The Memory Keeper's Daughter: A Novel
by Kim Edwards
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Book Reviews of The Memory Keeper's Daughter: A Novel
Book Review: An Unhappy, Depressing Book
Summary: 2 Stars
I read for enjoyment and a few hours of being whisked away and caught up in someone else's life for awhile. I saw on Lifetime that a movie based on this book is to be on TV Saturday night so thought I would read the book first. I can say this was not an enjoyable book from start to finish. It will be interesting to see what the movie does with the book. None of the characters are very likeable with maybe the exception of Phoebe. ( I was a young mother in 1964, actually had a daughter born that year and do understand David's thoughts on a child with Down's but don't believe he was totally unselfish in his decision. However, many Down Syndrome children were put into homes to die at a young age many years ago but didn't think it was so much in the 60's. Today we are so fortunate to have programs for these wonderful children. Our neighbor boy has Downs and we watched him grow up and his parents work with him and the many programs available to him. He's a very productive young man and a delight. ) That said the book was terribly disappointing and just a very unhappy book. There is no redemption for any of the characters except maybe for Paul at the end. I disliked Norah's character immensely clear through the book. Even when David was trying to help her or just trying, she would lash out at him with hateful comments. Then there were all her affairs. I have zero tolerance for Infidelity and David didn't seem to care. She was a shallow, self centered person. I couldn't see her raising a child with a handicap. I am sure Phoebe had a happier life with Caroline. David was wrong in the choice he made but I could at least understand him for the time this happened in. Norah remarries at the end but I would have doubts of it lasting.
The book was depressing at best. There is no happiness that I can see except that perhaps Caroline found someone to love and marry. However, even she seemed to have a lot of angst in her marriage that I felt came from her rather than Al. Interesting that Phoebe was happy with her circumstances and then Norah and Paul come into her life and want to change things. That would be frightening to a person with Down's. Paul's idea of moving to the same town and just spending time with her was fine but carting her off to France is just dumb. One thing I might add here, Down Syndrome children are not always pleasant and happy. They can be very difficult and angry. I've seen that often in our neighbor boy but they are also very loving children.
Who wants to read a book that everyone is at odds and fighting through the whole book? I also got tired of hearing how thin Norah was and pages of the same thing of David's sister. How many times did we need to go into that? I found myself skimming a lot. I could understand David's character more than the rest; maybe due to his poor upbringing and the sickly sister and just the way things were handled in those days.
I also agreed with another reviewer of Paul's long anger with his father. David showed him in so many ways he loved him and at one point told him he was proud of him and accepted and even encouraged his decision to go into music. I could have understood if he had been angry at his mother as he knew of her affairs but instead the author has it aimed at David. Made no sense to me.
I also could not have sympathy for Norah with her years of grief for the baby she believes dies. Many women go through losing a baby and move on eventually. That was just an excuse for her disgusting behavior.
I have read books on damaged people and eventual redemption but there just is no redemption in this book. It is just a depressing unhappy book. Charles Martin writes somewhat in this style of damaged people but inserts humor and redemption for them in the end. I will find a happy book to read now to get this out of my system. Why it is a best seller is beyond me. I'm not sure I even want to see the movie after reading this.
4/14/2008 I wanted to add I did watch the movie and as much as I didn't care for the book, the movie is even worse. The acting was terrible and most of didn't follow the book at all.
Book Review: The behavior of the characters is implausible
Summary: 3 Stars
A pleasant read and an interesting story. However, while I found the story line to be plausible, I found the behavior of the characters less so.
The tragically neglected Norah tries to find solace in alcohol and affairs. Yet she just gives up alcohol in a snap. She winds up coping with her empty life by immersing herself in a travel business that becomes a stellar success. It seemed as though she was an alcoholic for a time. She wasn't able to get through the daytime without a drink. She hid her drinking. She had an auto accident due to drinking. She had a definite problem. Yet the reason she turned to alcohol in the first place would not magically disappear when she gave it up. All the components that made up her character, specifically the factors that made her want to abuse alcohol in the first place, would remain and cause problems for her in other areas of her life. Certainly running a travel business would be stressful. One stress (her marital relationship) drives her to drink while another motivates her to become a business maven? I found this hard to accept.
Caroline is too much the saint. She takes on a lifelong responsibility that caused birth parents in that era to institutionalize their offspring. Those parents didn't just shuffle off their defective children without batting an eyelash. They believed that an institution could provide the constant and exhausting care to such a child better than they could. Thus, St. Caroline decides to dedicate the rest of her life to David's daughter because she has an unrequited crush on him? And, not only does she take on caring for a child with special needs, she is also required to abandon her career - (she cannot provide documentation or references to potential employers) an occupation that she invested much time and money in pursuing. It is a double whammy. Then, she is relegated to poverty because she cannot work and therefore cannot earn money. She does all this life-changing sacrifice due to an infatuation with a man who has never looked in her direction? Then, to top off her sainthood, with one full-time job taking care of Phoebe with special needs - Caroline adds another full-time job as caregiver to a patient that needs round-the-clock attention. The impossibility of being in two places at once, adequately performing two simultaneous full-time jobs, was not believable. The book does not tell the reader what Phoebe was doing while Caroline was occupied with the patient she was hired to take care of. The only thing the reader knows is that Caroline is really, really, tired. Whew! What supercharged dynamo wouldn't be? Then, in spite of being really poor, she never uses a penny of David's guilt donations? After all, all her resources are going to Phoebe's care. Why wouldn't she use David's financial help? Doesn't Caroline know that if she dies, a guardian would be appointed to Phoebe and that Phoebe, herself, will never have control over that money? It would be the guardian who would have it. Caroline was too much the martyr sacrificed on an altar of unrequited love and operating within the confines of unbelievable circumstances.
The insertion of an additional character that David spilled his guts to, was uncharacteristically vulnerable in front of, with whom he had an instant bond, was ridiculous and unnecessary. Why would David suddenly need absolution with a stranger - especially someone so young? Why would he break down to her in particular and why would he think she wouldn't tell his family. Why didn't she tell? He brings her into his life and puts the gravestone on his marriage. She was a mysterious cathartic element that was underdeveloped and inexplicable. His affinity to her, his affection for her child, the trust fund he set up for her was not plausible. After his death, she never reappears. It is not mentioned what became of her.
Overall, the book held my interest. The ending was disappointing and it was frustrating thinking that such a huge deception was allowed to continue for a lifetime, impacting everyone it involved.
Book Review: I hated this book.
Summary: 1 Stars
I loved Kim Edwards book "The Secret Life of Bees." As for this book, I tried to like it, really i did, but it was horrible. Two pages in, i began to get a bad feeling about the author's word choices. Four pages in, the word usage began to annoy me. A third of the way through the book, the author's overly descriptive prose and bad cliches became distracting and frankly almost insufferable.
You can tell right away that Edwards wants to stuff the book full of pretty little images and turns of phrase. The very first thing that annoyed me : Dr. Henry is massaging pregnant Norah's foot which is "skin and densely layered muscles, like a fan about to open." What!? Or next: when Caroline is remembering her time working with Dr. Henry she thinks about helping with patients and "their beautiful imperfect bodies." Everything and everyone is "beautiful." She uses that word incessantly.
Kim Edwards also chokes the book with bad writing cliches. The ones that jumped out at me most were her descriptions of the characters hands. All the females have hands that are "slender" and fingers that are either "long" or "blunt" and when she introduces Caroline's friend Sondra, it turns out her hands are "slender" and her finger are "long and blunt." I thought blunt meant short. WTH does "long and blunt" even mean?
The other cliche that really bugged me was when Dr. H brings home Rosemary, and eighteen year old Paul sees her "beautiful" brown eyes for the first time, he wants to go to her and "cup her face in his hands." I almost barfed and threw the book across the room. Later, when Paul is with his mother and his girlfriend Michelle approaches, he goes to her and "He cupped her face lightly in his hands as they kissed, and then she raised her hand and their palms touched briefly, lightly, a gesture so intimate that Norah looked away." Probably because she wanted to puke. Like i did.
I couldn't really like any of the characters except Al the truckdriver. In fact i really really disliked the rest of them especially adolescent Paul. And not only did i achieve zero empathy for the book's characters, i also found them completely unbelieveable. And the dialogue was too contrived most of the time. Especially that of Paul. Age six: Paul falls out of a tree and breaks his arm and after his dad puts the cast on he asks "What about swimming? And Little League?" Would a six year old even realize that a cast means no baseball or swimming? "But Jason and i are supposed to play Little League!"
Then, at age thirteen Paul actually discourses thusly with his father: "You live like you don't care about anything. You don't have any joy." And "Music is like you touch the pulse of the world. Music is always happening and sometimes you get to touch it for awhile, and when you do you know that everything's connected to everything else." What thirteen year old boy talks like that?
Other random annoyances: (1.) Everyone's parents are dead. Norah's parents, Caroline's dad (her mother's emotionally unavailable), and David's parents. (2.) The overuse of the imagery of the characters perceiving the world "floating, or shimmering, or glowing." Are these people constantly high? I quote "Norah caught her breath. She nodded, unable to speak above the sound of the river, the smell of it's dark banks, the stars roaring everywhere, swirling, alive." This kind of imagery can be effective when used in moderation, not crammed down your throat at every other paragraph. (3.) And Paul's incessant whining near the end of the book because his daddy didn't love him just irked me to no end. That kid has no idea what your daddy not loving you is really like. And neither does Kim Edwards, obviously.
There have been very few books that i've wanted to put down without finishing and this was one of them (granted, i'm fairly picky about what i pick up in the first place.) But i actually wanted to read this beforehand.
The premise was fairly believeable, but overall the story was really really awful. I can't believe i actually had the stomach to finish it.
Book Review: Sad book, a bad decision changed their lives
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is sad because once David Henry made that bad decision, at the spur of the moment, he could not turn back. I do not think he knew if he made the right decision. This book shows how one decision could ruin a person's life.
Norah and David seemed to have a perfect life; after their baby was bor, her husband (a bone Doctor) delivers their baby, since the whether was too bad to drive to the hospital. When he finds out that one baby (she had twins) had down syndrome, he was concerned that she would not live too long. Years ago they thought babies with down syndrdrom did not live long. David lost his sister when he was a child and it cost his family, especially his mother a lot of pain. He did not want his wife to go through the same thing.
Possible Spoilers:
So he told her the truth, that she had twins, but he said she died.
He told the nurse, to give the baby to an institution. The nurse, Caroline reluctantly took the baby. She wanted to have a baby and the man who she loved, David never seemed to love her back prior to marrying Norah. After she saw the poor conditions in the institution and she could not give the baby up, so she decides raise him; she contacts Henry and tells him this. He never comes in contact with his baby, but he sends her money.
Shortly after the baby was born, they moved, probably to start over. Although their son seemed to have a good life, David often distanced himself from his family and spend most of his free time taking pictures. Norah, on the other hand, seemed to be making a strong effort to be a good mother to their son, with the help of her younger sister who was always there for her and the son. Once the son reached adolecence, his relationship with his parents was not good. His father was not supportive of his dream to become a musician. Also, their son learned that his mother was having an afair with another man and he resented that. In turn, he became rebelious. His mother, who continued to try to have a relationship with him.
The twin, Pheabe on the other hand, seemed to live a happy life. Caroline was a good mother, who worked as a home health aide where she raised Pheabe for the first years of her life, until she finally agreed to get married to her boyfriend that she met along the way. Caroline always stood up to her daughter and fought hard for her. She was so overprotective that she did not want to let go of her when she was an adult. When Pheabe got older, and her boyfriend asked her to marry him; Caroline discouraged them to marry, out of concern for both Pheabe and not wanting to raise another baby. I felt that part was not contraversial enough, as even back then some people with mild mental retardation did get married. Her Husband wanted Caroline to put her in a group home, so they could live their own lives. He was insensative about that; he was right that pheabe they couldn't care for her forever. However, he should have known that when he married into that family there would be a lot of sacrafices; now wonder Caroline was so hesitant of marrying him. Never once did he say how he would miss Pheabe or take in consideration that she would at least want to live close by to her and see her.
Also, this book was kind of vague about David Hentry's feelings towards Caroline. They never explained if he loved her or why he never asked her to to marry or even to date him prior to Norah. And I don't think it was something as simple as him not wanted to date somebody who works with him; I guess they wanted to leave it up to the reader.
Norah and the son meet the brother; but David passed away. They sort of implied that she would still be a part of Pheabe's life, as she baught her a ticket to come and visit and I believe they were implying that it would happen often. Although Caroline did admit that her keeping Pheabe was not completely selfless, as she really wanted to be a mother, you could tell she really had her best interested. She was caught in the middle and if she would have told Norah, who knows what would have become of the baby. She did not know Norah that well or what David would have done.
Book Review: A truce for those readers on opposite sides...
Summary: 3 Stars
First, let me say that I understand how some readers were unable to finish the book, as quite a few readers really appreciate something that is a quick read and all story. For me personally, I loved the beautiful passages in this book, the descriptions, they are poetic and moving. I can certainly understand how it turns some readers off as it isn't particularly important to the actual story. I appreciate their comments.
Second, the story; it is indeed a fantastic premise for a book and I will assume that you already know what that premise is and if you don't you can read the synopsis on the back cover. As far as the telling of the story goes, on this point, I agree with some of the readers who have already commented that the characters themselves were frustrating. I tried to care about these people, I tried very much to like them and to understand them, but I could not. The husband, David, is so detached from his emotions, before and after, he decides to give his daughter away that I could not relate to him, even in his recollections of his sister, who he professes to love dearly, there is resentment there. He was difficult to love, however, I do believe he loved his family, he just did not know how to show them that he did, the frustrating part of it, is that he never made the effort.
As far as Norah, I could not stand her from the beginning and then she only got worse. She is extremely narcissistic, spoiled and unhappy, and instead of trying to make herself happy, she puts all the blame on her husband. She married a man she barely knew and spent the rest of her life envying everyone around her because she felt trapped and she had no freedom and her life wasn't fun, so she starts sleeping with any man that will have her, even after she finds out that her teenaged son knows this. She was so incredibly selfish...I found myself really annoyed with her. I never found myself caring about her at all. It was too difficult. So in that aspect, I agree with what some of the other readers have said in regards to the characters. As far her finding out that her daughter lived, by the end of the book, I didn't really care. I truly believe that it wouldn't' have changed things at all for this woman. And I think that is where the difficulty comes in as far as the resolution of this conflict is concerned.
And then there is Paul, the son. To me, the most obvious love David was ever able to show was for Paul, and Paul ends up feeling as if he's had this horrible childhood and his father never loved him and he can't even bother to show up for David's funeral. David was a good father to him, he wasn't perfect by any means, but if wanting your son to do more with his life than pursue a career in music is bad parenting, than shame on the world, that is a natural albeit wrong thing for parents to do, impose their own dreams on their children it certainly isn't child abuse. Considering all three of them, especially Norah and Paul who spent their lives feeling sorry for themselves and blaming it all on David (even before they knew of the "secret), for me personally, I felt more pity for David himself, having to spend his life loving (although not knowing how to show it) these two people, who could have ever cared less about him.
Now, the good points...Caroline Gill, who takes the twin sister and raises her is someone you can care about, someone you can get behind and you root for her and Al...and of course Phoebe. But these people are not in the book as nearly as much as the other three.
That being said, I believe this book deserves to be read, if only for its incredibly beautiful language. Edwards was born to be a writer, she has an incredible natural story telling talent. It's not by any means a terrible book and I don't think it deserves a one, but I can understand those reader's frustrations.
Hope this helps.