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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Book Review - A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton




The premise of the story was promising. I liked the main characters very much - Howard strong, silent, supportive husband. Alice slightly different - definitely not the average Jane, two children, one highly strung Emma and the placid Claire. Upto now perfectly normal. However by the community in Prairie Center they are considered as the "hippie couple" and seem to live on the fringe with no outright antagonism but no real acceptance.

One accident - a neighbours little girl dies in Alice's care and it snowballs from there. Add to this false charges of abuse spiralling into a witch hunt. The end result disastrous.

Several times I wanted to give up on this book. The story should have been enthralling as everything was there. False accusations, how to get out of it, the endless trial and the media hounding one, the unravelling of Alice and Howard's life, the financial implications and pressures faced by them and how to just live one day at a time for the sake of the two children should have held my interest but it didnt.

I did finish the book but it felt a bit flat.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the honest review. I think I'll pass on this book!

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  2. Too bad it didn't have the ending to make it a really good book. Nice teaser. My review

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  3. Sorry it didn't work out for you. I've seen this one around a lot and I appreciate your thoughts!

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