On Mystic Lake

“For half her life, she'd touched him whenever she wanted, and now he had taken that right away.”

Annie does not know how to act around her husband anymore. They spent two decades together, but in an instant, he has changed their relationship by asking for a divorce. She is not yet ready for a divorce, and the question remains throughout much of the book as to whether they will ever get back to where they were before he made the divorce request.

“I know you feel lost now, but it won't last forever, and this will make sure that you can always find your way home again...where I'll always be waiting.”

Hank, Annie's father, gave her a compass when she was younger with these words engraved on it. Annie goes home to Hank when Blake leaves her. She later gives this compass to Izzy and helps the girl learn how to use it, helping her find true north in a metaphorical sense as well as a literal one.

“Annie was finally steering her rental car across the long floating bridge that connected the Olympic Peninsula to the rest of Washington State. On the one side of the bridge, the waves were in a white-tipped frenzy; on the other side, the water was as calm and silvery as a newly minted coin.”

These words serve two purposes. First, they symbolize what Annie is searching for in Mystic: calm away from the storm of her California life. Second, they foreshadow both Nick and Izzy: Nick's hair is always described as being silver, and Izzy gives Annie a coin to hold on to for safekeeping.

“She didn't look like the thirty-nine-year-old soon-to-be-ex-wife of a hotshot California lawyer; she looked like an ordinary small-town woman, maybe someone who had horses to feed and porches to paint.”

Annie does not know who she is once her roles of wife and mother are diminished. She feels like she has disappeared inside. Therefore, in order to forge a new identity, she starts with her physical appearance first because outward appearances are much easier to change than internal emotional patterns. This passage therefore represents her first rudimentary steps toward changing her life for the better.

“What he and Annie had done tonight didn't change a thing. He had to remember that. The life she'd stirred in him was ephemeral and fleeting. Soon, she'd be gone, and he'd be left alone again, a widower with a damaged child who had to find a way to get through the rest of his life.”

Nick and Annie have just reunited and had sex. While Nick enjoys the experience, he knows that he must stay focused on reality, and his current reality is a dark one. He has to learn how to live life without Kathy, and his actions are currently pushing his daughter even further away.

“It didn't sicken Nick, her behavior. Unfortunately, he understood Sally. He had been like her in his youth, had followed his mother around like a hungry dog, begging.”

Nick understands Sally and why she acts as she does. This is because Sally's abusive relationship with her husband is not wholly unlike Nick's abusive relationship with his mother. He tries to help her because he understands her, but his inability to do so leaves him feeling helpless and insufficient.

“Annie hated to wake the sleeping girl, but she was a big believer in routine. Children needed to know where the limits were and what rules governed. She'd put Izzy down for a nap at two-thirty—and was surprised when she actually fell asleep. Now, at four o'clock, it was time to wake up.”

These words illustrate the degree to which Annie understands the needs of children. She has raised her oldest daughter to adulthood, and now when she is faced with a traumatized six-year-old, she understands, at least in part, what needs to be done in order to make the girl feel secure again.

“You know how you share your toys with a friend, and you have more fun than if you were playing all by yourself? Sometimes that's true of sadness, too. Sometimes if you share it, it goes away.”

These words illustrate The Importance of Communication, a central theme in the novel. Annie tries to get Izzy to understand that she may feel better if she shares her feelings. Izzy had been afraid to talk about her mom because a doctor told her that the only way to get over her mom is to talk about her, and Izzy does not want to get over her because she thinks that will mean her mother is even farther away. This passage also demonstrates just how literal Izzy’s thinking really is.

“Izzy panicked. It felt as if she were losing her mommy all over again. Don't go, Mommy. I'm disappearin' as fast as I can.”

Izzy does not know how to properly grieve for her mother because she has had no competent adults around to help her to do so. She believes that her mother has disappeared, so she tries to physically disappear in order to join her mother. These words provide a clear clue as to why Izzy believes she is disappearing.

“Nick had lost faith in himself, and without it, he was in a turbulent sea without any sense of direction, waiting to be sucked under the current once again.”

These words illustrate how difficult it is for a person to make any positive changes in their life if they do not believe in themselves. This is important because Nick tries to unsuccessfully help others, and he blames himself rather than them for his inability to help them despite the fact that he cannot be helped by anyone because he does not believe in his own possibilities.

“Natalie wasn't a child anymore, and when she learned of the divorce, she would be able to handle it. And Annie finally understood that she could handle it too.”

These words illustrate the extent of Annie’s personal growth. She now has more confidence in herself and in her daughter. She believes they are able to handle what she once was unsure of.

“Admitting that the addiction was stronger than he was helped even more.”

Nick has finally decided to get help for his alcohol addiction. He takes Alcoholics Anonymous seriously, and as such, he is eventually able to take constructive steps toward overcoming his addiction. This serves as the biggest turning point in his character arc.

“She didn't want to go back there. It surprised her, the sudden certainty of her decision. It was the first time in her life she'd come to a conclusion without thinking of other people's feelings, and it felt good.”

Annie has learned to consult her own thoughts and feelings when it comes to the decisions she makes in life. She does not suddenly become selfish and make decisions that are only in her best interest. Rather, she learns to consult her own needs just as she consults the needs of others before making choices.

“Suddenly she was crying for all of it, every missed moment, every dream she'd ever had. The marriage she'd had wasn't good enough. She'd never really truly been loved...not the way she deserved to be loved.”

When Blake first tells Annie that he wanted a divorce, all she wants is for him to come back. She wants her old life back. Now that she has been away from Blake, however, and has lived on her own for a while, she has come to realize that her marriage was never as good as she thought it was. Having some time to herself gives her a new sense of agency and confidence, for she begins to rebuild a sense of her own identity away from her husband’s influence.

“Her real life was out there, waiting for Annie, circling in the hot, smoggy air of Southern California, readying itself for the confrontation that was only a few short weeks away.”

Despite the changes that Annie has made in Mystic and the relationships she has developed, she still believes that her real life is in California. She believes this regardless of what it is she truly wants, and it is only by returning to her old life and realizing the many ways in which it no longer fits that she will finally be able to break free and start anew.

“But would you give it all up...the caring and the love and trying...would you give it up because in the end there is pain?”

Pain is a part of love in the novel. Failure is also a possible consequence of trying. Nick and Annie both have to decide if pain and failure are worth the benefits of trying, of remaining open to love and to possibility and to growth.

“I didn't know how...deep love ran, how it was in your blood, not your heart, and how that same blood pumped throughout your veins your whole life. I thought you'd be better off if you could forget her. I should have known that wasn't possible.”

Hank says these words to Annie to explain his approach to her mother’s death. They illustrate the theme in the novel that love does not end, that the bonds that unite people continue on despite heartache, betrayal, and death.

“I'm crazy in love with you. Over the moon in love with you. But that doesn't matter. We both know that.”

This is how Annie responds when Nick asks her if she loves him before she goes back to California. She believes it does not matter, but he tells her that love is really the only thing that matters. At the end of the novel, Hannah’s narration hints that there may yet be hope for future development between these two characters.

“Annie and Natalie were masters at piling on the guilt.”

This is how Blake feels about his conversation with Natalie. Instead of accepting feelings of guilt as the consequence of his actions, he instead blames Natalie and Annie for making him feel that way. Because he does not take responsibility for his actions and their effects, he remains unable to change his behavior.

“When I was little you told me that life did give you what you wanted, if you were willing to fight for it and believe in it. You told me that every cloud had a silver lining.”

Natalie believes in Annie's dreams more than Annie does at this point. Annie believes that she is doing what is best for Katie by staying with Blake, but Natalie is the one who is able to convince her that this is not the case.

“When his shift was over, he left the worries behind. He had learned, finally, to accept that there would be failures, and that it was okay. All he could do was try.”

Nick has learned that it is okay to fail. He has learned that people can only be helped if they want help, and he has become willing to make the effort to help those that he can. He is no longer an idealist thinking he can help everybody, but he is realistic and optimistic in his belief that he can help some people.

“I loved you for most of my life, and I know you loved me, too. What...what you did was about something else, something I never could understand. I wanted you to know that I forgive us. We did the best we could.”

This passage articulates the private words that Nick says to Kathy at her grave. He has learned to forgive them both and to believe in the love they once had. Their relationship ended in grief and loss, but Nick’s love for his wife is still real and will always endure despite the pain.

“A dad...he teaches responsibility and accountability, but a mom...ah, a mom teaches her child to dream, to reach for the stars and to believe in fairy tales.”

This is what Hank believes about fatherhood. There are numerous fathers and mothers depicted in the novel, and this is just one of the theories presented as to what the different roles entail. This passage serves to explain why Hank failed his daughter in the way that he did.