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: IT TOUCHES THE HEART
Summary: 5 Stars
"The gardens all along the alley were thick with flowers, hollyhocks and irises in every colour, their white and purple tongues vivid against the grass. In the garden a woman was working, tending a row of lush tomato plants. A hedge of lilac bushes grew up behind her, the leaves flashing their pale green undersides in a breeze that pushed the hot air without cooling it." "Is that her?" Paul asked
This is a touching story that goes right to the heart. As I read it I could not help seeing myself in these circumstances and wondering how I would have handled such a challenge, if it came my way.
Dr.David Henry and his wife Norah are a bright and almost perfect couple, but things are likely to change as she gives birth, at least a year after their marriage. When Norah gives birth to a twin, Dr. Henry does the delivery and the first child makes her debut into the world. Right away David notices that the child is a victim of Down's syndrome. With panic in his heart he gives the child to one of the nurses Caroline, asking her to take it to an infirmary, where she would be looked after with expert care. Following the birth of the second child David must tell his wife something about the first child so he decides to tell her that the child was born dead. This story hinges on this little girl's entrance into this world. You will see how the telling of one lie has influenced the life of so many people in this book. It's unbelievable.
I recommend this book as a gift for anyone.
Heather Marshall Negahdar (SUGAR-CANE 09/11/06)
Book Review: The Beauty of a Rose!
Summary: 5 Stars
Staring at beautiful tulips, David, an orthopedic surgeon with a terrible secret he has chosen to forget, explores "...this idea that the body was, in some mysterious way, a perfect mirror of the world." But what David fails to consider failure is that EVERY body may also be a perfect mirror that shows us more about ourselves than we would care to admit.
For David assisted his wife to give birth to twins, one whom the world would call "normal" and one with Down suffering. In shame and anguish arising from his own past, David gives the latter child to his nurse and tells her to take it to an institution and to never tell anyone what has occurred. But Caroline, his nurse, runs away with the child, Phoebe, and manages to have a difficult but happy life - that is until she runs into David years later and admits her love for him.
The plot is relatively simple but there are other secrets affecting the lives of these characters that carry the story along with some other mid-life crises and dramatic scenes that may or may not arrive in every life. Kim Edwards is brilliant in the way she subtly yet so powerfully depicts the domino effect of choices made at every stage of an adult's life. No, there's not a perfect ending but it's a very real one that will leave this story forever in your own memory with its simple poignancy and revelation about what it means to be a family.
A literary presentation of the finest quality!
Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on January 12, 2007
Book Review: Riveting novel
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading a few pages of The Memory Keeper's Daughter, it was clear to me that Kim Edwards is an experienced, accomplished writer. The situations are believable and the characters are all too human. In addition, she really knows how to structure a novel.
I sat down to begin the book, and didn't get up until I'd finished it.
I'm surprised that no one has compared this book to the novels of Joyce Carol Oates. It's an Oates-type plot and Edwards's skills are every bit as polished as those of the better-known writer. The initial obsession of David with Norah; the separated twins; the poor boy twisted by his past; the metaphor of photography; the section with Rosemary -- all these and more are very reminiscent of an Oates plot. But this book is better than it would be if Oates had started with the same plot line, because she would have written a longer book with more blood and gore. And longer sentences!
My only quibble with The Memeory Keeper's Daughter is with the tidy, happy endings that faced each of the characters except for David. (I would go into detail, but maybe you haven't read the book yet.)
And the confrontation between Norah and Caroline is so muted. You would think that, if a mother found out that the daughter she had mourned as dead for more than 20 years had, in fact, been raised by someone else, there would be overt anger. It would be a cathartic experience. Instead, everyone goes on their merry way and lives happily ever after.
Book Review: A book about secrets that destroy
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read so many books to date and have yet to find a similar one to this one. I'm not a big fan of contemporary books. I tend to read a lot of classic literature but decided to give this book a shot. I was very impressed. Despite the other reviews that deemed this book mediocre, unworthy, boring, I found it to be an extraordinary novel that is driven along by one great secret.
I found all the characters to be very well crafted. The problem that arises after David Henry gives away his daughter (who is born with Down Syndrome) to his nurse Caroline Gil, never really comes to an end. You find yourself hoping for the truth to come out at any moment but it never does.
David's secret destroys his family and causes them a lot of pain that never really heals. Instead of saving his family from grief he creates a much longer drawn out pain that will last for the rest of his life.
There are a lot of side characters involved in this book. I didn't find it a problem though. In fact I believe that all the side characters let the reader know that Norah,Paul,and David are real and have lives aside from the central conflict that exists when they are all together.
If you're hoping for a happy ending then don't read this book. This book is real and doesn't paint a pretty picture or slaps on a butterfly happy ending for the sake of those hoping for it. Kim Edwards tells it to you how it is. That makes this book a great one.
Book Review: Some of you completely missed the point
Summary: 5 Stars
In today's Hollywood world of characters who are black and white, right and wrong, and endings that are wrapped up neatly, many of you completely missed the point of this novel. Kim Edwards' deliberately chose 1964 in which to begin this book because of the mores held by society at that time. You cannot read this book without understanding the progression of society from a time when husbands righteously made important decisions without consulting their wives, and many wives went right along with those decisions without questioning aloud. The point of this book is the progression of the characters and the risks each took after the birth of the twins. David Henry, racked with guilt, spent his lifetime searching for that daughter he gave up, and chastising himself for lacking the courage to divulge the secret. Norah spent her life searching for a meaning that was important to her, searching for her personal identity that conforming stole from her, jealously admiring her sister who swung completely the opposite from what society expected. Caroline lived a life making decisions based on love alone without concern for society's expectations, and participated in advancements in rights for the handicapped as a result. I found this book to be wonderful - the characters were refreshingly different and very well developed; the secret was important enough to warrant a whole novel, and I turned the last page wanting to know more about the characters and their lives.