I have just finished In the Lake of the Woods, a harrowing novel that talks about the private lives of corrupt politicians, the atrocities of Vietnam, alcoholic fathers, and the horrifying and peculiar coping mechanisms so particular to the human race.

Do not read it if you are unhealthy or would like to be refreshed by good writing. Although there is excellent writing therein and entrancingly so, the story overrides the style and the whole business induces suicidal thoughts in those of the Reader. There should be some kind of trigger-warning on the front of the book other than "National Bestseller", which, as everyone knows, has never said anything about the quality of the book.

I'm afraid I write to a rather selective audience today--my own coping mechanisms for such a terrible study of humanity include homemade brown molasses bread toasted and spread with homemade strawberry jam next to a cold espresso-and-milk tonic and letting the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice run in the background of my studies, now relegated to Hawthorne and then Wordsworth.