In craft, story, and theme, Teri Fink’s THE RESTLESS LAKE flourishes as both entertainment and fodder for rumination about inhumanity and salvation. The novel’s compelling yet slowly simmering story about broken lives and renewal keeps pages turning with internal and external conflicts. The story’s thematic bottom line is love in all its colors, from the flirtations of young romance to the human heart’s ability to heal after terrible loss.
In the rustic, majestic mountains of 1990s Washington—readers will want to move there after reading the book’s opening scenes—Olivia and Luka have escaped pasts that unfold tantalizingly slowly, providing the book’s mystery and main storyline. Olivia was a techie at a young Microsoft, with all its famed 24/7 work ethic, raking in money but chained to her desk. Then “the bad thing” happened, driving her to her new job running a remote retreat for vacationers to ride horses, kayak, hike, and enjoy the glorious scenery. Luka was an Olympic-winning kayaking rock star back in Croatia, newly arrived in the U.S. after the horrors of the early 1990s Bosnian war.
Fink introduces these and additional characters using alternating points of view: first person for Olivia and Luka, third person for other resort visitors and staffers. This includes Ingrid and Greta, two post-high schoolers working there for the summer. The young women’s differing pursuits of romance provide some of the novel’s comic touches—both sly and outright—particularly in one very funny scene involving a “romance” between a man, a woman, and a horse. They also observe a burgeoning romance between two 40s-ish people thus: “‘Do you think they’re an item?’ ‘Gross,’ Ingrid said. ‘They’re old. I don’t like to think about things like that.’”
Fink seamlessly tucks interesting information into the novel—about ancient Petroglyphs along the watery cliffs, the highly sensitive nature of horses (particularly in a scene following an accident), and, most significantly, the background and drivers of the horrific Bosnia war. Olivia is completely ignorant of Luka’s background in Croatia. Would people in the U.S. really be as unaware as she is of the conflict’s murderous madness after the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991? Sadly, yes, and this answer provides the novel’s most interesting aspect, still timely today.
As Olivia observes, “People come to the wilderness to enjoy nature at its most pristine, or to escape the crazy pace of the world. Luka came from a place where there’d been a war that I hadn’t even paid attention to.” The book’s most important quality is its carefully meted out reminders to readers of the depth of cruelty and suffering during that time. Clear of any didacticism, Fink uses an engaging story, outdoor adventures, and sympathetic characters as her teaching tools.
Unfortunately, one bald plot device involving Olivia’s improbable response to Luka’s past (clearly intended to draw out the story’s tension) weakens the otherwise strong writing. But THE RESTLESS LAKE nevertheless offers both a great story and food for thought.
Teri Fink’s THE RESTLESS LAKE, a story of love and redemption, offers humor, adventure, and insights about humanity’s capabilities to both destroy and heal. The gorgeous setting and engaging characters top off a compelling read.
~Anne Welsbacher for IndieReader