Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 967
 not recommended. good writing, good sub-plot, very sub-par novel. February 18, 2010
Amanda F. Martin (cali)
I'll keep this short. The writing is beautiful, and the idea is interesting. However, this is not an enjoyable book to read. The sub-plot was far more interesting, romantic, and generally compelling than the main plot, which for me was the main flaw. I found myself wanting to skip large sections of the book to get to the better parts. I honestly did not want to read on, but I happened to be on a plane and very bored with nothing else to do. I give this book one star for writing quality, and one star for the sub-plot. Nothing more. I do not recommend this book. If you are looking for a book in this genre of contemp. American fiction, I'd recommend the Time Travelers Wife.
 Good read February 17, 2010
Cindy O (Boulder Creek)
I really enjoyed this book. I found a tattered copy of it in the "free" books section at a resort in Tahiti. I finished it in about 2 days and thoroughly enjoyed it.
HEARTWARMING BOOK February 14, 2010
J. HALVORSON (SAN JOSE, CA United States)
THIS BOOK WAS GIVEN TO ME BY A FRIEND WHO THOUGHT I WOULD REALLY LOVE IT. HE WASN'T WRONG. I ENJOYED THIS BOOK SO MUCH I ORDERED MANY MORE FOR FRIENDS AND FAMILY. THIS BOOK WILL KEEP YOU READING DAY AND NIGHT. IT IS HEARTWARMING, LOVELY, KIND, SAD, AND VERY INTENSE AT TIMES. IT IS A MUST READ FOR EVERYONE (ADULT). AMAZON HAS THE MOST AMAZING PRICES, HOW CAN YOU RESIST NOT BUYING IT TO SEE WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. ENJOY!
 Intensely sad story February 14, 2010
Becky (Rocky Mountain West)
This is, without a doubt, the saddest work of fiction I've ever read. I like the beginning of the book. Because it took place before I was born, some of the things such as medical technology were educational for me. But because I used to be an aide for developmentally disabled children, I had difficulty stepping back to a time when rearing your handicapped child at home was not routine. I cannot imagine giving my child away for any reason. I also cannot imagine a mother accepting that her child's remains were simply taken off by a friend to be buried at a private cemetery. Typically, there are days before a burial in which the body is prepared, a funeral and viewing are planned, a casket and burial clothing are chosen, etc. Personally, I'd have been wondering what he was protecting me from due to the rush to bury the body.
I grew up a child of the 70s and 80s in a town that had our state institution for the developmentally disabled. The only doctor in town was also the doctor for the institution. He was a pioneer in mainstreaming developmentally disabled children into the public school system alongside their "normal" peers. Growing up with it and then working with DD children when I was in college made me forget that it wasn't always like that. And, I'm grateful for the real parents who fought like the fictional Caroline did to pave the way for the way things are nowadays.
Certainly, if David had not given his daughter away, things would have been different. But, I also think that if he'd given Norah the subsequent children she wanted and needed, things would have been better. She loved being a mother. He didn't have to come clean with her about Phoebe, but could have said simply that he was afraid that the heart defect his sister had might have been what killed their daughter and that he'd rather adopt. But, not explaining his feelings at all was what started the downhill spiral for them.
I felt for Norah, but stopped liking her character after she rejected her husband's advances, but cheated on him every chance she got. If she didn't want it with him, why other men?
David's obsession with photography created problems in his relationship with his wife and it is comparable to her obsession with alcohol and impromptu road trips. They both throw themselves into their jobs as a way to avoid each other and avoid dealing with their individual pain. Too bad that he and Norah didn't get counseling to save their broken marriage.
I was also surprised that Caroline and Al didn't have children. She'd wanted her own children. True, Phoebe took a lot of her time, but many couples with a handicapped child have more children.
Doro's life before Caroline & Phoebe moved in wasn't really mentioned and I would have liked to know more about her. Was she married before? Obviously, she didn't have children. But, neither did her life begin at 50.
I loved Bree's character. She was a riot and often could see a situation with fresh, non-biased eyes. Despite her outlandishness, she was about the only genuine person of the whole lot except for Phoebe Norah's mother wasn't mentioned much after she remarried and moved away. There was no mention of Paul's interacting or visiting with his grandmother. I had to feel sorry for him not only for being reared an only child, but for not even having cousins.
After Paul turns a year old, the story that has such hope and potential takes an extremely sad and unexpected turn. No, Norah didn't have control over what happened to her daughter, but she was by no means a victim otherwise. But, she is made out to be one until she "takes control of her life" and gets a job. One can be proud of her for realizing that her alcoholism wasn't getting her any fulfillment and that she needed to do something to alleviate her depression. But, I fault her for putting her job ahead of her child, especially, and her marriage. It was the same with David's photography. Rather than family time or spouse time, he went to his dark room and she stayed at her office. Paul was left to fend for himself.
I can understand Paul's anger with his mother for her infidelity. But, I'm surprised that, over time, he mellows toward her and begins to hate his father for no apparent reason other than their difference of opinion of what Paul's future career should be.
I was surprised at Norah's outburst about the teenage girl that David rescues, thinking that she's his girlfriend. Here's a woman who's had countless boyfriends throughout her marriage and is upset because her husband rescues a forlorn young girl, whom she thinks might be his girlfriend, although he explains that she is not.
In the end, happiness and healing begin to take root. David's death was a convenient surprise. Convenient in that getting rid of him made it convenient for what really happened to Phoebe could be explained without difficulties, without turmoil, but left a lot of unanswered questions for the family. Carolyn going to Norah with the truth was a surprise, too, but a pleasant one.
Silly, Sanctimonious, and Saccharine February 13, 2010
Jiang Xueqin (Toronto, Canada)
A doctor David Henry, haunted by poor hard childhood and a sister with Down's Syndrome who died at twelve and who took with her to the grave the heart of their mother, works hard to build for himself a new identity and a new life. When his beautiful wife gives birth to a beautiful boy he thinks his new life is now complete, but when this wife gives birth moments later to a twin daughter with Down's Syndrome the doctor sees the possibility of being trapped yet again by his past. He remembers how his mother sacrificed herself to raise his sister, and he remembers how his mother was destroyed when his sister died at twelve: he decides to spare himself and his family the pain and the agony of his past, and tells his nurse Caroline Gill to take the daughter away to an institution. David Henry tells his wife that their daughter died at child birth, and Caroline Gill decides to raise David Henry's daughter by herself. Everyone is haunted and forever changed by the good doctor's decision that night. And by trying to escape his past David Henry becomes forever trapped in it.
This is the strong and affecting beginning for Kim Edwards' "The Memory Keeper's Daughter," and she sets herself an impossible task of building from this premise. David Henry, now haunted by his great crime, escapes into his camera called the Memory Keeper, and into his clinical work: he becomes forever detached, and a cold lifeless man. His wife Norah is also haunted by the supposed death of her child, and she slowly breaks away from her slowly dying husband. Caroline Gill, by making the courageous decision to save David Henry's daughter and love it unconditionally, changes from a girlish nurse with a silly infatuation with David Henry to an independent beloved mother and wife.
The plot wanders, but more important it seems contrived. The characters all seem thin and flat, and their mentality and motivations all seem overly simplistic in their contorted complexity. We never really understand David Henry, and a lot has to do with the author's failure to account convincingly for his past, which is after all the key to understanding the drama and the dilemma in this novel. Norah seems childish. Caroline Gill is the most developed of the characters, and most of the supporting cast seem like stereotypes.
In many ways, "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" is less a novel and more like a television mini-series. I couldn't help but think of "Mad Men" while reading this novel. This novel is really silly, sanctimonious, and saccharine at times. And unfortunately this is what passes for literature nowadays.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 967
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