The Memory Keepers Daughter

The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards :

 

 

 

This one comes with a story. About three weeks ago Salinger and I were on our way back from shopping in weho. On a previous trip I had noticed a library by Pan Pacific Park, for you Angelenos ya’ know what I'm talking about. I was obsessed with the universal movie marathon my sister and I had been watching and here was a chance to rummage through the possible hidden gems of this library. We parked and entered a book sale. To me that’s like saying to a heroin addict, “Free Heroin”. My little heart started racing and my fingers started fluttering, oh the joy of a book sale! I quickly loaded my self with books and settled with six, here they are listed in order of remembrance ; Mirror Mirror, The Swan Theives, The Tale of the Body Thief, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Memory Keepers Daughter and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.” I had already read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Tale of the Body Thief so I don’t have to read those. As for the rest well I have already read two!  Out of the four anyway and considering I got them the same week as I got Affliction and In Cold Blood, well let me just say that its pretty impressive.

So that’s how I cam to have this book in my hands. I had heard about it from different sources, the library catalog had this on recommendation and so did some of the other literary websites I have visited. When I read the back I knew immediately I wanted to read it, it was compelling and even though I decided to read the Lisa See book first I kept drifting to the other. Finally after I finished “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” “In cold blood” and “Affliction” I finally read ‘The Memory Keepers Daughter’. The story starts on a winter’s day in 1964 in which Dr. David Henry delievers his own twins. The boy is healthy and essentially perfect while the surprise child shows the symptoms of having Down Syndromes disease. So he does something so fucked up, he gives his baby daughter to his nurse Caroline Gill and tells her to give her away to an institution. As the years go by Dr. Henry’s wife Norah is slowly growing away from her husband, inwardly pushing him away for not loving or acknowledging the existence of their lost daughter. Paul his son who loves his father also begins to grow away from his father angry and rejected, because he can not rise to his father’s expectations. Meanwhile Caroline keeps the baby runs away and raises the child as her own. Understanding that she will have to fight hard and fight many battles for her daughter to be seen as worthy to attend school and live a semi normal life. Dr. Henry receives a camera from his wife called a “Memory Keeper” and he becomes obsessed with his camera and the parallel universe between nature and the human body. The family that should be perfect, they have everything, money, success, they travel and have many luxuries others do not and still they are miserable. The secret of their Daughter weighing heavily upon David’s shoulders and his guilt takes his toll.

Bitch Please:

I really liked this book and that’s saying something because I could not stand for one minute the name of the Dr’s wife. Norah! God almighty is there a name for a woman so annoying. Norah is so stupid! And it sounds awful when u say it like ‘nugh’ just gross. But I guess it suits the character who is as shit brained as her name suggest. Possibly the #1 annoying character in the book I cant stand her. She is the perfect Susie Homemaker who just could never get over losing her baby girl, which I kind of understand, I mean she lost a child but fuck she just drags that shit for twenty years! I mean the first five were fine but the other 15 were like a lot. I know he should have told her the truth but then we wouldn’t have a story now would we. Paul is a little douchebag like his mother who can’t appreciate shit and even though David made a mistake he always tried to shoulder the brunt of the mistakes and he bore it in stride. I read this book in a day, the language is beautiful and the story is very moving. My one complaint is that their isn’t enough of Phoebe and Caroline Gill and way to much of Norah Henry (that soul sucking slut bag of a bitch). I would recommend this to everyone. The very idea behind David’s photography collection is one I wish was actually real.