So today I want to talk about a book that I read a while ago, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards. It was released in 2005 so it’s still quite an old book, not quite as old as Dicken’s though! I would love to share with you what I thought of it but as always spoilers ahead.
Overview
The book starts with the beginnings of a snow storm and a seemingly lovestruck couple curled up by the fire, the woman (Norah) is pregnant and going into labour. The man (David), her husband, is an orthopaedic surgeon and when they get to the hospital only his assistant Caroline is there, due to snow storm no one else can get there and David and Caroline have to deliver his wife’s twins, oh yeah I forgot to mention she is pregnant with twins, it’s kind of important. Norah gives birth to a boy and girl, immediately as the baby girl is birthed David sees all the signs of Down Syndrome. He instructs Caroline to take the girl (who is later called Pheobe) and put her in an institution, thinking that the girl would die young and be too difficult to care for. He tells Norah that the baby girl died, and they take home the boy in which they call Paul.
We then see the timeline play out as David lives with his secret and Caroline with Pheobe, as when Caroline reached the institution that David directed her too she finds the conditions too upsetting and keeps Pheobe. Through the next twenty-five years, we see David and Norah’s marriage deteriorate and Caroline and Pheobe start a new life far away. Caroline sends David letter and pictures which he keeps in a dark room, after quitting orthopaedics and becoming a photographer. Norah ends up developing a drinking problem and having an affair, the marriage is a husk, Paul become’s a guitarist despite being encouraged by his dad, David, to pursue something more fruitful and secure. Pheobe grows up and falls in love with Robert and as they both have Down Syndrome they desire to get married and live in a group home together, which Caroline is very apprehensive about. Caroline also gets married to a trucker called Al who picks them up when Caroline’s car runs out of petrol and she is stranded with Pheobe.
In the end, Norah and David divorce and when David dies of a heart attack soon after chickening out of confessing to Norah that Pheobe is alive. Of course, once he is dead Norah discovers the photos and letters anyway and hastens to contact Caroline. Norah and Paul finally meet Pheobe and they begin the difficult journey of trying to be a part of each other’s lives.
Review
My review for this one won’t be as detailed as my others because frankly, it has been a long time since I read it and I just really wanted to talk about the book and the effect it had on me.
I loved this book. There was just so much tension the entire way through, and tension is something every author should try to create. There was just such an abundance of anxiety on every page it’s no wonder that David had a heart attack!
I read the blurb and I went into the book thinking “Ok so David is the villain”, I mean what kind of person could give up their child and tell the mother it had died? But through the entire book, we saw him struggle with what he had done, asking Caroline if he could come and see Pheobe, wanting to tell Norah and then retreating. It was stressful just to read about someone with such a burdensome secret.
Then there was Norah, who was ignorant that her daughter lived though every now and then I felt like Edwards made it seem as though Norah felt that her daughter hadn’t really died. The distance between Norah and her husband is palpable when she just slides into an affair without a second thought really. She coddles Paul, her surviving child until it seems that he can get away with quite a lot.
The characters in the story are extremely authentic, you can feel the rift forming between Norah and David, in much the same way as in Middlemarch by George Eliot you can see the divide happening between Lydgate and Rosamund (ok that was a bit of an old reference). Of course, this all happens around what would be the central character Pheobe, who Edwards writes incredibly well though we don’t really hear much from her we just see the complicated world surrounding her.
It was really a joy to read and I would seriously recommend it to anyone who loves reading. Have you read it? Feel free to tell me what you thought in the comments below. If you haven’t read still feel free to comment of course!
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