Book Review

The Memory Keeper's Daughter




Ugh...

I just didn't like this book. I wanted to. Really.

The story revolves around a young doctor who delivers his wife's twins during a snowstorm in 1963. This was before ultrasound and epidural which proves to be a very important part of the story. The doctor, David Henry, and his wife, Norah, are not aware that she is carrying twins. When Norah goes into labor early, David barely makes it to his clinic in time for her to deliver. Their obstetrician is stuck in the storm and the only other person present is Dr Henry's nurse, Caroline. Guess what? Caroline is a little bit in love with Dr Henry which is also kinda important.

Norah is put under anesthesia for the actual delivery. The first baby, a boy they will name Paul, is delivered and is perfectly healthy. The second, unexpected baby is a girl who will be called Phoebe. Dr Henry realizes immediately that Phoebe has Down's Syndrome and with all the medical knowledge that he has acquired, decides that she will be a sickly child who will suffer from a heart condition and will die early.

The author spends a lot of time trying to make the reader understand David's reaction to this imperfect child. While Norah is still unconscious, David gives the baby to nurse Caroline to transport to a home for "special needs" children. When his wife awakens, he tells her that they had twins but their daughter had been stillborn.

Meanwhile, Caroline can't bring herself to leave the baby at the home so she takes Phoebe and moves out of state to raise her. She spends a long time believing that Dr Henry is going to realize his mistake and reclaim his daughter. He doesn't.

Then we get to suffer through about three hundred pages of seeing this family pay the price for the father's decision. The marriage crumbles. Norah goes temporarily nuts. And on and on.

Did I mention that Dr Henry becomes a famous photographer? Or that the son, Paul, becomes a famous guitarist? And Norah buys her own travel agency. This book is filled with the most random plot twists. That's not always a bad thing in a book. In fact, I love it when I can't anticipate every move in a novel. But this nonsense was just beyond me. There's also a subplot involving a pregnant, teenage, orphan but my head hurts just thinking about it so I won't elaborate.

I'm sure that somewhere in this book, there lies an important discussion about the differences between men and women and the ways in which they demonstrate love for their children and each other. But honestly, that discussion is buried under so much foolishness, I didn't have the energy to find it.