Book Review: The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

Book Review: The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

Author: Kim Edwards

Year: June 2005

During academic terms, I find myself struggling to find time to even glance at a newspaper, let alone read a novel (of course, I am not referring to The  Iron Warrior, whose every article is a must-read). But this book, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, is a challenge. It is not a throwaway beach read, and there is not a lot of action. However, once you crack open this novel, it is worth every ounce of effort.

The author, Kim Edwards, has a highly descriptive, fluid writing style, and a well developed story line. You can hardly tell that this is her debut novel. Edwards has a gift for writing characters you can sympathize with – this comes into play during the early climax of the book  when Dr. Henry makes a fatal decision.

The novel begins in 1964, with Dr. David Henry’s wife going into labour during a blizzard. With only the aid of his nurse, David finds himself delivering his own twins. As soon as they are born, he notices that while his son is born healthy, his daughter suffers from Down syndrome. Knowing firsthand what comes with Down syndrome, David makes the choice to spare his family that pain. He gives his daughter away and tells his wife, Norah, that the daughter was stillborn.

The nurse, Caroline, is given the task of putting the daughter in a home. Caroline finds it incredibly difficult and chooses instead to raise the baby herself. She leaves town and raises Dr. Henry’s daughter, named Pheobe, in Pittsburgh. Thus, the parallel lives begin. David, Norah and their son, Paul, struggle living in a family where the loss of Pheobe echoes destructively. While Caroline copes with being the single mother to a child with Down syndrome.

David’s decision proves disastrous for his family. It begins a series of lies and betrayals that accumulate through the years as each member of the family tries to cope with the loss and pain in their own way. For David, it is through photographs – which he refers to as memory keepers.

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a vivid book, and a detailed character study. It shows the unravelling of family secrets over the years. Kim Edwards creates her characters intricately, never neglecting to give them fully realized personalities and complete backgrounds.

As is done with all the good books today, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter has been adapted into a movie. The movie features Emily Watson as Caroline and Dermot Mulroney as Dr. David Henry. Rotten Tomatoes has no ratings on the movie, but seeing that it was made as a TV movie, I would say stick to the novel.