Rating: 
Summary: Sometimes less is more
Review: I recently finished reading this book and have mixed feelings about it. I have to give Jane Hamilton a great deal of credit for tastefully tackeling such a delicate and controversial topic. The main charactor Alice chronicles the horrors of being accused of an utterly reprehensible crime. The author was able to write about this event without the use of any gratuitus descriptions or gory details. I especially enjoyed the court scenes and how her lawyer worked hard to protray the child Robbie as petulant and manipulative. You could see that Robbie was also horribly victimized during the trial.Jane Hamilton's descriptive writing is what makes her stand out as such an accomplished author. However, I felt that perhaps there was too much description in this novel. Even the most mundane and ordinary tasks warrented too many details and narration. There were times that I skipped a few paragraphs and scanned the words to get to the meat of the story. I feel that in some cases to get the readers attention, that less description is more. I am glad that I read the book and feel that I learned a great deal about family dynamics and communication breakdowns during tragic times. I understand this novel to be fiction. However it was a very informative and important read.
Rating: 
Summary: Tragedy from the heart
Review: This book takes you from heaven to hell all within one year. One tragedy after another. How much pain and suffering can one family go through. Their life is like a rollercoaster that will end, but they don't know when. It's nice to know that two women can take different journey's and know that forgiveness means understanding and come together in peace and comfort, but at a wide distance. This is a wholesome book that is about life that we all know and at one point in our life has experienced. Forgiving someone is the right path to take to heal or mend a broken heart.
Rating:
Summary: Very well written
Review: Although I am not quite finished I am really enjoying this interesting and at times frustrating novel. I am kind of annoyed by the protagonist Alice because she seems so judgmental and self absorbed. Perhaps she will have a catharsis at the end? Any way, I love this kind of crime drama where anyone can become a victim of an outragious judicial system. The family is as dissolute as todays families, and for that I found this book both timely and credible.
Rating:
Summary: great read
Review: this is a fully textured novel, written with such precision at times it was painful. The author is in touch with feelings and her characters are rich in dimension. A Map of the World is a story about a woman, married with two kids & her life on the farm. Until one day everything falls apart beginning with the death of a child she was supposed to be babysitting. The death is a catalyst and has a domino effect for the rest of the story, including the accusing of the woman of child abuse. We read about the disintegration of her marriage, her husbands dependence on different women in varying degrees. Her children, while initially were represented as overblown, become almost background music. I was fascinated by the shifts of tone, and wondered what the author was thinking as she stripped layers of the characters until they became refined & almost clean. The book is about forgiveness and this becomes apparent especially at the end - judgement is suspended and you must analyze how things can get blown out of proportion depending on which side of the glass you are peering through.
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: That is all I could say after finishing the book. I read more than half of it straight through on one afternoon. It was amazing. The poetic writing, the plot twists, the adjectives, the characters all added up to an amazing story. I hope everyone gets to experience the amazing characters of Alice, Theresa, and Howard.
Rating: 
Summary: A DIS-CONNECT: Just couldn't care about Alice!
Review: I wanted to get into this book, I really did. But I couldn't. I forced myself half-way through it, then couldn't go any further. Months later, I tried again with fresh eyes, picking up where I left off but making it only 50 or so more pages. I just didn't care enough about the character of Alice to go on. I never felt any real connection to her. I don't necessarily need to like a character -- and indeed I didn't like Alice, so mundane, unfocused, with such poor life/interpersonal skills -- but I need to at least FEEL something for a character to see a novel through to its end. I simply didn't care about Alice's predicament or its outcome. Moreover, I found the author's writing style often long-winded and detached. Sorry -- just don't know what all the fuss is about on this one!
Rating: 
Summary: Hamilton's follow up to THE BOOK OF RUTH delivers...
Review: Jane Hamilton, I'm willing to bet, suffered quite a bit as a chid. It seems all of her books are extremely depressing and that all look at a family who slowly deconstructs, then reconstruicts. In the newest gig, we look at the world through the eyes of lonely housewife, Alice Goodheart. It seems the world as turned her back on her because the first half of the book finds her dealing with the pain and struggle of knowing she has killed her friends daughter and the last half deals with her and her struggle to get out of prison after being charged with rape. I found the book to be very well written but, like most opera books, the dialogue is weak. This is oneo f the first Operah books in which the male characters were strong which i must credit it for. Not for the type to get all weepy and NOT FOR CHILDREN
Rating: 
Summary: Neither inspiring nor interesting
Review: Alice lives a relatively mundane life. Her husband works their small dairy farm, and she works as a nurse in a rural school. In the way things sometimes do, tragedy strikes when the youngest daughter of her neighbor drowns in Alice's pond while under her care. After a time, she comes to terms with this and moves on. Then, she is accused by a local troublemaker of sexually abusing her equally troublesome son. More tragedy ensues. The writing is of good-enough quality, but long-winded and indulgently self-reflective. The characters are solid, but seem like passing strangers to whom one has no connection. The situation is very sad, but Alice's paralysis by her own self-pity grates on your nerves. I found myself angry that I had to read to the end just to find out what happens. Finally, the epilogue seems tacked on, as though the author felt it unnecessary to discuss the most important part of Alice's emotional journey.
Rating:
Summary: Not a deep work; only popular due to "star power."
Review: Though usually hesitant to read books on Oprah's list (I believe in my own ability to find a good book, though I admit she has picked some winners), I read a bit of this one at the store and felt I would enjoy it. WRONG. The only character in the book I actually liked and cared about was Theresa, and it was not her story. Though a lot takes place in this novel (death, prison, false accusations) and it reveals life truths (such as the fact that many spouses don't know each other and one's seemingly safe life can snap in one minute, without the slightest hint of forewarning), it left me saying - "Oh, deal with it." The novel held no great revelations for me, nor did I find the central characters compelling in any way. Far worse things have ocurred to others not as well situated, and they have conquered their demons with more grace, common sense, and ability. Better novels have told similar tales in more compelling fashion.
Rating:
Summary: lost grip
Review: Great premise for a gripping story, but I couldn't suspendmydisbelief of the events that followed the initial tragidy. One's sense of depression would be fathomable after such an event, but I thought a mother's bond to her own children would override any guilt ridding penance in prison ... The court scene near the end was unsatisfying in that the witnesses seemed tailormade for the result.
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