On Mystic Lake

Throughout the novel, communication is shown to be both unifying and healing. This can be seen both through the characters who do not communicate well and through those who do. Throughout the novel, Izzy has the most literal communication problems, because she becomes physically unable to talk after the trauma of losing her mother to suicide and her father to alcohol addiction and despair. Doctors have told her that talking about her mother will help her to get over her mother’s death, but because this is something she does not want to do, she stops talking entirely. The doctor understands that communication can be healing, but Izzy will not take part in that healing process if it means she might lose her mother even more than she already has. Nick, likewise, does not communicate much with his daughter while he is still recovering from Kathy’s death because he is so focused on his own pain that he cannot help his daughter with hers. This detachment further separates him from his daughter. Likewise, although for entirely different reasons, Blake is unable to communicate well with his daughter, Natalie. This is because they do not have much of a relationship to begin with.