A Map of the World

Rating:
Summary: A Map of the World
Review: When I first started reading this book, I had a difficult time enveloping myself in the charachters' lives. I found the main charachter, Alice, to be qiute difficult to relate to. Her lack of coping skills and self-involved approach to her pain left me with a strong desire to shake her. During a time of tragedey, she remained unaware of the life moving around her, only thinking of her own pain. However, as the book progressed I found myself thinking about what was being said at times when I wasn't even reading it. Hamilton clearly demonstrated the fragileness of life, love and what we think to be security. Alice's and Howard's lives crash around them after one significant event. In the aftermath, they loose everything that made them feel safe, comfortable and happy. I was accutely aware as I read that this can happen to anyone. Aside from the depressing events in this book, I found Hamilton's message of forgiveness and its ability to strengthen and lift the human spirit, to be uplifting and encouraging. Throughout the trial, Alice reflects on this little boy and it is clear that she forgives him, and even defends him. Theresa frogives Alice for the death of her daughter and eventually, Alice begins to forgive herself as well. The book ends with Howard beginning to tell Alice about what happened while she was away, and with Alice already forgiving him for it. That the book ends with this beautifully written passage, indicates that this was a story of healing, strength and forgiveness. No, I didn't ever really feel strongly for Alice, but perhaps I wasn't supposed to. Even though I disliked her, I to came to forgive her at the same point she seemed to have forgiven herself, and that was a much more powerful reaction than having liked her from the first page.

Rating:
Summary: A difficult book to read, but rewarding nonetheless
Review: A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton

A Map of the World centers around Alice, a woman that seems to march to a different drummer, and apparently does not seem to fit in with regular society. There is nothing really wrong with her, but for some reason, she lacks the social skills that helps others fit in. She is married to a wonderful husband Howard, who is as different from Alice as night is from day. I couldn't understand why anyone would be drawn to Alice, but Howard obviously loved her.

The story opens with Alice in a panic, taking care of her two young daughters and her friend Theresa's two girls, while Theresa is out. Alice obviously does not enjoy taking care of the kids. Motherhood does not suit her.

What happens next is what sets the tone of the book. The younger of Theresa's two girls, Lizzie, drowns outside in the pond where the girls often played. The reader and the characters in the book wonder, "Whose fault was it?" The town has already made up their mind about Alice, and it is not favorable. However, Theresa stands by her friend, despite the great loss she and her husband Dan have just gone through.

This is only the beginning of Alice's troubles. Rumors start to circulate about Alice and her work as a school nurse. What follows is a series of events that threatens to tear Alice's family apart.

From reactions I received from friends, and reading the reviews at Amazon, I've noticed that this is probably one of the more difficult books to get through that Oprah chose for her book club. I'm the only person I know that actually enjoyed this book. What kept me reading was Jane Hamilton's beautiful writing style. That alone was worth reading this book. The story is depressing and the main character is not a likeable person at all. Despite this, I do recommend the book, but with a word of caution, that one needs to be patient in order to finish this book.

Rating:
Summary: Can't finish
Review: I can't finish the book. There are parts of good writing by the author but the story is unnecessarily draggy and depressing. Alice always just look at the negative side of things, bemoaning her life and that people around her has robbed her of something. For example, she would notice how ugly a person is than anything else. I find her attitude to Nellie particularly selfish and rude. Her daughters are supposed to be difficult to handle, yet Nellie has helped her while she drowns herself in self-pity. I just feel that I have better way to spend my time than to read and feel annoyed and depressed about Alice's life.

Rating:
Summary: As good as it gets, from one of the best.
Review: If you are up for a quick, glossy read, do not pick up this book. If you are looking for an intensely detailed and brilliantly composed tale of human loss and discovery - this is the book for you!

Jane Hamilton has an amazing gift for creating layer upon layer of depth for her characters. She leaves nothing to chance or guesswork. In "A Map of the World," the reader follows the perfectly detailed journey into despair of Alice Goodheart. At the same time, we witness the plight of her good-hearted and painfully stoic husband, Howard. We see the end result of tragedy through the eyes of two very different people who must fight through adversity every day just to survive with their family intact. Hamilton's recounting of her characters' plight is incredibly well thought out and presented. And their story is utterly unforgettable, and frighteningly real.

Jane Hamilton is perhaps the most gifted writer of our time, and "A Map of the World" may be her finest work.

Rating:
Summary: A great writer, but a great book?
Review: Evaluating "A Map of the World" is a little bit tricky for me because while I did not particularly enjoy the novel, I cannot say that there is anything wrong with it. In fact, there is quite a bit right with it. Hamilton's prose is frequently dead-on, and her descriptions of the memories and emotional experiences of her main characters is often insightful, funny, and fully engaging. On top of that she has a great plot. Our main character, Alice, suffers from one disaster after another: first the 2-year-old daughter of her best friend drowns in Alice's back yard, and next she is arrested on hyperbolic charges of sexually abusing the students at the elementary school where she works as a nurse.

So what's my problem? I think Hamilton simply gives us too much of a good thing. There were too many reflections and flashbacks and emotional observations for my taste. And I am willing to believe that my problems are a matter of taste. I've read Amazon reviews for books where the reader will complain that the writer drones on and on incessantly, yet I might have loved the voice in that novel and not particularly cared if the writing seemed long winded. It wasn't the case here, however.

I do think that Hamilton's characterizations are superb, though her dialogue is sometimes stilted and distracting. Nevertheless, I would certainly take another pass at a novel by her.

Rating:
Summary: Difficult Read.
Review: One moment of inattention, or was it pure and simply an accident that could have happened to anyone? Whatever it was, the lives of a community were changed and the dreams of two families went up in smoke. One of them found a way to continue their lives, but for the other family, they spiraled into a life of emotional poverty. The frightening lesson in this book is that it is hard to imagine that any of us would be immune to this disaster. It could probably happen to practically anyone, and just its possibility opens up the fact of our vulnerabilities. It made me think that I was on a precipice or a knife edge, facing disaster with just a misstep as I tried to go about my daily, routine tasks.

Rating:
Summary: A Map of the World
Review: Although it has its good moments, the book, A Map of the World, is a difficult one to finish. In the first place, the book is unnecessarily long. Secondly, the characters are, without exception, unsympathetically drawn. The story is told in first person narration by the two main characters, Alice Goodwin and her husband, Howard.

Alice, the mother of two small children, works part time as a elementary school nurse. The book begins with Alice bitterly complaining about her children, her husband, her neighbors and her life in general. Alice was a motherless child who had a difficult relationship with her father. Within the first few chapters, the reader figures out that Alice is subconsciously hell-bent on causing problems for herself and her family.

While babysitting her best friend's two preschoolers, Alice leaves the room where the children are playing with Alice's own two small children and allows herself to become wrapped up in a daydream. By the time Alice returns, her friend's two year-old has wandered out the door and drowns in a pond. Alice descends into despair. She pushes her husband away and neglects her daughters.

Alice has always had a knack for alienating others. The death of the little girl turns into a catalyst for accusations that Alice has sexually molested several neghborhood children. Alice is arrested and is financially unable to make bail.

With Alice's arrest, the book makes a sudden shift to Howard's first person narration. In stark contrast to Alice, Howard is an uncomplaining, balanced and satisfied person who sees good in everything. However, he is completely unable to cope with changes brought about by his wife's imprisonment. He, too, begins making some very bad choices with devastating consequences.

Alice spends the majority of the book wallowing in self-pity and directing anger at others. She openly resents her own five year-old and says almost nothing in the book's twenty-two chapters to indicate that she loves her family. Although I can understand what the author was trying to accomplish, such an unsympathetic portrayal of the main character becomes irritating after a while. The plot consists of one disastrous turn after another. Eventually, you just want the story to come to an end.

The characters do grow through their experience, making the final chapter worthwhile. Getting to that final worthwhile chapter, however, is painful.

Rating:
Summary: Profound portrait of forgiveness and the complexities of Luv
Review: I got so much from this book. It didn't really bring up thought but more of a feeling. I just felt when I read. It touched me deeply. The way the author could draw such a profound portrait of three people was just amazing! The story is deep and has lots of sadness. This is a hint just in case you might be looking for something light. There is a movie made of this book and it is also wonderful. I won't go into to much detail since there are already so many reviews. I can just say that looking deeper than just the sadness can be enlighting.

Lisa Nary

Rating:
Summary: A good story, but way tooooo long
Review: Jane Hamilton is an excellent writer, and she creates wonderful and plausible stories. But she suffers from logorrhea, an excess of verbiage. A skilled editor with both pruning shears and manicure scissors would have greatly improved this book. There were long passages that I skimmed.
Don't let this keep you from reading the book. It's good. But you don't have to read every single word, not by a long shot.

Rating:
Summary: kinda boring
Review: The two characters that I can't stand is Theresa and Howard. I mean, they should just get together and divorce their spouses or don't ever start in the first place. Reading about their affair is a pain and it is frustrating. Besides they made it seem as though it was alright. The author made Theresa seem like a goody-two-shoes with no interesting personality. Alice was boring in the beginning and it seems like she went under a sudden personality change when she was arrested. Anyhow, I like her later personality and she was a better character then Howard or Theresa. The book overall is not the type of book I would read if my teacher had not assigned it.