53 pages • 1 hour read
Kristin HannahOn Mystic Lake
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Kristin Hannah
Kristin Hannah has been a writer for over 30 years and has written over a dozen books. Many of her books focus on a female protagonist who must navigate a difficult situation. In her historical fiction, this pattern is reflected in a myriad of different protagonists and novels. She has written about women subverting the Nazis in German-occupied France, a woman striving to succeed against the elements and an abusive husband in rural Alaska, and a woman trying to raise two children in the midst of the Dust Bowl. As a bit of a departure from this trend, On Mystic Lake is contemporary rather than historical fiction, and in this novel, her protagonist has to fight a battle more relatable to the modern reader: an unfaithful husband and a life left empty after her only daughter leaves to begin her own life. Many of Hannah’s novels deal with the complex relationship between mothers and daughters. In On Mystic Lake, this relationship plays a smaller role than the romantic relationship does, but the protagonist’s relationship with her daughter is a large part of what prompts her to make the necessary changes in her life.
Hannah describes her novels as being primarily character-driven, and there are numerous parallels between her own life and that of the characters in On Mystic Lake. Like many of her characters in this novel, Hannah has lived in the Pacific Northwest, and she was born in California. She was a lawyer before becoming a writer, so she understands the world that Blake and Suzannah live in. Her novels have received both critical and popular acclaim. Her best-selling novel The Nightingale was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Selection and was named a best book by The Wall Street Journal, Amazon, and others. The Great Alone, another story about a mother and daughter, also became a bestseller.
Genre Context: Contemporary Women's Fiction
Contemporary women’s fiction focuses primarily on the emotional and personal lives of female protagonists who frequently experience difficulties that represent struggles with which the contemporary female reader might be familiar. Although novels in this category often involve an element of romance, this is not a necessity, but they do tend to portray a female protagonist who faces a dramatic change in circumstances and must learn to overcome the obstacles in her life on her way to increasing her personal growth. At one point, the term “chick lit” was used to denote novels designed to appeal to women, but the dismissive tone of the phrase was somewhat divisive and falsely implied a lack of complexity or nuance in a novel. This is not the case for contemporary women’s fiction, because even though many of the scenarios the characters encounter are specific to females and sometimes focus upon domestic issues, the characters themselves are not necessarily cliched, and their character development can be quite complex.
On Mystic Lake is a clear example of such women’s fiction. The female protagonist, Annie, is faced with the possible dissolution of her marriage just as her only living child leaves the country. She must learn to deal with her interpersonal relationships while also learning to become a fully actualized person after she has spent much of her life taking care of others and allowing her own interests to be erased. During her rediscovery of herself, she does engage in a romantic relationship, but this is not the entire focus of the novel. The main focus and struggle she has to overcome is her own personal weakness, which encourages her to give all of herself to others while allowing herself to disappear.
Related Titles
By Kristin Hannah
