In the Lake of the Woods
B.G.
In the Lake of the Woods is something of a mystery novel. It doesn't take place in Viet Nam, but the dramatic center of it does, in a village called Thuan Yen. In essence, the book chronicles the effects that war (Viet Nam is particular) has upon those who fought in it, even decades later.
A failed politician named John Wade is caught in the center of his wife's disappearance from a secluded cabin in Minnesota. Eighteen years earlier, John had taken part in the massacre at My Lai, effectively robbing his innocence from him. Because Wade was one of many killers, Tim O'Brien intersperses his narrative with the testimony of real figures like Lieutenant Rusty Calley and U.S. Army Investigator William V. Wilson.
It stays with me even after all these years. I guess it probably haunted John, too, except he tried to do something about it. Erase it, you know? Literally.
--Richard Thinbill
This involvement in the My Lai massacre was something that couldn't and wouldn't be communicated to John's friends or wife. The war experience permanently changed (scarred) John, altering his very being.