The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Note: This review is chock full of spoilers! Read at your own risk.Ugh. This book was a disappointment. I was drawn in by the premise, my mother-in-law having borne twins where one was neurotypical and the other was not (cerebral palsy in our case). As I got into the story, though, its shortcomings became painfully apparent. The characters were shallow and unlikable. In particular I couldn't stand Norah, whose every hackneyed scene - from her flirtation with alcoholism to her tawdry affairs to h [...]

I wanted to like this book.I plowed through the first fifty or so pages in an airport earlier this week and prematurely told several people that it is quite good.It is not.While the writing is okay and the main plot line is fairly interesting:* The author indulges in far too many unreasonably trite, cringe-worthy subplots;* It's positively brimming with baby boomer-centric sentimental claptrap; and* At least a half dozen scenes are completely ruined by the author's obvious naivete about the topi [...]

This book was terrible, not because it was bad, but because it was so good: I couldn't put it down until I finished the final pages at 3 in the morning. Not a good thing, when your alarm goes off at 5:50 AM.What fascinates me about this book is what it has to say about "secrets." The basic premise: a doctor is forced to deliver his wife's child in the middle of a raging snowstorm. The only complication is that she's actually carrying twins - the first, a healthy beautiful baby boy; the second, a [...]

Will someone please explain to me why, at my age, and I should know better, I'm stilled swayed by the words "No. 1 N.Y. Times Bestseller!"? I found this for fifty cents at my library's used book sale last week. A warning I clearly ignored. But it had a good title, a beautiful, mysterious cover, and lots of people are reading it. Lots of people watch "Oprah" and "The View", too. About halfway through the first paragraph I realized, too late to get my fifty cents back, that this is CHICK LIT. Not [...]

Man I hated this book- the plot had some great potential, but instead you got to witness one scene of frustrated people not knowing how to deal with their emotions after another. Seriously, imagine 60 someodd pages of: wife- "I'm sad, darling, talk to me" husband- "we can't have another baby" silencellowed by wife being angry and husband yet again being emotionally stuntedok, fine, I see that it's a result of him giving away their daughter with downs syndrome, but I just wouldn't end! After abou [...]

I read a bunch of reviews of this book prior to reading it myself, and wasn't sure whether or not I would enjoy it.I was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked this book quite a bit, and here's why:1. The story was fascinating! What would I have done in that situation? It was fun to imagine myself as Norah, Caroline, David or Paul and determine if my actions would mirror theirs, or if I would have done things differently. 2. The metaphors and imagery that Edwards uses are captivating. For exa [...]

At first I couldn’t pinpoint exactly why I was not enjoying a book that sounded as though it would be ‘my kind of book’ in every way, but the more I read and the more I thought about it, the more reasons emerged. From the beginning of the novel there were little details that bothered me. The plot often felt contrived, as pieces fell together too nicely. Of course life is crazy and there is always the possibility of the little pieces falling in the most peculiar way, but when all of your ch [...]

This is one of those books that I always see people reading in parks and on the subway, and I just want to shout at them, "Save yourself! There's still time to quit reading!" Really, it's one of those books that has an interesting premise/situation, but doesn't go anywhere. The interesting premise is this: a couple has twins and the father sneaks away with the one twin who has Downs Syndrome. The mother doesn't know about this baby and it's raised by the father's coworker. You're interested, rig [...]

Wow, I'm really torn as to what to say about this book. I will start by saying that Kim Edwards is a skilled writer and there's no taking that away from her. Her words flow beautifully and that was greatly appreciated by me.I began reading this book and fell in love with it. From the beginning, I was very sure that I was going to rate it with five stars. I was intrigued by the premise: It's 1964 and a doctor's wife gives birth to twins. The twins were unexpected (no ultrasounds back then) and so [...]

Onvan : The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Nevisande : Kim Edwards - ISBN : 143037145 - ISBN13 : 9780143037149 - Dar 401 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2005

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**Reading this book was like an up-hill battle for me. I have looked forward to reading it for so long and was expecting great things based on all the praise-worthy reviews on the book jacket. Boy was i disappointed! The plot and synopsis of the story had such excellent promise but along the way the author dropped the ball. It was very difficult to relate or sympathize with Norah Henry, even though she is the one wronged by her husband's rash (but not unfounded) decision to [...]

Dark Trees in the HeartThe Memory Keeper's Daughter is a story about a secret--a terrible, life-altering secret running central to the story and in the lives of the characters. In spite of spanning only twenty-five years, it has an epic feel. A lot happens. We first meet Norah and David Henry on the stormy night she gives birth to twins. The boy, Paul, is born healthy. The second, an unexpected daughter, is born with Down's Syndrome. While his wife lay unconscious, David, a doctor who presides o [...]

Books like this make me mad. I thought this story was very upper-middle class white suburbia. I don't know how to explain it any better, but I thought that there were these tiny sorrows within the story that were turned into gigantic dramas (so I guess it reflects the overall narrative in that sense), but I just didn't give a damn. There were 2 characters I could relate to, and 3/4 of the book was spent on characters that I felt were wasting away in the "perfect" suburbia of the 60's. Ugh. There [...]

The book begins in 1964. A doctor delivers his own wife’s son, and to his own surprise, their son’s twin sister as well. From her physical features, the doctor recognizes the child has Down’s Syndrome and to protect his wife from the grief of having a child die early (common for Down’s children back then) since he and his own family had to deal with the death of his sister when she was young, the doctor hands the child over to his trusted nurse and instructs her to take the child to an i [...]

The Memory Keeper's Daughter crept up on me in a way I never expected. After reading many conflicting reviews I assumed I would either DNF this book at worst or slap 3 stars on it at best.In 1964, Dr. David Henry delivers his own twins. His son is perfectly healthy. His daughter is born with Down's Syndrome. Remembering his own sickly sister who died young, and the unending sorrow it caused for his mother, he is determined to protect his wife from the same heartache. He asks his nurse to take th [...]

Although the premise was extremely interesting, and there were true moments of brilliance in her characterizations, descriptions, and interactions, this book, more than anything, left me incredibly angry at the author. [Contains spoilers!:] Her characters are very deep, but only in one dimension. Her two stories are so clearly divided between good and evil, it's unrealistic. The last 50 pages or so are so filled with action that it made me wonder if she got to a certain point and her editor told [...]

A beautiful and moving story about a secret kept for 25 years and the effects on the people involved. I really enjoyed this one. I knew the secret world come out eventually, I just had that feeling that it would, but I love how the writer moved each of the characters through the story.

This book would have been better if they would have cut out all of the descriptions that were used. Too much "The wind is blowing, it was cold, etc". I wanted the author to get to the point already. Other than that a very sad story about the love between a husband and wife and the secrets that are kept between them. Although I enjoyed the book it was just ok because of all the extra that was there.

Although I really liked this book, I'm not sure I would openly recommend it to people for fear of them coming back and saying, "You liked THAT?" So there, I warned you, and if you decide to read it, you can't blame me!The story starts in 1964 with a husband, who is a doctor, delivering his own wife's baby late on a snowy night at his clinic, because they couldn't make it to the hospital in the snow storm. After their son is born, his wife gives birth to an unexpected twin- a daughter with Down's [...]

Some moments in our lives are crossroads, moments where the course of our lives is shaped. Sometimes the deviation is minor, and sometimes it is life-altering. Such are the forces that form the first chapter of Kim Edwards’ novel, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. A dreadful snowstorm forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his first child, which to his surprise turns out to be twins. The first is a perfect son, ideal in all ways. But the second child has Down’s syndrome. In a moment that changed a [...]

I highly enjoyed this novel. Reading some of the more negative reviews, I would have to disagree about the plot needing to be more exciting or the lack of depth in the characters. I believe that was the point of the novel entirely, we cannot label the doctor who gave away his child as "bad" because his troubled past was revealed and he was genuinely trying to do good, and it was clearly unfolding throughout the progression of the story that he began to regret his once-confident choice, but felt [...]

Beautiful writing, horrible story telling - I bought this book based on the back cover snapshot. No one recommended it to me, so I have no one to blame. My problem with this book is, the author had SO MUCH in the palm of her hand that she could have done with this story. But she was more interested in being poetic and symbolic - which is only good if it contributes to great storytelling.I was expecting to love the wife and feel emotionally connected to her throughout the book since she has been [...]

This should be a great book for discussion at book club. Thought provoking and entertaining.

It's a depressing book. A book in which although there is much music and songs, the sound that remains with you at the end is of water dripping from the faucet. It irritated me. Why would all the different houses have leaky faucets? And it was not till the end of the book when David finally repairs the faucet in Norah's house that I realize its significance. There is no explaining the characters, but there's no condemning them either. They did what they had to. Don't we all? As Phoebe says,"life [...]

Wasn’t it just last night that I said I did not give out five stars easily? I have to do it for this book; yes, run out and read it as fast as you can, for this novel will give you whole new insights into the mysteries of life and love and grief. Most of the books I waste my time reading are plot-filled page-turners, in which the author has a tremendous story that pours out through the pages, and you get just a little comprehension of what makes the characters tick as they progress through the [...]

3.5 StarsA well-written and very emotional read. It took me a little longer than usual to get into the book. I did find it could be overly detailed at times that weren't especially important to the story. I would find myself easily distracted by other things going on around me. I am usually able to tune everything out when I am into a really good book. I will say that this wasn't the case very often but it was something I noticed. There was a lot of emotion along with many shocking and dramatic [...]

Although I read this book avidly, I was mostly disappointed in it. It really needed a Good editor! THe author does not seem to know what the book is about. I could have enjoyed the books theme of how secrets destroy relationships and how everyone has secrets, but it had to branch out and become a women's lib story and a rights of the disabled story - I was waiting for the cancer victims story and surprised it didn't surface. This author does not have the experience or excellence to tackle all th [...]

I was highly disappointed in this book. When I picked it up, it had great potential. A doctor (David) delivers his own child in a snowstorm only to discover that his wife (Norah) had twins. Hooray, right? Nopee boy was born as healthy as all new parents hope their children to be. The girl, however, was born with Down's Syndrome. Thinking he was making the best choice for his family, he asks his nurse to take the baby to an institution. The nurse agrees, but then keeps the child to raise on her o [...]

I read this book when I was a member of a reading book group. I thought I was going to like it because of the "twins/children" theme. I really didn't enjoy it at all! I kept thinking something was going to happen & it never seemed to happen. Around the very end of the book, it finally began to pick up pace a little, but by then I was just ready for it to be over, that I really didn't care what the outcome was.I felt bad for Norah because David kept such a HUGE secret from her, but I also fel [...]

I guess the book was supposed to be poignant and touching, something at which it failed miserably. Although, it did accomplish the feat of being an extremely annoying book. I do not have a thing against flawed characters, but there is a difference between flawed and real. Just adding grey shades to characters does not make them realistic. There are so many discrepancies (Norah cheating, her reaction to the revelation, David’s actions) in their behavior and Caroline remains the only well fleshe [...]