USA Fiction Challenge: Minnesota

The next stop in the 2014 USA Fiction Challenge is in the land of 10,000 lakes.

Minnesota

Presenting

In The Lake Of The Woods

by Tim O'Brien

Follows the struggle of John Wade as he deals with a recently failed campaign for the United States Senate. He discovers one morning that his wife Kathy is missing.

   The use of flashbacks of John's childhood, his college years, and his Vietnam experiences, as well as testimony and evidence from other characters, this provides several hypotheses for the disappearance of Kathy Wade. Numerous alternatives were presented over the course of the novel. Maybe Kathy had sped over the lake too quickly and was tossed into the lake and drowned. Perhaps she had become lost in the wilderness and ran out of supplies. Or possibly John had killed her in the bedroom one night.

Printing History

Written by William Timothy O'Brien (1946- )

Penguin Books

January 1995

ISBN 14 025094

The Film

1996

 

John Waylan is a candidate for U.S. senator. Near the end of the campaign he is accused of ordering and participating in a massacre in a Vietnamese village. The accusation kills his career, and severely endangers his marriage. When he and Kathy flee to an isolated cabin, he awakes one morning to find her gone. Questions are asked, answers are given or hinted at, as the tension and suspense build. 

Cast

 Kathleen Quinlan as Kathy Waylan

 Peter Strauss as John Waylan

 Peter Boyle as Tony Carbo

 Nancy Sorel as Pat Hood

 Richard Anderson as Claude Rasmussen

Hrothgar Mathews as Nat Leming

Ken Pogue as Sheriff Art Lux

Trivia

This author was born in my father's home town of Austin Minnesota