The Memory Keeper's Daughter | Kim Edwards

The Memory Keeper's Daughter | Kim Edwards | A Read I Had To Finish To Appreciate

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The Memory Keeper'...

	The Memory Keeper's Daughter Kim Edwards Penguin (Non-Classics), 2006 - 432 pages average customer review:based on 819 reviews view larger image
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Kim Edwards?s stunning family drama evokes the spirit of Sue Miller and Alice Sebold, articulating every mother?s silent fear: what would happen if you lost your child and she grew up without you? In 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins, he immediately recognizes that one of them has Down Syndrome and makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and to keep her birth a secret. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own. Compulsively readable and deeply moving, The Memory Keeper?s Daughter is an astonishing tale of redemptive love. BACKCOVER: ?Edwards is a born novelist. . . . Rich with psychological detail and the nuances of human connection.?
?Chicago Tribune

?Unfolds from an absolutely gripping premise, drawing you deeply and irrevocably into the entangled lives of two families and the devastating secret that shaped them both. I loved this riveting story.?
?Sue Monk Kidd

?Anyone would be struck by the extraordinary power and sympathy of The Memory Keeper?s Daughter.?
?The Washington Post

?Kim Edwards has written a novel so mesmerizing that I devoured it. . . . The Memory Keeper?s Daughter has it all.?
?Sena Jeter Naslund

?Kim Edwards has created a tale of regret and redemption, of honest emotion, of characters haunted by their past. This is simply a beautiful book.?
?Jodi Picoult

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Great Book!

I LOVED this book - I thought it was a very interesting storyline. I recommend this to all readers - it was hard to put it down. I like the way Edwards writes - very clear - makes you feel like you are part of the character. A must-read!

A Read I Had To Finish To Appreciate

I'd heard lots about this book. I decided to read it myself to form my own opinion. I was disgusted when I got to the parts about the affairs but decided to remain open minded as "that's life" in some families. I'm glad I didn't throw the book to the side as I considered a couple of times. Upon giving it a chance, I was glad I did. I'm a foster parent and it gave me insight that I didn't have before. I'm glad I stuck with it...

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The Memory Keeper's Daughter

This book is lush. A rainforest of words.
The Memory Keeper's Daughter tells a heartbreaking story, and Edwards writes flawed but loveable characters--I hurt for all of them, including the one who caused all the pain. I knew why he did what he did. When the other characters in the book saw him as something of the antagonist, I wanted to tell him, "You're forgiven." And nothing in the book is simple or pat. The author develops messy characters and a messy situation, and she doesn't cop out at the end. There's hope and redemption, but it's not easy.
Things that bugged me: repetition. Did the author think I've forgotten the situation or a particular memory or how so-and-so deals with it in the space of a few pages? Because of this, the book occasionally felt maudlin.
Also, the male character had a penchant for describing things like a woman. Now, I understand that later he becomes a photographer (don't worry--that doesn't ruin anything about the book), so perhaps he's more visual, and I like when she associates his descriptions to the lighting and shadow he becomes obsessed with in his photography or when it's akin to the rocks he collects or bones he studies as a doctor. But, seriously, especially in the beginning, using too many words and color choices and hair styles and clothing trends. If she set it up, perhaps he worked in a department store to help ends meet or he followed the clothing industry as part of his way to hide from his past, but she doesn't, so it doesn't fit. He comes from backwoods and then becomes a doctor.
In the end, I liked the book. It deals with issues such as the mentally ill and quality of life and how secrets affect relationships.

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Tapers to its end

"The Memory Keeper's Daughter" gripped me right away on the first page. The characters were compelling, their motives recognizable, and the writing and plot well under control. However, the twists of the plot and the actions of the characters, I think, got free of their author's control by the end of the book, with events springing from nowhere and the thread of the characters' thoughts lost over the gaps of years. I got the sense that Edwards also had a great deal of difficulty determining whether her novel would conclude in an aesthetically pleasing, symmetrical manner, or whether, more realistically, she would allow loose ends flapping and the reader's desire for closure unsatisfied.

My greatest disappointment with this novel is that, despite a claim for fair and equal treatment and love for children with disabilities at the heart of the story, Edwards never fleshes out the character of Phoebe. Though it is the presence or the lack of Phoebe that propels each of the twin stories, we never really know what Phoebe is thinking, how she interprets her life. This discomfort undermines many of the sentiments expressed by other characters.

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A good read, but not great

I enjoyed this book, and it's easy to read. I felt that the characters could have been more developed, but it was an interesting story.

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