Preview of On Mystic Lake Summary:

Returning to a literal or spiritual home to recover a lost self is a common literary theme. Hannah emphasizes the idea of losing and finding oneself through her repeated references to silence, disappearance, and invisibility. The child Izzy serves as the most obvious representative of this theme; silent since her mother's suicide and convinced that her fingers are becoming invisible, Izzy symbolically reenacts the disappearance of her mother into death.

Annie's instinctive understanding...