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Title: STIFFLING, SUFFOCATING, GIMME AIR, QUICK!
Review: If you liked Smiley's 1000 Acres, you'll like this book. I liked neither. I felt in both books like I was going through someone's dirty laundry basket ... there was nothing uplifting...nothing to capture the imagination. The "heroine" of A Map of the World was truly unlikable to me. She was self-absorbed and not anyone I could care about. Her children were despicable, and her husband a tight-lipped drone. The only reason I give the book even 3 points is that it opens with a bang. The action that gets the whole story in motion happens more quickly than in any other novel I have read. Perhaps that's why the rest of the book seems so slow and tedious. I might add, If you like books with a little "poetry" in them, or books that leave something to the imagination (such as The God of Small Things), skip this one. Everything's laid out in tedious and unending detail.
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