So glad I stuck with this. The style of writing was a challenge for me. I found it hard to follow at times early on but so glad I didn’t quit!!!!! The main character is so unlikeable that you can’t help but like her. Complicated and deeply raw exposed human emotions. So much truthfulness. The complexities of daily living. I was so grateful for it all. I really loved it. Tender and dark. Beautiful and hard to look at. The messy and magic. The author did a superb job. Months later the characters are still on my mind. How one seemingly simple choice can change the course of our lives.

Oh, how I wanted to love this book. It has haunted me through most of my bookselling career as one of the books that seemed intriguing and garnered fans and rave reviews.

I can't say I hated it, but reading it became an act of masochism. I read two other books in between the time I finished this one, often to get a break from Hamilton's love of her own words. I will confess that the language throughout the book is sumptuous, detailed, and evocative. I will also confess this same language seemed to clutter the storyline, muddied the plot, and in the case of the main narrator, Alice, drew her as a tedious and mostly unlikeable character despite the horrifying predicament that befalls her.

Alice narrates the first section and the story starts shockingly and grippingly with an accidental drowning, but Alice's self-indulgent pity and pathetic depression were nearly enough to doom the book to the 'never finished' pile.

But I do not surrender so easily, and the second section of the book is narrated by her husband, Howard and proved more interesting. Hamilton maintained her bloated use of language and even Howard's narrative came dangerously close to landing in the donation bin.

Soon, I was more than halfway into the story and I persevered to the third and final section, once more narrated by Alice. Surprisingly, she did not grow more likeable, but I had to finish the book and I did, all the while wondering what all the fuss was about.

This is one of Oprah's books and probably only the second one I've read from her very popular series. Quite frankly, I have to wonder about Oprah's taste in books.

I couldn't put this book down! I wanted to find out what would happen next. This book was full of tragedy - the accidental death of a child, the loss of a career, a marriage in jeopardy, and possible sexual abuse of many children. First, let me say, any case of child abuse suspected by an adult or reported by a child must be taken seriously and looked into. That being said, investigators must be very careful. Alice made a horrible choice when she slapped Robbie in her office at school, and she should have lost her job over it. However, the witch hunt that ensued of all the horrible things she "did" spun out of control. Again, all the accusations needed to be investigated, but rather than going with feelings, people needed to stick with facts instead of sensationalizing. If facts came out she needed to have consequences. However, there were no facts supporting sexual abuse in the nurse's office.


As a teacher with over 13 years in the classroom, I strongly support protecting children. I have lots of training about detecting and preventing child abuse. I also have to get all my clearances every few years. I have had to call children's services a few times in my career. However, as a teacher, I am always scared about a child lying. Last year we did have a case about a child lying about a classroom aid. The class was all out in the hall listening to the teacher talk to them about something on a bulletin board. A group of boys were misbehaving so the aid told them to separate from each other. The one boy was angry and went home to tell his mom the aid pulled his hair and shoved him. She of course immediately contacted the school. The incident happened in the hall so the principal was able to pull up the security video to see what happened. The aid was not even near the boys and her hands were never near him. She was seen talking to them from an arm's length distance when she told them to separate. Thank goodness for the security camera her job was safe from this child who lied. Sadly, even after seeing the video, the mother sided with her son and made the aid's life miserable for a few weeks. When the security cameras were first installed, I questioned the need for them - we are in a safe school and not much happens in our halls. However, after this incident in the halls, I want a security camera in my classroom! Again, every report of abuse must be investigated for a child, but I have seen the other side of things when a lie is told and a professional has their career on the line.

This book had my blood boiling and also had me trying to look at every angle to figure out what was the truth. Even though the sexual abuse trial ended in a not guilty verdict, the whole family's life was ruined by it. I hope Robbie moved on and grew up to do something with his life.

Let's be clear...

If you're looking for a riveting courtroom drama with lots of action that leaves you on the edge of your seat and leaves you guessing if the accused will be found guilty...this is not the book for you.

If, however, you're hungry for a well-written story about the affects of two major crises--the death of a small child and an accusation of a crime committed--on characters, on families, on relationships...this is the book for you!

Based on the synopsis of this book, one could easily assume (as I did, at first) that the story of this book would center on the courtroom, the trial, and the verdict. Instead, Jane Hamilton chose to explore how characters and relationships would struggle and change as a result of these events and she does it masterfully. The characters are very believable. At points, I would have sworn that I'd met them before. Hamilton changes voices, first writing from the perspective of the main character (Alice), then from her husband (Howard), and finally from Alice's perspective again. While some authors are unable to pull this off without creating confusion or leaving you to wonder why they bothered to do this, Hamilton does it beautifully and uses it to fill in gaps, give you a different perspective, and help you better understand all the characters. In general, her writing is beautiful and poignant.

In the end, you will get just a few courtroom scenes and the satisfaction of knowing the outcome of the trial. But it's hardly important at that point as you will be so engrossed in the struggles of the characters, their experiences, and the lasting affects the events of the book will have on all involved.

Why only 4 stars and not 5? There were moments (however brief and minor) in which certain characters were a bit "too much," too stereotypical in some way. And yes, a spot or two (very brief) in which she seemed to go on just a bit too long, when it seemed it was time to move on. I can't stress enough how brief these moments were. It was otherwise a wonderful read, although be warned that the subject matter was a bit difficult.

Heartbreaking and incredibly written. I won’t forget this book anytime soon. Some may find the plot unbelievable ... too many tragedies in one set of pages, but the author has distilled what it means to be a fallible human being. Just ... amazing.

This book starts out with a preventable tragedy and I couldn't read very far. I gave up

I opened this book and started reading it and before I knew it, I felt just like I knew Alice Goodwin and she was telling me the story of her worst summer. That’s how great Hamilton’s narration is in this story. This is a story of love, friendship, tragedy, guilt and shame. Alice has two little girls, as does her best friend, Theresa. One summer morning Alice is babysitting for Theresa, when she is distracted for a few minutes by a map of a pretend world she drew as a troubled child. While she is upstairs with the map, one of the children leaves the house, toddles down to the pond on the property and drowns. The rest of the book deals with Alice’s remorse over what has happened. It also tells of her guilt and shame after being arrested and spending the summer in jail for an unrelated crime. "I could say I’m sorry for the rest of my life, every day, every minute for the rest of my life and it still wouldn’t exhaust all the sorriness I have inside me." I liked Hamilton’s method of changing the narrative to Howard’s (Alice’s husband) point of view while Alice is in jail. He is the one left dealing with the fact that the family has now been outcast (actually, they were never really accepted. Theresa was Alice’s only friend). He has to deal with losing his farm, caring for his children and finally realizing that he loves Theresa. I got very engrossed in this book (spent one whole Sunday reading it) because I had to find out what happened to Alice. This was an Oprah pick and may be one of the few I ever liked. Very good writing and great story.

Powerful.
One of those books that started off slow for me but I grew to love the individual characters. At first Alice was confusing. She was so inside her head she was clueless about her surroundings, including her small children. When that distractedness lead to incredible tragedy she was stuck in my heart.

This story brought back memories of news stories about mental health professionals who had people dredging up memories of abuses and ruination of people's lives. Working in daycare and in schools is a perilous profession because children have strong imaginations and from what I hear today they come to these institutions with all sorts of underlying psychological baggage. With easy access to media, even the littlest ones are exposed to much more adult topics than they should be. And of course, once you release them into the herd of their peers, you have lost all control.

The plot was also reminiscent of the accusations against women of being witches. The portrayal of the unfairness and judgment of people, Ah! had me on the verge of tears.

I stayed up much too late reading this story but without regret. (actually, my only regret was the print on the pages was soo small it was hard on my old eyes.)

I think Jane Hamilton tried to hard and too often to tie in the title of her book into the story itself. Or maybe it was just glaringly obvious for me since the book I was reading had penciled notes all over and various sentences and passages underlined. You wrote it in pencil! The least you could do is erase it!

I'm sorry... *deep breath*

I genuinely liked the book... most of it at least. There were a few spots where it felt like the characters became a little too introspective, which is irritating when you want to get back to the "action." I wanted to know what was happening with the court case, and how Alice was doing in the prison, things more along those lines. Not Howard's thoughts on his milking cows... at times it didn't even tie well into the story and was just floating off there by itself.

What I did love was the content resolution. It's not all together happy, which would sort of ruin the realistic quality of the novel. But it was a neat and satisfying ending. Something which was lacking in a few of the books I recently read. Possibly because Hamilton knew if she didn't give the reader the solution to the problem, it would make the book an annoying and unworthwhile read. She could have easily written off the ending easily, and earlier, telling you how the case ends and leaving it at that. But I was happy she didn't, because after focusing so much on the Goodwin's lives before and during the trial, you need to know what happens to them after the trial.

Another thing that struck me as extremely interesting, yet may be considered a spoiler in this reflection, was the use of a female as the accused sexual abuser. Sexual abuse is not rare in society today, quite the opposite, but usually it falls on to men. So why does Hamilton choose to make Alice Goodwin our accused? Perhaps it's so the reader automatically sides with her, disbelieving that a woman, a mother, could do things so horrible. We probably wouldn't have even had to get to know Alice at all and would still side with her. Yet, Hamilton does set up the first 3rd of the story so we know Alice, the way she thinks, and the way she reacts.

It's unfortunate that it was the middle of the novel that had to drag so much, only bumping up at a few moments. If it weren't for the middle of the novel I would have given it a high B or even an A. But it was that long, lengthy, and introspective middle that brought the novel down so much. It happens to many authors though, trying to beef up the middle of their story that lacks so much, but I think Hamilton used fluff instead of something of substance.

It would be interesting to come back later and re-read the novel, especially if Hamilton chooses to revise it, and hopefully focuses most of her attention on the center of the story.

So many authors think they need to have an extremely lengthy novel, or at least one of 300+ pages, but that simply isn't true. If you are an aspiring author, know that it doesn't matter the quantity... but the quality.

Why do I always soapbox at the end of my reviews? *sigh* Oh, well, happy reading.

I have read several reviews that portray this book as being very depressing, sad, solemn, etc. At first, I would have to agree with these readers. Towards the middle of the book, however, I began to see the creative style of this author. To me, this was not just a story to tell. The author put the reader inside the head of Howard and Alice. I put more value on the writing because Ms. Hamilton went beyond just a story to tell and gave us some depth into the mind of an accused child abuser and her husband.
This is an Oprah book club book. I don’t care much for these type of reads because Oprah tends to highlight the victim for publicity sake and she feeds off it..makes money off of it. But I’m not turned off by this one. There are so many dynamics to this writing. I think it’s a great book to be discussed in a bookclub. I would be curious to see what readers thought of the charcters, Teresa, Alice and Howard. I like Teresa. Even when she betrays her friend, I commend her for being real. Forgiving her friend when it was appropriate. She does not get caught up in her misery and understands the realty of the situation. I was angry with Alice at first. Her passiveness became her aggressiveness and that drove me crazy. But when she described the women she met in jail and how she admired their toughness and their wisdom. I admired her. You would think Alice would be in the darkest part of her life in jail. But in a way, Alice seems to thrive in it. She was actually in awe of these women and their street sense. The author seemed to capture an internal dynamic that was so unique but believable. To me, the weakest character was Howard. He blamed Alice for the sadness in their life and I felt he was unwilling to bend even the slightest to make the best of a situation. .
This book surprised me. I appreciated the depth and meaning behind each word and I thought the theme was geared toward teaching a life lesson and I learned.

I was under Jane Hamilton’s spell with the simple magic she worked in The Book of Ruth, but A Map of the World covers FAR too much territory for me to be charmed by her pretty prose. In fact, I think there might be three books here – one featuring the drowning accident and subsequent devasting guilt, another the marriage issues and love triangle with the curly-haired neighbor, and yet a third with the criminal investigation and trial (all of which is addressed on the jacket blurb…I should’ve known better.)

The first 80 pages of this book – Lizzy’s drowning due to Alice’s negligence – just gutted me. I wish Hamilton had played it straight and carried that same compelling thread throughout. Whether Alice is likable or not, I truly felt for her in those scenes. Unfortunately things go downhill after that auspicious beginning, and although the star characters are pretty fleshed out, I feel as if I still can’t really get a handle on them. I think perhaps Alice is seen from too many conflicting perspectives for me to get a true sense of her.

Perhaps it was Hamilton’s intent all along to wrong-foot us and create this thick sensation of confusion and doubt, but it rang a bit hollow with me, which made the scattered train wreck that followed hard to endure. The seeds of potential misconduct are sown early on, but it’s a rather tenuous thread that gets us from point A to point C an inappropriate slap in the school nurse’s office to lurid sex scenes witnessed by a prim neighbor and relayed in court.

There are bright moments here, but ultimately this is a depressing, overloaded read without much in the way of payoff. Gloomy books can at times be satisfying reads, but this one, regrettably, was not. Time to change it up with something light.

This was a wonderful surprise for me. It was not at all what I was expecting and was really informative about the dynamics of remembrance and forgiveness. The book shows with the death of the small girl, how sudden tragedy can impact more than one family and how easy it is to become distracted, just long enough for a tragedy like this to unfold. The writing is entirely original and unique. This, along with The Book of Ruth, is one of Hamilton's masterpieces. Though the storyline is dark and sad, I could not put it down. Recommended.