A Map of the World, by Jane Hamilton
(New York: Doubleday, 1994)
Summary:
"The book is concerned with how one seemingly inconsequential moment
can alter lives forever. Alice Goodwin, mother of two, school nurse and
wife of an aspiring dairy farmer in Wisconsin, is getting ready to take
her two daughters and her best friend, Theresa's two little girls to
their farm pond to swim. When she goes upstairs to find her bathing
suit, Lizzy, Theresa's 2-year-old, slips away to the pond and drowns. It
all goes downhill from there. The town tramp, whom Alice reprimanded
for constantly bringing her sick son to school, accuses Alice of
molesting her child. The entire town turns on the Goodwin family, fairly
new to the area, and several other mothers come forward with tales of
Alice's 'abuse'. Imprisonment, trial and loss of the farm ensue and
Alice's husband and Theresa become 'involved.'
"The novel is essentially about a search for authenticity in the
contemporary American midwest. A couple struggles to maintain their
lives on a farm, keep to ethical practices of both farming and living,
and to raise their two young children, but American society stymies
their efforts. The novel is an indictment of the U.S. legal system,
which works with the subtlety and mercy of a sledgehammer; the farming
system, which values dollars over good food and the environment; and the
American idea of marriage, which is falling apart from its own internal
contradictions. However, the novel manages to be very funny throughout.
Its humor comes out not just in the wicked, scathing sentences of its
first third, told in a voice that one imagines is close to the author's
own, but also in the structural choice of placing section two in the
voice of the hilariously but tragically non-verbal husband. The contrast
between husband's and wife's thinking is far more eloquent and
entertaining than the recent popular psychological studies on the
subject of male-female mental processes. Also included: the annoyingly
efficient but oblivious mother-in-law, class and race differences but
from a female perspective, and the politics of a small town."
Opening Line:
"I used to think if you fell from grace it was more likely than not the result of one stupendous error, or else an unfortunate accident."
My Take:
Yay! Once I finish this entry I'll be up to the book I'm currently reading.
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
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