Not only was it a terribly depressing read, descriptions went in and on and on. I reached a point toward the middle where I simply wound up skipping entire chapters only to discover I hadn’t missed much of anything...just more descriptions. I finish it only to see what would happen at the end. Two stars is perhaps too generous...

Well..the book started off interesting but seemed to drag the plot on and on without getting anywhere. First, the story was told from the wife's perspective, then the husband's, then the wife's and then finally ended. It was very anti-climatic even though there was quite a bit of stress in the book for the characters. Overall, it was worth a read, but not worth a re-read.

"A Map of the World" was among the most powerful books I read during the 1990s, so devestating, in fact, I've been unable to reread it despite wanting to.

It has an unconventional structure -- effectively, three chapters, each told from the POV of one of the three principals -- and one of the least likeable -- but utterly believable -- central characters in the American literary canon. Hamilton's writing is gorgeous and fluid, and she is unaplogetic for and about her characters: A woman, Alice; her husband, Howard; and Theresa, the wife of the neighboring couple. None of themn are perfect people; all of them are understandable, and Howard and Theresa are sympathetic despite their flaws.

You need to give the book a chance: It's not what it seems to be, and the event which triggers the crisis isn't the event the book is about. Its real subject is consequence, how we're all victims of circumstances not entirely of our own making. It's a rich, deep and disturbing journey through these people's lives, but one you'll ultimately be grateful you took.

I didn’t love the story, but the writing was fantastic.

Well written, but sooo depressing!

Disliked thoroughly. The Goodwin's started out as people I had compassion for, but grew increasingly more irritating. By the time Howard is left in charge of the children and moans about how he has no choice but to feed them cereal three meals a day because he doesn't know how to boil pasta or make a sandwich, I completely hated him and the entire book. Finished it and regretted not giving up sooner.

Howard and Alice Goodwin own a 400-acre dairy farm in Prairie Center, Wisconsin. It's the fulfillment of a dream for Howard who was raised as a "city boy". But the dairy farms are disappearing and housing developments are springing up everywhere and they are considered outsiders. One Spring morning Alice is babysitting her neighbor's two small girls as well as her own two girls when she takes a moment alone to reminisce as she was having a bad morning. Tragically, Lizzy, the younger of Dan and Theresa's children wanders off and drowns in the Goodwin's pond. Alice works as a school nurse in the local elementary school; and a couple of weeks after the drowning, Alice is accused of sexual abuse by a kindergartner at the school. On the verge of a nervous breakdown, she blurts out to the police investigating the case "I hurt everybody". The police take this as a confession, arrest her, and Alice spends the summer in jail awaiting her trial because the $100,000 bail is beyond her means. There is hardly any action in this novel - it is character driven - and written in first person from two viewpoints. The beginning is Alice's, the middle is Howard's, and the end is Alice's again. It's a painful story to read because the author really understands the feelings and motives of these characters with vivid descriptions of their lives and emotions.

Map of the World is the third book I have read by Jane Hamilton after Disobedience, which I loved, & Book of Ruth, not as much. I loved Map of the World. The observations Hamilton puts in the minds of her characters are often quit amusing, even if the characters are in terrible circumstances. The characters are well drawn: Hamilton’s method of having different section of the book devoted to particular characters enables the readers to see the story through the eyes of that character.

This book was interesting on so many levels. For one thing, it shows how people can be sucked into the legal system without much ability to defend themselves. In this case, Alice, the main character was wrongly accused of child abuse and was given an outrageous bail. Her husband sold the family farm to pay the bail, but not everyone has resources they can tap into.

The tale is also a stunning reminder of how quickly life can change as it did for the two families in this book. Fortunately, they survived two terrible events of the book, the false accusation for one family and the loss of a child for the other. – but their lives were forever changed. While nothing was totally resolved by the end of the book, the characters were on their way to opening new life chapters.

"I used to think if you fell from grace it was more likely not the result of one stupendous error, or else an unfortunate accident. I hadn't learned that it can happen so gradually you don't lose your stomach or hurt yourself in the landing. You don't necessarily sense the motion I've found it takes at least two and generally three things to alter the course of a life: You slip around the truth once, and then again, and one more time, and there you are, feeling, for a moment, that it was sudden, your arrival at the bottom of the heap." (Opening paragraph)

A riveting story: a school nurse falsely accused of sexual abuse resulting in total altering of a family's life.

Sad and wistful. Beautiful writing.

A Map of the World is about a woman named Alice who learns lessons about people and forgiveness through a few terrible events that occur in her life. She lives on a farm in Prairie Center, Wisconsin (??) with her husband, Howard, and two small children, Emma and Claire. I am not sure what time period this book takes place in, but gender/racial roles are very clear and distinct (women = housewives, men = workers, white = rich and suburban, black = poor and in jail). Anyway, at the beginning of the book, Alice accidentally lets her neighbor's daughter Lizzy drown in the pond on her property. And no, I didn't give much away, because surprisibly (at least to me) the book wasn't about this event at all. I was a bit shocked at how easily everyone got over the drowning of a little girl, especially her mother. Alice couldn't forgive herself, even after neighbor Theresa forgave her, although the drowning wasn't mentioned much after the first quarter of the book or so.

The book was alright, it was hard to get into but towards the end played out almost like an episode of Law and Order, and I couldn't stop reading (although I'm not a fan of the show). Alice, or perhaps the author, had a habit of gluing people into certain roles. Theresa, for instance, was the hopeful "oh, everything is okay" character that Alice found very simple in her hopes and dreams. I didn't find Theresa a simple person. She's supposed to be a human being, and humans are all complex. The language was quite beautiful, but made the reading a bit tedious, because the author would stick to writing about a certain scene for pages, and the book didn't progess. I'm not really sure what Oprah's criteria is for choosing books for her book club, but another book I read, We Were the Mulvaneys, was what I found another mediocre selection. Although I did get suspicious when I read about Alice's love for Oprah, and the lavish compliments for her that the author randomly wrote into the dialogue.

3.5 stars rounded down. This book took me months to read. I read it with no idea what it was about, just that it’s on the Oprah list. That’s should have been my first warning. Oprah books are trauma porn selected to give middle class white women perspective in my opinion. Second, a few days before staring this book my friends son accidentally drowned so the beginning of the book hit me a little harder than normal. The prose is absolutely stunning but the subject is intense and dark. Alice is clearly losing it and it was hard to read. I honestly only recommend this book to a person with a sheltered life, with little experience. Otherwise, it can be a be traumatic to one’s own wounds you thought were closed.