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.
Part 2, Chapters 10-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary
Nick recognizes that Izzy has been improving since Annie has been around. He still cannot look at Annie for a long period for fear that she may recognize his longing for her. He is at the courthouse to testify when he runs into Gina Piccolo, a local troubled youth. Gina is unhappy with Nick because she thinks he is there to send her to prison. He tells her that he was once in her shoes and relates his difficult childhood, given that he was unhoused as a child, and that his mother had an addiction to alcohol and had no other recourse but to become a sex worker. He explains how destructive addiction can be.
Annie keeps thinking about Blake’s confession that he is in love with Suzannah. She talks to Natalie on the phone, and talking to her daughter helps Annie feel like parts of herself are returning. Annie understands how not having a mother changes everything for a little girl. She has gotten into a daily routine with Izzy that culminates in board games or videos until it is time for Izzy to go to bed. Nick usually misses dinner, and when he does come home, he smells like alcohol. She explains to Izzy that when her own mother died, sometimes it hurt her dad to see her because it would make him think about her mom. She reassures Izzy that her own father came back to her. Annie realizes that she still struggles with the loss of her own mother. Terri calls and tells Annie that Annie spent years waiting for Blake to come home and is now doing the same thing with Nick. Annie calls Lurlene and asks her to watch Izzy.
Chapter 11 Summary
Annie goes to Zoe’s Hot Spot Tavern, and Nick does not want her seeing him in his current inebriated state. She tells him that every night Izzy waits for him, and he tells her that he cannot take care of Izzy but will go home and pretend. Nick tells Annie that he cannot take good care of the people he loves.
Izzy comes downstairs thinking how her mother would like how their home looks now. She believes she hears her mother’s voice, and she tells her mom that she is disappearing like Kathy did. Kathy tells Izzy that it is getting hard to come see her, and Izzy tells her that she is doing her best to get to her mother as fast as she can, but her mom tells her that Izzy cannot go to her. Izzy promises her mother to be good and begs her not to go. Annie makes breakfast for Nick and Izzy. He likes the changes Annie has made to the house, and he knows he must do better for Izzy. Annie carries on conversation and laughter throughout the meal.
Chapter 12 Summary
Nick used to take pride in his job, but now he dwells on how he has failed Izzy. He believes that a stronger or a better man would be able to do what he cannot. Nick comes home and does not want to look at the garden because it reminds him of Kathy. He wants to go to Zoe’s, but he gets another call from Chuck’s house, and when he gets there, he sees other emergency responders. Captain Joe Nation urges Nick not to go into the trailer, but he does anyway. As he walks in, he is transported back to when he had to identify Kathy’s body.
Nick does not come home for dinner, and Annie tells Izzy that he is confused, but that if they are patient, he will come back. Annie hears a slight noise coming from Izzy’s mouth, and Annie understands that the girl is “trying to find her way back” (168). Izzy thinks about her mother telling her that she cannot follow her, and she thinks about the doctor who told her that the only way to get over her mother is to talk about her. Izzy does not want to get over her mother. Annie sleeps on the couch, and Izzy remembers climbing into her parents’ bed when she was scared. She decides to lie on the couch and sleep next to Annie. Nick stays out all night.
Chapter 13 Summary
Caption Joe Nation calls Annie and tells her that Nick was in an accident the night before. He was not the driver. Nick thinks about the first time he met Joe. Nick had nowhere to go, and Joe offered him a home. Joe is angry that even after everything he gave Nick, the man is still succumbing to alcohol addiction. He tells Nick that they cannot save everyone as police officers, and Nick says that they do not help anyone—they just clean up the mess afterward. Nick resigns, but Joe refuses to accept the resignation. Joe gives Nick a phone number to call when he decides he needs help.
Annie comes in, and Nick asks her to take him to a run-down motel and to watch Izzy while he is there straightening out his head. While at the hotel, he calls Joe. Annie reassures Izzy that she will not leave her and that her father will be back. Annie remembers wanting to talk about her mother after she died, and so she starts talking to Izzy about Kathy. Annie temporarily moves into Nick’s house and starts working with Izzy on schoolwork. Nick calls each evening. Annie starts to sing the ABC song while she gardens with Izzy and pretends to forget a letter. After a few attempts, Izzy gives her the missing letter. Annie is happy but does not make a big deal out of it so as not to scare Izzy off.
Chapter 14 Summary
Nick attends an AA meeting at a local Lutheran church. Joe is there, and he tells Nick that he is proud of him. Nick realizes that Joe has seen the worst of him and has not abandoned him. Nick realizes how similar everyone’s stories are and finds comfort in the knowledge that he is not alone. At home, Izzy still looks for her father at the window, and she is not comforted by the knowledge that her father is getting help because doctors could not help her mom. She does not think Nick is her father anymore—her real father acted differently and died when her mother died. She closes her eyes and tries to see her mother, who promises her that her father will be okay. Annie thinks Izzy is almost ready to return to school, but Izzy is afraid of what the other children will say.
Annie goes days sometimes without thinking about Blake as she learns that she can function without him. She also knows that Natalie will be able to handle her parents’ divorce. Annie gives Izzy the compass her father gave her, and she teaches Izzy how to find true north. Izzy gives Annie a coin for safekeeping and tells her that Annie is a safe place because Annie will not leave. This makes Annie uncomfortable, but she tells her that she will keep Izzy’s coin until her father is able to keep it. Izzy tells Annie that she can see her fingers on one hand again, and she tells Annie that her mother told her not to follow her. She also tells Annie how she sees Kathy in the fog and thought she was disappearing with her mother. Annie tells Izzy that it would break her mom’s heart if Izzy followed her.
Chapter 15 Summary
Nick remembers the first time he saw the home he now owns. He was young and with Annie, and he saw it through her eyes. He saw possibility, but Kathy just saw work. Now, he comes home to Annie and Izzy and tells Annie that he has been going to AA. He goes in alone to see Izzy. She is wearing yellow overalls and has a yellow ribbon in her hair. Nick realizes that in the past, Izzy would have run into his arms, but now she looks wary. He realizes that he has to win her back one moment at a time because he lost her one moment at a time. Annie speaks constantly during dinner to try to avoid awkward silences, and Nick realizes that Izzy has regained the use of her one hand. He feels shame over what he allowed to happen to his daughter. Nick looks at Annie and realizes that she looks haunted; he wants to know what happened to her. He thanks her for saving his life. Nick asks Annie if she wants to spend tomorrow with him and Izzy, and she agrees. She tells him that Izzy has started talking again.
Part 2, Chapters 10-15 Analysis
This section of the novel focuses acutely on The Futility of Trying to Change People when they do not want to change. The ability to empathize is shown to cause heartache, particularly through the character of Nick. He had a bad relationship with his mother when he was a child, and instead of allowing this to close him off to the world, he has allowed it to open him up. He wants to help other people and finds it extremely frustrating when he cannot convince them to change themselves for the better. In previous chapters, he has explained how he tried to help Kathy, and at the courthouse he tries to help Gina. It becomes discouraging to him when he cannot help those in need, and it starts to demoralize him and is part of why he turns to alcohol for artificial solace. The novel has not, as of yet, answered the question of whether this level of empathy is worth the price, but Nick slowly begins to think that it is not, and he wants to get out of situations in which he is at risk of failing to help someone. This attitude turns him away from both his chosen profession and from his daughter because he does not believe he can help in either situation.
Through both Nick and Annie, the sharing of suffering and The Importance of Communication are shown to be ways to help others who are also suffering. Nick’s attempts to help Gina with her addiction have not been successful as of yet, for even his attempts to share his own childhood struggles cannot convince her to choose a different path for herself. By contrast, Annie shares her childhood struggles with Izzy, and this helps to build a bond between them. This sharing allows Izzy to learn to trust Annie, and this trust will lead to her healing. Just because Nick’s attempts to help others were unsuccessful does not mean that sharing is a faulty way of trying to help someone. Annie’s initial attempts to help Izzy are not very successful and the progress is slow, but Annie persists, and as such, her communication with Izzy proves to be helpful in the end. As will be shown throughout the novel, people cannot help those who do not want to change, but once the internal decision is made, then the support of others becomes instrumental in helping people to heal.
A large part of the difference between Annie’s response to tragedy and Nick’s response is that Annie still holds on to hope while Nick gives in to despair. At first Annie’s hope is that Blake will return to her, and although she eventually loses that hope, she does not give in to her despair. Instead, she takes whatever small steps she can to develop a new life. Some of these are quite small, like getting her hair cut and getting new clothes, and others are more significant, like urging Nick to take care of Izzy. She is not successful with Izzy at first, and she understands that she cannot be instantly successful because Izzy is too traumatized. Given Annie’s attempts to help Nick as well, his behavior also demonstrates The Futility of Trying to Change People, for he does not immediately realize how much his actions are hurting his daughter. Instead, he gives up and succumbs to his alcohol addiction in a misguided attempt to forget his failures rather than working to improve his life. These differences in the hope of future success are why as of Chapter 10, Annie has been able to make progress with Izzy, but Nick is still hiding in bars in the evenings.
Izzy’s conversations with her mother as well as her memory of speaking to the doctor illustrate that a possible cause of her inability to speak and her belief that she is disappearing are attempts to get to her mother. She does not make these decisions consciously. This is shown by her desire but inability to speak to her father. She believes that her mother disappeared, and therefore it is likely that she is trying to disappear herself in order to be with her mother. And just as the lack of communication has partially caused Izzy’s psychological crisis, The Importance of Communication becomes the remedy, for Annie’s constant attempts to talk to Izzy finally allow the girl to reconnect with the world.
Mother-daughter bonds are shown to be crucial in the novel, not only through the successful mother-daughter relationship of Annie and Natalie, but also through the quasi-imaginary one that continues on between Kathy and Izzy, even after Kathy’s death. Hannah deliberately creates ambiguity around this aspect of the story, for it remains unclear whether Izzy is seeing Kathy’s ghost or is merely imagining her presence. In Chapter 11, however, Kathy tells Izzy that it is getting harder to come and see her. Because this is an unlikely thing for Izzy to fabricate, it is plausible that the girl is communicating with the spirit of her mother. Either way, this aspect serves as an important narrative device to develop the intensity of the bond between mothers and daughters, because even after Kathy’s death, Izzy still feels a strong connection with her: so strong that she has withdrawn from the rest of her life in order to cling to what remains of that connection. The bonds between mothers and daughters are some of the strongest in the novel, and this is further illustrated by the fact that Izzy is the only person that Kathy sees after her death. This helps advance the theme of The Bonds Between Friends and Family.
Communication is shown to be a key to healing in the novel. When Annie first starts to spend time with Izzy, Annie talks a lot. She does this because she understands that Izzy’s lack of speech is a maladaptive coping mechanism that the girl is using to deal with the passing of her mother. Annie does not want Izzy to feel pressured to talk, so she fills the silence herself, and her constant speech gives comfort to both Izzy and Nick. Her conversations at this point are not serious, but they make people feel less alone while she creates a sense of joy around them. In this way, The Importance of Communication as a healing agent in people’s lives becomes apparent.
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By Kristin Hannah
