After a landslide defeat in his primary election for the U.S. Senate, John Wade retreats to a remote cabin in northern Minnesota with his wife, Kathy. The loss stems from the public exposure of John’s involvement in the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War, a history he attempted to erase through political posturing and personal denial. When Kathy vanishes without a trace, the narrative fragments into contradictory hypotheses, legal evidence, and historical testimony. John’s psyche, fractured by wartime trauma and a childhood obsession with magic and manipulation, becomes the primary lens through which the reader views the disappearance.
Readers who value psychological realism and unconventional narrative structures will find a study of how secrets erode a marriage. The book serves those interested in the lasting effects of military moral trauma and the unreliability of memory. It offers no definitive resolution to its central mystery, instead leaving the reader with a meditation on how humans use silence to cope with shame. You walk away with a stark understanding of the ways individuals bury their pasts and the high price of maintaining public illusions while private lives disintegrate.
Deep, inward-looking, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Literary Connoisseur. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1994
- Language
- EN
