Book Club Discussion Questions
Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
Introduction
In the tradition of
The Good Mother by Sue Miller and
Before and After
by Rosellen Brown,
A Map of the World is the riveting story of how a
single mistake can forever change the lives of everyone involved--in ways that
are beyond imagining. One unremarkable June morning, Alice Goodwin is, as usual,
trying to keep in check both her temper and her tendency to blame herself for
her family's shortcomings. Six years ago, when the Goodwins took over the last
dairy farm in the small Midwestern town of Prairie Center, they envisioned their
home as a self-made paradise. But these days, as Alice is all too aware, her
elder daughter Emma is prone to inexplicable fits of rage, her husband Howard
distrusts her maternal competence, and Prairie Center's tight-knit suburban
community shows no signs of warming to "those hippies who think they can
run a farm." A loner by nature, Alice is torn between a yearning for
solitude coupled with a deep need to be at the center of a perfect family.
On this particular day, Emma has started the morning with a violent tantrum,
her little sister Claire is eating pennies, and it is Alice's turn to watch her
neighbor's two small girls as well as her own children. She absentmindedly
steals a minute alone--a minute that turns into ten: time enough for a
devastating accident to occur. Her neighbor's daughter Lizzy drowns in the
farm's pond, and Alice--whose volatility and unmasked directness keep her on the
outskirts of acceptance--becomes the perfect scapegoat. At the same time, a
seemingly trivial incident from Alice's past resurfaces and takes on gigantic
proportions, leading the Goodwins into a maze of guilt and doubt culminating in
a harrowing court trial and the family's shattering downfall.
A page-turning narrative of extreme literary depth,
A Map of the World
is an achingly accurate drama about an American family and a rural way of life
that is fast becoming obsolete.
For discussion: A Map of the World
- In the opening pages of the novel, Alice says about her situation,
"Now, in my more charitable moods, I wonder if our hardworking
community members punished us for something as intangible as whimsy. We
would not have felt eccentric in a northern city, but in Prairie Center we
were perhaps outside the bounds of the collective imagination." (p. 4)
How does the idea of alienation figure into the novel? Why do Dan and
Theresa belong to Prairie Center? Does Howard belong? Feeling that she
doesn't belong, could Alice have done anything to make herself less
vulnerable to public censure?
- Compare the different ways the characters grieve: Are there parallels in
the husband/wife relationships within the couples--Alice and Howard, Theresa
and Dan--and how each spouse expresses, or fails to express, his or her own
grief? Do the characters' respective genders play a role in the way they
deal with grief? What role does grief play in Howard's relationship with
Theresa?
- We get very little objective sense of the characters in A Map of the
World in relation to one another and their environment; their accounts
are extremely subjective and heavily tinged with emotion. How does this lack
of objectivity affect your reading of the novel? How well do you feel you
know the characters? Are Alice and Howard's versions of the events of the
novel believable? Does Alice come across the same way through Howard's eyes
as she does through her own?
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- How does the author develop themes of identity and belonging throughout the narrative?
- What role does the setting play in shaping the characters' decisions and relationships?
- Discuss how the ending reframes the events of the story. Were you surprised?
Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Anchor Books.
Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.
