A Map of the World (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Jane Hamilton
- First Published: 1994
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: The 1990’s
- Setting: Prairie Center, Wisconsin
- Principal Characters: Alice Goodwin, Howard Goodwin, Emma, Theresa Collins, Dan Collins, Lizzy, Paul Rafferty
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Family or family life, Prisons, Marriage, Guilt, Midwest, Child abuse, Farms, farmers, or farming, Divorce, Death or dying, Dairy industry or products
- Locales: Wisconsin
Jane Hamilton’s elegiac and moving second novel, A Map of the World, has all the makings of a latter-day tragedy: a child drowned, an innocent woman jailed, the dissolution of a marriage, the loss of a home and way of life, the unraveling of a family. In less capable hands such material could only read as maudlin, exploitive, even operatic—the storyline for a daytime drama. Yet Jane Hamilton is not merely a capable writer; she is a startlingly gifted one. In A Map of the World Hamilton, whose first novel, The Book of Ruth, won the 1989 PEN/Hemingway Foundation...
[The entire page is 2019 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
See Also
