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Chapters 17–18

Summary: Chapter 17, The Nature of Politics

In 1968, John reenlists. He tries to forget what happened at Thuan Yen, sometimes volunteering for dangerous jobs, which gets him injured and promoted. He returns home in 1969 as a decorated veteran, and he and Kathy marry. After law school, he takes a low-paying job with the Minnesota Democratic party. After five years of marriage, Kathy thinks he seems more relaxed.

In 1976, with Tony Carbo managing his campaign, John runs for the state Senate. Tony steers him from an issues-focused campaign to one based on personal relationships. John wins and is subsequently re-elected twice. He is popular in the statehouse, where he develops a reputation as a rising star. John believes in doing good in the world, but he also carefully cultivates a sellable public image. At the same time, John and Kathy’s marriage suffers. They put off vacations, a house, and even children to pay for campaigns. They rarely make love. Kathy feels like John is shutting her out.

John wins big in his election for lieutenant governor. The position is dull, but it’s his path to the United States Senate. Soon afterward, Kathy reveals she is pregnant. John convinces her to get an abortion so they can focus on his career. In the clinic waiting room, John has an odd experience of seeing himself in his different roles, but he is unable to explain it to Kathy. That night John reassures Kathy that they made the right decision, but Kathy says all she wanted was a baby. They never talk about the abortion again, but a chill enters their relationship. They know they have given up something huge for an unknown future.

Four years later, John announces his run for the Senate. He already has a lead over his primary opponent. Afterward, he and Kathy go out for dinner with Tony. Kathy believes that John’s speech lacked a message, but Tony doesn’t care about issues because politicians win by appealing to uninformed voters. John sides with Tony: Winning comes first, then issues. When Kathy leaves, Tony says that he thinks John is not “clean” but just keeping quiet about “certain unnamed subjects.”

Summary: Chapter 18, Hypothesis

This chapter presents the hypothesis that shows Kathy heading in the boat toward Angle Inlet but going off course. Once she realizes that she overshot her destination, she tries to backtrack. She thinks about the story she will tell John that evening, hoping it makes him prioritize her. Kathy feels calm as she navigates the lake and its channels. Her habit of doing crossword puzzles has made her comfortable finding solutions. As Kathy’s thoughts lose focus, she thinks about a man named Harmon and feels guilty. Just minutes later, the boat runs out of gas, so she refills the tank. After a few attempts, Kathy restarts the engine and follows the shoreline of an island. For a moment, realizing she is not an outdoorsy person, she feels like crying. As dusk falls, she decides to stop at the island.

Kathy pulls the boat ashore through the water. By then, it is dark, and she is cold and wet. Kathy uses boughs and an oilcloth as a makeshift bed and eats a Lifesaver. She imagines John getting a search organized. In the morning, she will fish and figure out how to make a fire and then continue toward civilization. She thinks about a night in college when John said she was the girl of his dreams, but the next morning he was still being secretive. Nothing has changed since then. Eventually, Kathy used Harmon to break away from John.

Analysis: Chapters 17–18

Like Chapter 13, Chapter 17 adheres to a more cohesive time and place structure. This chapter focuses on John’s political rise, and the events that are described unfold in chronological order, which by now readers know is rare for In the Lake of the Woods. Much of John’s political career plays out in a normal fashion. He goes to law school, gets a job with his political party, and then runs for state office. After six years as a state Senator, John sets his sights on the lieutenant governorship and easily wins. John is following the path he described for Kathy years earlier when they were in college. He carefully chooses his offices, step by step, to gain the kind of solid reputation that propels a state official onto the national stage.

Back in college, Kathy had questioned John’s motivation for serving in office, and once he enters politics, the way John handles himself as a candidate bears out her fears. John is well served by his background in practicing magic. He knows how to manipulate his body and voice to make a certain impression and cause voters to see what he wants them to see. John also teams up with Tony Carbo, a cynical campaign manager, and willingly accepts Tony’s advice to drop the idea of doing good or focusing on issues in favor of simply doing whatever it takes to win. This strategy may sound messy and distasteful, but it works stunningly well in John’s case. He wins every election until his secret gets out.

A few details from this chapter, however, segue less neatly into his political ambitions. Most notably, he and Kathy put off having children, even to the extent that he talks her into having an abortion even though having a family is generally an asset to any politician’s image. It makes little sense that John refuses to have a baby when they plan to in the future and Kathy is approaching forty. Readers can’t help but wonder if John has another reason for not wanting to have children. Perhaps he is fearful of being the kind of disappointing father to his child that his father was to him.

Another unexplained point is John’s decision to stay in Vietnam for an additional year. While he claims that he wants to regain his virtue, this explanation is not borne out in the details provided. Also, if Sorcerer was successful in erasing the memory of what happened at Thuan Yen—and he certainly appears to have been—John should not feel a need to prove his worth or regain his virtue at all.

Finally, Tony also seems concerned with John being “clean” and having nothing in his past that could derail a political campaign. John affirms that he is, but Tony still suspects something is amiss. Tony refuses to name what he’s talking about, leading readers to wonder if Tony has an inkling of John’s cover-up of Vietnam. At this point, however, such a suggestion seems preposterous, leading readers to wonder if John has more secrets he is keeping from Kathy.

Chapter 18, with its focus on Kathy in a hypothetical situation on the lake, provides a thoughtful follow-up to her disappearance. While it’s important to remember that “Hypothesis” chapters are just that, theories, the Kathy presented to readers in Chapter 18 shows a woman who is capable and resolute but also damaged. She has been deeply hurt by John’s secrecy and likely his pushing her to have an abortion. Despite their troubled past, this Kathy still sees hope in a future for them.

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