Chet Reads & Writes

I’ve recently finished Tim O’Brien’s In The Lake of the Woods, one of his few that I had not read before. If you’re at all familiar with O’Brien you know that his novels always relate back to his experiences in Vietnam as an infantryman in the 1960s. His writing isn’t for everyone, but I love it. I don’t think In the Lake of the Woods overtook If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home in my Tim O’Brien ranking chart, but it’s definitely above Tomcat in Love.

In the Lake of the Woods is about John Wade, recently failed U.S. Senate candidate and Vietnam veteran, and his wife Kath. After his loss in the primaries John and Kath retreat to a lakeside cabin in northern Minnesota. Everything is peaceful and life as usual between the unhappily married couple when late one night Kath goes missing. The rest of the novel is spent learning about John’s violent experiences in Vietnam, the growth and demise of his relationship with Kath, and the nature of her disappearance. Rather than building this story as a traditional mystery, O’Brien chose to sprinkle in several different Evidence chapters throughout the book. Each one takes a new look at what might have happened to Kath, and ultimately leaves the reader with the choice to decide which scheme they liked better. I won’t spoil any of them here, but let me know if you’ve read this I’d like to know what you think happened.

The horrors John Wade faced in Vietnam are the most difficult I’ve read from Tim O’Brien. There were multiple instances where I was in a strong reading groove, but then I’d read a Vietnam chapter and I’d have to put the book down. Despite these scenes being hard for me to swallow, they are also some of the strongest passages of imagery that O’Brien has ever written. Don’t let the tough parts deter you from picking up this book though.

While reading I noticed, as have others, that O’Brien peppered in some of his classic characters and scenes that can be found in his other stories. I’m pretty positive these are recycled because they have great personal value to O’Brien, but I have also seen that some people find it to be trite at this point. One returning character type is the Native American soldier serving alongside the main character, another is the guy who steps on a landmine and is blown into a tree, and of course the main character who has the opportunity to escape to Canada.

In the end, I really enjoyed the book. I gave it 5 stars in my journal and over on Goodreads. Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

This post may contain information that people who haven’t finished the book don’t want to know.

Last time I set out to write about House of Leaves I had intended to finish off everything I had to say. Then I had banged out almost 500 words about Johnny Truant and decided that if I expected anyone to read these, then Navidson should probably get his own write-up as well. For the sake of brevity, here we go!

Will Navidson and Karen Green lived within a rather tumultuous love affair. Karen, a former model, and Navy, a globetrotting photojournalist, have a semi-happy life, with two children, but they wanted more. They wanted a house to call their own, a home where they would be together and their children could grow up happily with both parents around. A few weeks of happiness, then a strange hallway between two rooms and an extra quarter inch. Then a trip across the country, and upon return a mysterious, ashen hallway has appeared. That was a quick rehash of the events that led to Navidson’s final decent into the house alone.

As much pain as the shifting house caused this family, the chain of events eventually comes full circle to help Navidson understand where his love and attention belongs. The house leads to a reconciliation between Navy and Tom, his twin brother. Navidson also began to see that the house was causing him to lose so much in his life, and that it needed to be ended. His last adventure into the house was to find finality. To see what happened at the end. He wanted the darkness to overtake him, and leave his family alone.

I feel that there’s a lot that can be said on this subject, how much do I personally want to write about it and analyze it? Not much more at all. I’ve just about crossed the line of too much analyzing , and I’ll start ruining the book for myself. So to circumvent that I’ll jump to my conclusion, too bad I don’t have a mat.

Karen Green, no matter how much she disapproved of Navy’s actions, she loved him absolutely. The ultimate proof of this was her willingness to not only enter the house alone, but to walk into the darkness within. She turned her back on everything in life in hopes of finding Will Navidson a final time. That my friends, is love.

My parents recently came to Lincoln to visit Nicole and I. It was a pretty awesome time! It’s nice to have family around every so often, especially after going nearly a year without seeing them. That though is a story for another blog altogether.

Today I’m here to show you guys my fancy new journal! At Indigo Bridge we have a super neat Moleskine display, and this past Friday we received two of their Passions Book Journals. Naturally I was thrilled, as these journals have been nearly impossible to get into stock, much less keep in stock. I haven’t added anything to the journal yet, but it’s mine. My awesome mom bought it for me, along with some other goodies that I will be sharing soon!

This journal will be great for me to keep handwritten notes about what I’m reading, while I’m reading it. I’m terrible at remembering to type my notes, especially since I usually read just before bed. So here’s to hoping that the post quality will only go up here.

Do you keep a book journal, or any journal for that matter?