Book Review: Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

Kim Edwards' propitious debut novel, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, is by no means an easy read. The overall sadness, a result of an impulsive and painful decision made by Doctor David Henry during an immobilizing snow storm on a cold winter’s night in 1964, creates such sweeping consequences that they reach into the next two decades and beyond. This one unfortunate choice made by a man who felt there could be no other choice for him irrevocably changes the lives of many people.

Doctor Henry, an orthopedic surgeon, delivers his wife Norah's babies. Along with his colleague Caroline Gill, a nurse, they witness the birth of fraternal twins, son Paul, and a little girl, Phoebe. But they don't tell his wife that Phoebe is born with Down Syndrome.

It is Kentucky 1964, and at that time not uncommon for babies with the sydnrome to be sent away to special homes at birth. But what David decides to do is not entirely legal; in fact, it is close to being a crime. He asks nurse Caroline to take the baby away to a place that looks after children such as Phoebe, and he tells Norah that their daughter has been born dead, rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah.

This split-second decision becomes a pivotal turning point in the lives of Norah, their son Paul, as well as Caroline, who decides to flee with the child and raise her as her own. After seeing the home she was told to deliver Phoebe to, she realizes that she cannot leave the baby there. In the back of her mind she knows she can give Phoebe a much better life than what she'll receive at the institution.

David and Norah's lives continue to erode, with the lie creating an invisible wall around David, and he and Norah drift further and further apart. Where once their marriage had been happy, the "death" of Phoebe destroys it. And the boy, Paul, sensing the unhappiness between his parents, is also affected by the death of his twin, and becomes a rebellious and petulant teenager, easily seen heading to a life of delinquency and crime.

Article Author: Ginger Haycox

I am an unwilling, nomadic soul looking for a place to put down permanent roots. I have lived in too many of these 50 states, as well as 3 Canadian provinces. So who am I? I admit I'm still learning. Suffice to say, I am different things to different people. …

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