Name: The Memory Keeper's Daughter
ISBN: 9780141032610

K. Edwards

Families have secrets that they hide even from themselves...

It should have been an ordinary birth, the start of an ordinary happy family. But the night Dr. David Henry delivers his wife's twins is a night that will haunt five lives for ever.

For though David's son is a healthy boy, his daughter has Down's syndrome. And, in a shocking act of betrayal whose consequences only time will reveal, he tells his wife their daughter died while secretly entrusting her care to a nurse.

As grief quietly tears apart David's family, so a little girl must make her own way in the world as best she can.

(back cover)

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Kim Edwards

This stunning novel begins on a winter night in 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy, but the doctor immediately recognizes that his daughter has Down's syndrome. For motives he tells himself are good, he makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse, Caroline, to take the baby away to an institution. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own. Compulsively readable and deeply moving, The Memory Keeper's Daughter is a brilliantly crafted story of parallel lives, familial  secrets, and the redemptive power of love.
--back cover

This was a bit of a disappointment for me. The story is about twins who were separated at birth. One twin was born with Down Syndrome, and the dad (who is a doctor) gave her away because he didn't want to cause hardship to the family. 

It had a nice premise and I was hoping to see the contrast of how the two kids were raised. I also wanted to see how Phoebe's (the twin with Down syndrome) adoptive mother overcame all the challenges of raising a child with Down Syndrome in the 1960s. I also wanted to see if there was such a thing as twin telepathy, if Paul (the other twin) felt that there was a part of him alive... somewhere. That maybe the emptiness that he was feeling and was in the form of a missing twin. That he felt that his sister wasn't buried and dead, but alive and thriving. 

I was expecting to see more of Phoebe, since the book is entitled "The Memory Keeper's Daughter." 80% of the book is probably David and Norah (the parents) going back and forth about grief and secrets. Who exactly is the memory keeper? What was the memory kept? What is it about the daughter that the person is keeping? If the memory keeper is David because he takes photos, I was hoping that his photography was a driver of the story. That he kept asking for pictures of Phoebe, even if it was low quality and not taken using a fancy camera like his. Or he sent Caroline (Phoebe's adoptive mother) a camera and a film roll and all that Caroline would do is to send the film roll back, and David would do the developing.

The timeline was also so jumpy. I was just reading about David fixing Norah's pipes and then after a few pages he was suddenly dead. FOR 2 WEEKS. The chapter didn't even hint that it was his final act of love for Norah or it was him trying to make amends. He just literally dropped off the story.

This book had so much potential and could be the start of conversations on how to deal with grief, raising up a child with special needs, and parenting a child who is trying to feel complete and fulfilled. 

Naomi P

This was a bit of a disappointment for me. The story is about twins who were separated at birth. One twin was born with Down Syndrome, and the dad (who is a doctor) gave her away because he didn't want to cause hardship to the family. 

It had a nice premise and I was hoping to see the contrast of how the two kids were raised. I also wanted to see how Phoebe's (the twin with Down syndrome) adoptive mother overcame all the challenges of raising a child with Down Syndrome in the 1960s. I also wanted to see if there was such a thing as twin telepathy, if Paul (the other twin) felt that there was a part of him alive... somewhere. That maybe the emptiness that he was feeling and was in the form of a missing twin. That he felt that his sister wasn't buried and dead, but alive and thriving. 

I was expecting to see more of Phoebe, since the book is entitled "The Memory Keeper's Daughter." 80% of the book is probably David and Norah (the parents) going back and forth about grief and secrets. Who exactly is the memory keeper? What was the memory kept? What is it about the daughter that the person is keeping? If the memory keeper is David because he takes photos, I was hoping that his photography was a driver of the story. That he kept asking for pictures of Phoebe, even if it was low quality and not taken using a fancy camera like his. Or he sent Caroline (Phoebe's adoptive mother) a camera and a film roll and all that Caroline would do is to send the film roll back, and David would do the developing.

The timeline was also so jumpy. I was just reading about David fixing Norah's pipes and then after a few pages he was suddenly dead. FOR 2 WEEKS. The chapter didn't even hint that it was his final act of love for Norah or it was him trying to make amends. He just literally dropped off the story.

This book had so much potential and could be the start of conversations on how to deal with grief, raising up a child with special needs, and parenting a child who is trying to feel complete and fulfilled. 

Peggy Walker

This is a very interesting story, and it is well worth reading. However, I personally had difficulty with the writing construction of the book and the development of the characters. I thought that the portrayal of the doctor and his wife especially were very one-dimensional. The idea that they never had another happy moment from the time of the birth was a bit much for me. I can understand that other readers really enjoyed it, but it left me unsatisfied in the end.

Fran Lewis

I was disappointed in the last few chapters. I thought he should have confessed. But still a nice read.

Tracie McMurray

Sad book throughout. I kept wondering who I was rooting for other than the daughter. Moving and a little disturbing.

Maggie Hepditch

This book was beautifully written. I cared about every character, each one was fully developed and relevant to the story. This book made me feel lots of things and I felt peaceful when I finished it.

Elizabeth Morris

Slow at some points, but overall a great book. The ending was done really well, I loved how Edwards wrapped it up.

Jessica Guht

This story is going to stick with me for a while. No character was perfect which made them all the more realistic. This book has you questioning the morality of every action, and observing just what can spiral from one lie.

Kelsi Proulx

This was a beautiful, genuine, emotional book. Poetic language and wonderful display of how humans can so easily misunderstand each other and their motivations. How we put our own values and beliefs on other people without even realizing it. How we fail to know another person even after knowing them intimately for many years. How secrets can come between people and eat away at their lives from the inside. How a failure to grieve can utterly destroy a person and ripple that destruction out to everyone around them. 

Can't recommend this one enough.

Melody Izard

A doctor (David Henry) who feels like he has a past to hide marries "the girl of his dreams"; someone who he thinks is beautiful and needs taking care of. After being married for a very short time she is pregnant and when she goes into labor there is ice and snow on the road and the obstetrician can't get to the hospital. David has to deliver his own child. The baby turns out to be twins. One "perfect" boy and one girl with Down's syndrome. While his wife is sedated from the delivery (it is the 1960s) he decides to spare his wife from the grief of having a sickly child and he instructs the nurse to take the baby to an institution. The nurse decides the institution is no place for this child and convinced that Dr. Henry will change his mind, she takes the baby home with her. The next morning she reads an obituary for the baby girl and she decides to leave town and raise the child herself. The rest of the book deals with the consequences of this choice. 
The story is somewhat engaging, but the writing and the plot seem a bit contrived. The book was thought provoking. What makes a good marriage? How to you cope with the loss of a child - even a child you never knew? What is the worth of the life of a child with a disability? But I wondered more about why Dr. Henry thought he needed to hide his past and why he decided to lie to his wife and give their child to an institution. These two things were just not believable to me. 
I guess I'm glad I read it- I would have wondered what I missed- but glad I'm finished so I can move on to this long list of books to be read.

Amber Laha

This book, from the beginning, was so interesting but quickly fell apart. It turned into mundane, day to day life, which stopped the story from moving forward and even when I felt like it was starting to go somewhere it would stall out. A lot of it was how Edwards handled the story. I do appreciate that she wanted to show the effects of the David's secret on his relationship with his wife and on the family as a whole, but I think that if the story started with Norah finding out the secret and using flashbacks, maybe, there would have been a better feel of the story moving forward and never getting stuck in the mundane. 

Going further with the mundane, I think that she over described. She went into detail over breast feeding-and although I get that Norah was a new mom and all, I think there was nothing about talking about it that had anything to do with the story. She'd write a description that would seem out of the blue and had nothing at all to do with anything. I do feel she has potential to grow in her writing, but this was really hard for me to handle.

This was a fantastic book. It was just extremely emotionally draining. I do highly recommend it though.

Janet Doré

Good writing, but I didn't connect very deeply with the story. Even so, I'm glad I read it.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Reviews

Highlights