In the Lake of the Woods

Throughout his childhood, John performs magic tricks, perfecting his techniques with props by watching himself in a mirror. His interest in illusion later transforms into a kind of delusion. For example, he has conversations with his dead father in which he has his father say the kinds of things that he wishes that his father would have said in real life. John creates a perfect, or better, reality, through magic, if only in his head. The mirror and trickeries he uses to perform magic stunts in real life transform into mirrors and deceits in his mind that he uses to manipulate his reality.

John brings this ability to perform tricks and to manipulate reality into his relationship with Kathy. They meet in 1966 in college, when he is a senior and she is a freshman. Almost immediately, he begins spying on her. He simply cannot stop himself, even though he knows what he’s doing is wrong. Though it is clear that Kathy thinks that he might be following her and snooping on her, she never confronts him about it directly. At this point, she seems like an innocent victim of her love-obsessed, distrustful, stalker boyfriend.