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: Lacks humor and assumes heartbreak
Summary: 3 Stars
Let's talk about what I liked about this book. The book has a very interesting title and it's interesting to see why exactly it's called The Memory Keeper's Daughter. Of course, I'm not telling you why, I might be wrong you see. Kim Edwards has a great way with words. Where she actually falls short will be discussed later. I was stunned by how simple and beautifully the writer elucidates and introduces the characters. Their subtle thoughts and mild character peculiarities are highlighted with very sharp detail. It's easy to tell the writer has a fondness for humans. It will make you smile you with wonder just how well the writer seems to tell you about the characters yet it would seem to you that she's talking every you and me. And I loved how she chooses to advocate her logic as to why a certain character behaved in a certain way.
The story is something that makes for a good conversation with a friend who hasn't read it. However, once you reach the middle half of the book, it tends to confuse you with how stretched and dragged it might seem. Towards the 3rd quarter of the book, one starts to lose interest and the writer seems rather repititive and the characters fall short of amusement because they never really the see the bright side of things. The characters, and I'm not an optimist, lack change. It is quite infuriating to see the story being spread over almost three decades and little or no character growth.
Because this is a slow book, the writer choose to spread it out over a few years and keeps skipping a few years from here and there. The language of the book is self confident but the sheer pressure and lack of relaxation and humor in the characters will make you cringe. The book lacks humor, it is pale and almost depressive and it's quite unyielding how age seldom makes any of the characters any less bitter. For instance, there is no character who in a dozen ways is not alone or showcase alone. Every character, whether unique or not, has a kind of vomit inducing unworthy stubborn-ness about them. I find it quite impish the logic certain characters choose to dislike David Henry. The family seemed very disconnected and almost forcefully dull.
Despite being quite stuck, the book seems to be free, however I wasn't too impressed with the ever so infuriating lack of character growth and practicality. I felt Kim Edwards knows a woman's mind too well and I can't say that for men.
Book Review: Interesting plot ruined by analogy
Summary: 2 Stars
I read the back of the book and thought the story would grip me. I have a daughter with Down Syndrome, and this was the first work of fiction I'd seen with DS playing such a significant role. It's hard to say where the book went wrong exactly, but somewhere along the line the book lost wind until it finally came to a stop.
Edwards does a good job at giving depth to her characters, all except Phoebe. Edwards treats Phoebe like a subject, like an inanimate object, and not like the person she is. She gives thoughts and feelings to every other character except Phoebe. The book does tell of parallel stories, David's life after he gives Phoebe away and Caroline's life raising Phoebe, but somewhere along the line Edwards minimizes Caroline's and Phoebe's role in the story. She chooses instead to focus on the rapidly unraveling lives of David, Nora and Paul, until she brings Caroline and Phoebe to wrap it all up in a nice neat little package.
I thought the plot, and the story line itself was great, and could have been great in the hands of a more experienced and talented author. Her redundant use of analogy was quickly annoying. Far too many mentions of water, warmth, weight, quicksilver, etc... I found myself skimming through the majority of the narrative just trying to get to the dialogue. There were too many subplots to be contained in such a short book. Her use of quick fixes to fill plot holes took away from it's spirit. I don't want to give too much away, but the way some things just sort of "happend" in a way to keep it from being complicated (Doro giving the house the Caroline....who does that? really now?)
The book does have some good points. Edwards managed to perfectly illustrate Caroline's frustration with the challenge of raising a child with Down Syndrome. The fear of letting Phoebe go, the exhaustion of keeping her, the constant fight to pave a road in society for a child that society didn't want. Had she included more of that instead of some other sub-plot (Rosemary and Jack for instance) I think it would have given a bit more to the story.
All in all it was a decent read, for what it was. It took a long time for me to finish just because I kept getting annoyed with her overly feminine attention to ridiculous detail, or just with the constant idea of someone not wanting their child just because she had an extra chromosome. Other than that it was alright.
Book Review: A Nearly Perfect Selection For A Book Club
Summary: 5 Stars
I was in a bookstore the other day and noticed that in a section marked off for book clubs, THE MEMORY KEEPER'S DAUGHTER seemed to be the choice of the month. Since it's found a home on the bestseller lists, this is probably the case all over the country. A lot of people are reading THE MEMORY KEEPER'S DAUGHTER, and after you read it you'll probably agree it's not without good cause.
The book tells the story of David and Norah Henry. Norah gives birth to twins and one has Downs' Syndrome. David makes the rash decision to institutionalize the child and tell Norah the child has died, convincing himself it's for the best. The remainder of the book deals with the repercussions of the decision not only on David and Norah and their family but also Caroline Gill, the only person who knows the full extent of what happened the night the twins were born.
Now if I am going to be honest, I can't say for sure that I would have completed the book if the book club I belong to didn't select this title. I found the subject intriguing, the writing is beautiful, and it's compelling, but I could see it as a book I'd start at one point and finish at a later date as I do with many books. I guess it's just my habit, but I had to complete the book in an allotted amount of time, so I did so in a few sittings. If anything, this heightened the dramatic impact. The more I read, the more I was drawn into the story. I found myself reacting, in some cases somewhat strongly, to situations that take place in the book, decisions made, and the aftermath of these decisions. The more I read, the more I could not wait until the group met so we could really examine this book. In the end we had one of the liveliest and most diverse discussions I can remember. We looked at questions such as: Why do we make certain decisions we make and how would we react if we were in the same situation as the characters in the book? Is there anything that can't be forgiven? When, if ever, is it appropriate to keep secrets? The book touches people on so many levels, the possibilities for discussion are endless. My guess is that it's also a book that will keep coming back to a reader, a sure sign of a good book.
If you are thinking of a perfect book for a book club, this could be a perfect choice. As a matter of fact, the only book I recall eliciting more discussion is THE KITE RUNNER.
Book Review: What if ... ? What if ... ? What if ...?
Summary: 5 Stars
This story gripped me and had me in tears. I was pulled into the lives, suffering, frailties, and imperfections of people changed and torn apart by a series of decisions that made me pine for answers to what would have happened if only ...
But this is how it happened:
On a heavily snowy night in 1964, Dr. David Henry delivers in own twins in his clinic because the storm prevents them from reaching the hospital (the first of many "what ifs"). Norah Henry gives birth to a healthy boy, and the unexpected twin -a girl with Down Syndrome. David, haunted by his own childhood, tells his beloved wife Norah that the girl died at birth. David decides to spare his family the pain of raising a child that he believed would die young, like his own sister had.
So David hands his newborn daughter, Phoebe, to his Nurse Caroline Gill and tells her to take the infant to an instution. But Nurse Caroline, arriving at the bleak institution (and observing a sad scene here with an adult resident), makes her own decision in the moment -- to turn and run away with Phoebe and save the infant from that desolate life.
And as readers, we experience the impact of these decisions over the next 25 years.
David Henry is buried in his lie, while Norah Henry mourns the baby she believes is dead. Baby Paul - the twin they brought home, grows up in the distance and secrets that tear his parents apart. And baby Phoebe, worlds away from her twin, struggling against her syndrome, thrives with Nurse Caroline, who fights to give Phoebe every opportunity in life.
Each chapter is told through the perspective of one of the characters - David, Norah, Caroline, Paul, and Phoebe. This has stirring effect. Because more than a few times we see what the characters do not - that it was only misunderstandings that caused such suffering.
And throughout these 25 years in time and through a multitude of perspectives, the world changes. Vietnam, the Sexual Revolution, Women's Lib, Civil Rights, and certainly, progressive attitudes towards the disabled ... all of these weave flawlessly, and importantly, into the story. With so much time and so many perspectives, every sentence carries so much.
What a lovely, beautiful, and very sad book. I read it in one sitting - all 400 pages. I could not put it down.
Book Review: The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Summary: 2 Stars
After an excellent, even brilliant opening chapter, "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" descends into an overlong soap opera with little plot credibility.
Norah is one of the most negative, unsympathetic characters I have encountered in fiction. Her grief for her supposedly dead daughter Phoebe was excessive and unreal. She did not know she was expecting twins, and only learned about it after their birth. Still she wallows in self pity for years and chooses to obsess on her loss.
The reader never knows what exactly is wrong in David and Norah's marriage. The author devotes lengthy portions of the narrative to simply being vague on the issue. What is the problem? Is David withdrawn? Not attentive? Devote too much time to his photography? He does provide an affluent lifestyle for his family that allows Norah to indulge in her proclivity to redecorate every year.
By contrast the marital difficulties of Caroline and Al are explained succinctly. They had drifted apart through the logistics of daily living: something easily understood by the reader.
But one cannot understand Norah's alienation from David. Her long, wild drives in the car, endangering their son Paul.
Norah's adulterous affair with Howard (easily the biggest slimeball in modern fiction) renders her totally unsympathetic. Nor did she feel regret for any of her infidelities, although David had been faithful to her.
The nadir of the book is Norah's burning of David's photographs and negatives after finally learning the truth about Phoebe. Revenge? She had been unfaithful to her husband with several men. Was that not revenge enough? Since David's pictures now hung in museums and galleries she was burning works of art. To say nothing of destroying her son's inheritance. One suspects Norah's attempts to salvage some of the boxes of photos targeted for destruction was due to an editor's intervention rather than the character's conscience.
One is also puzzled by Paul's hostility toward David. The latter had tried to be a good and loving father. Even after his death Norah and Paul contined to trash David.
Unlike other readers I could relate to the character of Caroline. I found her interesting and credible.
"The Memory Keeper's Daughter" was tedius and choking on extraneous detail. Perhaps the author is more a poet than a novelist.