The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards is unputdownable. Long after I’ve finished the novel, I still think about the main characters: David, Norah, Caroline and Phoebe.
I wonder how I would handle their situation if it happened to me. Norah gave birth to twins—a boy named Paul and a girl named Phoebe. The sad thing is that Phoebe has Down syndrome, and David, who is the babies’ father and also the doctor handling the birth, had decided to give Phoebe away. In the 1960s, people did not yet know how to deal with the infirmity. That one decision changed their lives, including Caroline’s. Caroline is the nurse assisting the birth.
I tried to get under David’s skin, imagining how he’d have to live with that dark secret and guilt all his life. I wondered how all this time Norah had been mourning for the loss of her baby daughter, Phoebe—the baby she never got to see and touch. Died at birth, according to David. Then there is Caroline, who was given the burden of delivering Phoebe to an institution by David’s order. How would I feel if I were her at that very moment, having to carry out the terrible task of sending away an adorable baby (normal-looking to the untrained eye)?
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a gripping story. I think I can understand why David did what he did. He thought he was doing the right thing. What he didn’t know was that his decision would deeply affect the people he loved for years to come. Kim Edwards has created a story that feels real and full of the complexity of human emotions. This is a book worth rereading.
