of what the human heart can contain. I'm sure I will be thinking about this book for years to come.

Tim O'brien caught my attention in his book "the things they carried" and again did not disappoint me with "in the lake of the woods".. the complex, unique style of O'brien really gets the mind working and keeps the pages turning.

As always, Tim O'Brien's writing style is amazing, surprising. His structure is enjoyable to read, and re-read. I'll likely read this book again within the next few years just for the great description and prose.

However, as much as I enjoyed the style, it took me a few chapters to get into the story. Had I not previously read a couple of O'Brien's other books, I might not have granted it as much time as I did. Luckily, I did give the book a chance because as soon as the story picked up, I was into it.

O'Brien's veteran experiences provide a wonderful backbone for his characters and John Wade (the protagonists) is interesting and real. As an Iraq War veteran, I found a number of traits in the character that I could understand, and a couple I could relate too. At times I was surprised but the plot and I enjoyed where the winding trail led me.

In the Lake of the Woods is a good book and I'd recommend it to anybody wanting to understand the inner working of a PTSD mind.

SPOILERS.

This is the only O'Brien book I have read so far (though I hope to read "The Things They Carried" soon). And while I initially enjoyed the first half of the book, the second half was somewhat of a chore to get through.

For me, the constant hammering on John Wade's two possible motivations (dear old Dad and Vietnam) was numbing at first but then crossed the line into insulting.

The analogy (or is it metaphor - I *always* forget) of the Sorcerer/magician crap was both lame and laughable.

A number of the characters - for example Tony and Claude and Myra Shaw (the waitress) - hit me as being caricatures and stereotypes.

Also, especially towards the end of the book, the philosophical mumbo-jumbo got very old very quick ("Could the truth be so simple? So terrible?" or "The mathematics are always null; water swallows sky, which swallows earth"). C'mon!

Finally, Mr. O'Brien seems to have resorted to what I call the Dustin Hoffman School Of Writing. I like Dustin Hoffman. I think he's a very, very good actor. But there are a number of times when I see him in a film and he may as well be wearing a flashing neon sign that screams "LOOK AT ME! I'M ACTING!"

I feel the same way about Mr. O'Brien's writing. A lot of it is good. Very, very good. But there are whole passages where Mr. O'Brien seems to be wearing a flashing neon sign that screams "LOOK AT ME! I'M WRITING!"

Anywho, just one man's (me!) opinion.