Friday, April 27, 2007

The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards


Norah goes into labor one night while it is snowing. Her husband, David, is a Dr. and takes her to his clinic, where his nurse will meet them. Norah gives birth to a healthy baby boy...and then to girl who has down syndrome. David doesn't want his wife to experience the grief of loving the daughter and then loosing her early, as often happens with kids with downs syndrom, so he gives the baby to the nurse and instructs her to take her to a home. However once the nurse gets to the home she realizes she can't do it and she disappears with the baby. David tells Norah that their daughter was stillborn.
This lie breaks the family apart. Norah always feels the grief of losing the daughter and David feels grief for the secret and giving their daughter away. This causes issues with the marriage and later effects their son.
David never tells Norah that her daughter is alive, even though he gets updates from the nurse. Then one day after David has passed away, the nurse shows up at Norah's front door and tells her the startling news.
This is a story about how these actions hurt one entire family, even though some of them weren't aware of what exactly caused the issues.
I thought the book was good but was almost disapointed because so many have told me how great the book was and how it was their favorite of the year, etc. I enjoyed it...but not enough to call it my favorite book - so that just makes me feel like I missed something.
new author/fiction/401pgs

4 comments:

JoanneMarie Faust said...

I just mooched a copy of this book and expect it to arrive next week. I've only heard horrible things about it. Don't ask why I'm still going to read it. I guess I need to validate the success against the popular opinions that I've heard.

I believe that yours may be the most positive opinion I've read on this book.

Lover of Books said...

I did like it a lot. I am not sure if it was my favorite. But it did really make you think. :)

Bookfool said...

I've heard 50/50 on this book - it's another one of those that people seem to either love or hate. I decided to skip it, for now, after your review. Thanks. :)

cessie said...

Thanks for sharing!
I have this one on my TBR list as I have heard so much about it, positive and negative and I'm just curious! In the library it's always 'out' so I guess I'm gonna have to be patient for a little longer LOL.