Rating: 
Summary: You'll either love it or hate, maybe both!
Review: When I first heard about this book, I thought I'd never read it. The subject just sounded too painful. But I found myself buying a paperback copy one day. It sat on my bedside table for a couple of months before I finally was in the mood one weekend and started it. It is a difficult book to read. Partly because it is slow and very wordy, partly because the story is just so sad. There are no winners in the this book, but that is the point. It's not about "happily ever after," but "what would you do if..." And, face it, we all are just a heartbeat away from disaster. Now, having stated that morbid thought, I was enthralled by this book. I could not put it down and just absorbed the story. I thought the writing was insightful and poetic. How the author could write about Alice & Howard, their girls, and the neighbor, Theresa (mother of the drowned child) in a time of such agony is beyond me. As difficult as it was to read, I can't imagine writing it! I doubt I will re-read this book, but I do recomend it. It is an insightful look at human nature and how the human spirit can overcome anything, if it has no choice.
Rating: 
Summary: A page turner...but only to end the book quickly!
Review: I read the book and was very bored with it. The best parts really to me were the conversations in jail. I thought more would come of the affair between Howard and the neighbor Theresa. I also thought the book was leading to showing how the Mom really disliked her daughter. I just found it boring. I found it too predictable. I read it through so I wouldn't feel I wasted money. I only wasted my time.
Rating:
Summary: An Inside View
Review: One of the joys of reading fiction is the sense of experiencing another person's life from the inside. From our external vantage point, we observe other people but can only guess at what they are thinking and feeling. Jane Hamilton takes us inside two characters who share telling this compelling, page turning story. You are there, feeling their insecurities, understanding their weaknesses, forgiving their mistakes, seeing their "map of the world." This book has too much substance to be dubbed a "quick read," yet I couldn't put it down once I started reading. When I finished, I thought, "Wow! I just walked a mile in someone else's shoes."
Rating: 
Summary: Lifetime!!
Review: This book was okay. That is all there really is to say. I suspect that this book will eventually turn into a movie and I will catch it on Lifetime. I think this story will be more intriuging as a movie on the Lifetime Network than a as a novel, what with all of those commercial breaks building the suspense!
Rating: 
Summary: Daunting but definitely a good read
Review: This is a book that grasps you, a little against your better judgement if what you want is an easy ride.Initially it is a real emotional challenge, as death and grief are present and raw. However persistance pays off. The adult characters are deeply enveloping, perfectly considered with realistic interplay between them. The children less so, but well observed none the less. The terrifying development of the story line, the realism of the potential for hysteria to over-take fact makes it impossible to stop reading, even when dread fills your heart.
Rating:
Summary: I don't get it
Review: I bought "Map of the World" in an airport thinking it would keep me busy on my recent trip to Paris, how wrong I was. Maybe it's because I'm young but I don't get it. Nor do I care to, I have never read a book that made me dislike the characters as much as this one has. Maybe I'm just missing the point... Could someone please tell me why this long, boring book is suppose to be good?
Rating:
Summary: A Map of the World
Review: I just finished reading A Map of the World and I was very disapointed with the ending, or should I say with the last 100+ pages which is approx a quarter of the book. The first 3/4 of the book was excellent. I could barely put it down. The characters were alive and interesting and real. The story was scary and I couldn't wait to see what happened. I admired J.H.'s style of writing and how she developed the plot. BUT, one "Howard" was finished with his section, the story just fell apart for me. Like the author lost focus or something. Maybe she became extremely ill and didn't actually finish the book herself! Got bored with it? I feel it was a terrible mistake to have Howard tell his tale all the way to when Alice "gets out" and then Alice starts up again to tell what it was like when she was "in there". And what she did tell was boring and outside of the story. One wondered why she included this in the book! It didn't move the story forward, but ground it to a dead halt! Why? Why? Why? This reader was so anxious to find out how the story would end only to have it poof away slowly and painfully. This reader suspected that Oprah recommended this book so highly because her name was mentioned in it numerous times. Extraneously at that. I feel that this book was written by a talented writer who may have gotten writers block (or something) and had to have a certain number of pages done for her publisher by a certain date.
Rating:
Summary: A Map of the Heart
Review: Jane Hamilton's 'A Map of the World' is a wonderful read--a poignant tale about a woman lost in her own imaginings and wishes, trying to find steady ground for her ever-wobbly feet. The protagonist, Alice, is a woman we grow to empathize with, a woman we like and can identify with. She is wise and strong, even in the most difficult of situations. She enjoys an ordinary life in many ways, until one day her life becomes anything but ordinary. And through her trials, we wonder if the same tragedy could ever befall us, any one of us...we see her evolve as she struggles to deal with the circumstances that have changed her life, and her heart, forever.
Rating:
Summary: MaryAnn
Review: I have been reading this book for a few weeks. The reason it is taking so long is that I read other books in between because I find this one SO BORING! The story is somewhat interesting, characters are OK, but it just goes on and on and on when describing things, feelings, etc. I am going to finish it just because I am interested to find out how it turns out and I am hoping for an ending that will be worth my trouble.
Rating:
Summary: A PAGE TURNING INTENSE STORY
Review: HAMILTON HAS WRITTEN A VERY FAST LOOK INTOI THE LIFE OF THE NEWCOMER IN THE TOWN OR THE PEOPLE WHOM ALL THINK OF AS DIFFERENT. HAMILTON TELLS A STORY THAT PROCCEDS ONE STEP AT A TIME AT AN INCREASING PACE.I FOUND IT TO BE A "READ ALL NIGHTER"!
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