The Memory Keeper's Daughter | 
| Author: Kim Edwards
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  873 reviews
Sales Rank: 1515
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0143037145
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780143037149
Publication Date: May 30, 2006
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Product Description
Kim Edwardss stunning family drama evokes the spirit of Sue Miller and Alice Sebold, articulating every mothers 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 Keepers 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 Keepers Daughter.
The Washington Post
Kim Edwards has written a novel so mesmerizing that I devoured it. . . . The Memory Keepers 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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| Customer Reviews: Read 868 more reviews...
I liked it, but November 6, 2008
some of the things I liked were also some of the things that bothered me. Edwards is a descriptive writer; if you like that kind of writing, you will like her style. However, you still may not like the book. I like her writing, but it works better in short stories or shorter novels.
I liked how Nora began to grow career-wise throughout the novel, but thought her character could have been fleshed out more. I did not find her a sympathetic character, particular as the novel wore on, and I think it would have been better if she had been.
Also, I thought the plot unfolded a little too neatly in some aspects. To be sure, the characters had difficult lives, but sometimes things did not ring true. For example, Caroline didn't struggle as I thought she would have: Doro, her gift, just not very realistic. Also Davis's photography career, as opposed to a hobby, was hard to swallow. It just took off a little too well.
Overall, I enjoyed reading the book and I'm glad I did. It just wasn't a great book.
Was Hoping for More Redemption November 3, 2008
The Memory Keeper's Daughter takes place during a snowstorm in 1964. An orthopedic doctor and his wife are surprised when she goes into labor three weeks early. Because of the snow, they cannot get to the hospital, but they can get as far as the doctor's clinic, then wait for the arrival of an OB in his practice to deliver the baby. The baby is coming quickly, though, and the OB has a car accident and can't make it on time. With the assistance of one of the clinic's nurses, the husband/doctor must deliver the baby himself. Only...it's not just one baby. After bringing a beautiful, healthy boy into the world, the husband realizes his wife is actually pregnant with twins. He stays to deliver the second child - a girl, with Down's syndrome. Fearing a terrible prognosis for the life she will lead, the husband gives the baby to the nurse to take away. His initial instructions are for the nurse to take the baby to an institution outside of town. Though he plans to tell his wife the truth, when she comes back to clarity after the births, he tells her the baby girl has died. When the wife asks to see the baby, he says she is already gone, to the cemetery.
The nurse follows the doctor's instructions, and takes the baby to the group home. Seeing the terrible conditions there, she cannot bring herself to leave the child. Instead, she moves to a different city and raises the girl as her own daughter.
The book follows the story of these two worlds - the grieving parents and their son, the nurse and her adopted daughter - as they orbit around the decisions made and lies told on this one night in 1964. It's true that there is a lot of sadness in this book, but strangely, there's a lot of honesty, too. Edwards makes a close examination into how it is to love others, or try to, despite the things we keep from each other and the walls we build to keep ourselves protected. I could never relate to the specific situation in this story, but I could relate to a lot of the intricacies of family relationships - as a child, as a parent, as a spouse. I also found it interesting how Edwards explored why each of the characters did what they did - are our motivations always so clear? Are they always as innocent as we want to believe they are?
There is so much meat to this book; I am eager to discuss it at my book club's meeting in October. As I said, though, this book may certainly not be for everyone. It is thought-provoking and well-written, but a pretty heavy piece of work.
 Painfully Slow October 27, 2008
This book had so much promise, but it seems the author got lost in the same blizzard the night that David Henry delievered his twins. Lack of character development, too many descriptions (every. single. detail. must. be. included.) and a disappointing ending contributed to a boring, misguided novel. One star for the cover and one star for the ability to fool so many people into buying this book.
 What a memory!!! October 26, 2008
I liked the book very much. We discussed this book in our reading group and there was a lot of polemics regarding to what David did with his daughter. The decision that he made that winter night had devastating consequences especially in the life of his wife and son. The author is very narrative, maybe that is why other people did not like the book, but it's nicely structured. Our discussion was converted into a courtroom because we did a lot of judging of the characters. I will highly recommend this book if you don't mind a lot of narrative in a good reading.
Freeze Frame October 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
On a snowy winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced to deliver his twins and makes a split-second decision that forever alters theh lives of everyone involved. When it is apparent to him that his daughter has Down's Syndrome, he asks the nurse to take her to an institution, without telling his wife. The nurse, Caroline Gil, complies, but upon arriving at the institution, she does not have the heart to leave the girl there and winds up raising her on her own. Meanwhile, David has told his wife that their daughter died at birth, a lie that grows between them as the years progress.
"The Memory Keeper's Daughter" is episodic in nature, moving through spans of years from the 1960s to the 1980s, with four main characters acting as narrators: Caroline, David, his wife Norah, and their son Paul. Each character is forever affected by that one snowy night. Norah cannot get over the loss of her daughter and Paul wonders what his sister would have been like, at times feeling himself to blame for the loss. David knows that he can never share this secret and set things right, as he desperately longs to do, further building the wall that grows between his family members. Caroline wonders what her place in all this is, and whether or not she should reveal the secret or even allow David to be a part of his daughter's life.
Edwards is a gifted storyteller, sketching each character completely, making the time and story come to life. Yet sometimes her prose is a little too heavy-handed in all its detail; certain attempts at being poetic are too dense, and some images are repeated causing them to lose their effect. After a tremendous buildup, the ending feels slightly rushed. While it may be hard to imagine a proper ending for a story of this magnitude, almost too little was done to wrap up some loose ends that remained. All in all, "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" is quick-paced and engaging, a vividly drawn and truly enjoyable read.
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