The Memory Keeper's Daughterby Kim Edwards
Edwards's assured but schematic debut novel (after her collection, The Secrets of a Fire King) hinges on the birth of fraternal twins, a healthy boy and a girl with Down syndrome, resulting in the father's disavowal of his newborn daughter. A snowstorm immobilizes Lexington, Ky., in 1964, and when young Norah Henry goes into labor, her husband, orthopedic surgeon Dr. David Henry, must deliver their babies himself, aided only by a nurse. Seeing his daughter's handicap, he instructs the nurse, Caroline Gill, to take her to a home and later tells Norah, who was drugged during labor, that their son Paul's twin died at birth. Instead of institutionalizing Phoebe, Caroline absconds with her to Pittsburgh. David's deception becomes the defining moment of the main characters' lives, and Phoebe's absence corrodes her birth family's core over the course of the next 25 years. David's undetected lie warps his marriage; he grapples with guilt; Norah mourns her lost child; and Paul not only deals with his parents' icy relationship but with his own yearnings for his sister as well.
3 comments:
This book is on the list for our NC book club a couple of months from now, so I'll be interested to hear what everyone thinks. I'm currently catching up on the June selection - Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. Even though I don't get all the literary references, it's turning into quite a page-turner.
Anyone out there reading Harry Potter?
This was a book that brought back some childhood memories for me. My friend Eva, when we were in third grade, brought to school news that her brother John was born with Down's syndrome. The neighbor across the street had a child with Down's, but he was "away" at school for most of the time. He is such a neat person, and so is the family, that they are the example of how to accept and embrace the challenges of having a family with someone like John. They went on to adopt two more boys from Vietnam (in addition to their four biological children) and work actively in the church. Now, John is facing his hardest life challenge, leukemia.
www.caringbridge.org/johnpasko
It's amazing how the times and treatment of children with Downs changed within the timeframe of this book, especially during Phoebe's allergic reaction....
I'm about a third of the way through Harry Potter. Just curious after having read the others on how it will end....
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