Point of View

In A Map of the World, Jane Hamilton divides narration between a wife and husband both reacting to the trauma of the death of a lost child, charges of child molestation, and alienation from the community. The perspectives are carefully kept separate unless and until the narrators confide specific information to the other. Neither is an omniscient point of view. Both are confused and conflicted.

Alice Goodwin opens with a reflection on how what should have been a pleasant summer free from work outside the house and farm is destroyed when a neighbor's child drowns while in Alice's care. Alice candidly admits that she cannot deal with the guilt. She shuts out her husband, Howard, who desperately needs her to snap out of it and shoulder her part of the work. She describes how pre-existing marital tensions magnify and how Howard's prodding drives her deeper. She...