Customer comments on this selection.
 Not so much
Depressing, bleak, sorrowful.
I don't know why I even picked up this book - oh yeah, it was .50 at a yard sale - it wasn't even worth that!
 Pleasant Lives Abruptly Changed
This novel is set in and around the last remaining dairy farm in a rapidly suburbanizing Wisconsin county. Being a diary farmer is the fulfillment of the dream for Howard Goodheart, a dream wholeheartedly shared by his wife Alice. They enjoy a lifestyle that harkens back to a simpler time, as well as the bond of friendship with one of the nearby families who live in a new suburb that abuts their farm acreage. The two women are best friends, the kind who can breeze into each other's kitchen with a yoo-hoo instead of a knock. Their ordered and pleasant lives are abruptly changed when an accidental drowning occurs in the Goodheart's farm pond. The repercussions are immediate and devastating for both families and for the community. At the same time, one of the main characters is falsely accused of a crime unrelated to the drowning, and from this false accusation, their lives further unravel.
This novel (as has become somewhat a formula in contemporary fiction) is told alternately from the viewpoints of several of the protagonists. The reader must readjust to the various vantage points. Thankfully, Hamilton limits the narrative shifts to large sections of the book, rather than an every other chapter (a frequently disconcerting style popularized by other authors and book editors). It is fair to observe Hamilton's voice is more effective when writing from the female point of view than from the male.
One of the most ominous characters, albeit in a small supporting role, is the gossip, Mrs. Glevitch. "What Mrs. Glevitch thought she knew was as potent as truth, and pretty soon would become truth... she would take the bits of information and dress them up with her distinctive brand of poetry." (page 62). We all know people like her, the deceitful, manipulative, rude, and malicious people whose unchecked behavior we must occasionally interact with, for whom passing on a daily dose of malevolent falsehood is like mother' s milk. Any novelist who sheds the spotlight of truth on such spitefulness gets a big thumbs up from me.
 Loved it!
Couldn't hardly put this one down. It isn't a happy story, but the writing was fantastic and the story really makes you think how quickly your life can change and how hard it is to recover when bad things happen to good people.
A Map of Two Hearts
This was a beautifully written novel about how our minds can often trip us up. A tragic accident has caused a young woman to blame herself for the death of a little girl; and a domino effect is triggered. Shortly, the entire community is blaming her not only for the child's death but for atrocities far worse than her supposed negligence.
Very engrossing
I'm not 100% sure "enjoyed" is the right word for how I experienced this book. It was hard to put down, and I was emotionally involved with the characters, but along with enjoying the story and the character development I found it frightening. It's so easy to find yourself out in the cold, accused of something you didn't do, or at least finding that your life is completely altered by an event that only took seconds to happen. A bit haunting. I liked seeing the story from both Alice's and Howard's viewpoints.
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