Reviews for A map of the world

The average rating for A map of the world based on 2 reviews is 1.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-07-15 00:00:00 Gary Squires Dear God, the exercise in bleakness that was "A Map of the World" - what possible point was there in forcing us through the baby-drowning, the molestation accusations, time in jail, and so on? In the words of Dorothy Parker, a book that should be flung away with great force.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-02-22 00:00:00 Jalal H Qazzaz Review contains some spoilers... This book was well written, however it was terribly depressing. It is about a mother's worst nightmare. A child she is watching for her best friend drowns in her lake while she is distracted. Then she falls into a terrible depression/guilt and in the midst of all that she is accused by a student at the school where she is a nurse of abusing him. For some crazy reason, despite complaining regularly to Per about it, I struggled through the whole thing. I just couldn't get myself to put it down. The characters were compelling (even if I didn't like them much!) And the prose was well written. But honestly it felt like watching a train wreck, knowing I should look away, but continuing to look. It is about how misunderstood we all can be and how much we can misunderstand even those we love most, during emotional crises. It was so sad to me how little commitment to each other and how little faith this couple had in each other. And the same held true for the protagonists best friend. I kept hoping that there would be some strong redeeming message or action...nope! I pray nothing of this magnitude of tragedy ever befalls anyone I know. And I also pray that if it does that I will be a better friend and wife than is portrayed in this book. I can't wait to pick up a very light, uplifting book next.