Memory Keeper's Daughter

by Kim Edwards

I finished this book last night - and after the whole "Outlander Incident" I was very primed to read a good book. And this was a great book... really readable and deep, with a few very well described and realistic characters. I always think it's amazing when an author can craft characters where you can love and hate them at the same time. With this story and the way it was told (each chapter in a different POV) I was really able to understand *why* the characters did what they did, even if it seemed uncharacteristic or out of the ordinary for their personality.

So the gist of the book: It's about a husband and wife who have a child. It turns out it's twins though - I guess in the pre-ultrasound world of the '60s they never knew how many kids would pop out. The first child is a healthy baby boy and the second is a girl who is obviously not well. Turns out she has Down Syndrome...and the dad (who happens to be a doctor, and delivered the babies) tells his wife the girl died and gives the baby to the nurse to stick her in a home (as was an accepted practice at the time, I gather.) So, OBV the nurse doesn't do that, she keeps the girl and raises her... and the story kind of takes off from there. It's interesting that it's told from each character's POV bc you get so wrapped up in their perception of the situation that at times I forgot that Phoebe (the little girl) didn't actually die.

I read this book for my July book club meeting and to be 100% honest, I'd heard the title recommended to me a few times and picked it up in the bookstore on occasion, but it never appealed to me... I guess I just thought it'd be like *about* Down syndrome (sorry if that makes me shallow... I'm not big on reading depressing stories just to make myself sad...) and while it WAS a depressing story in a lot of ways, it was really not about Down syndrome but about the way a split second decision can forever change the lives of a bunch of people. Oh, I was also afraid that all the "comments" were by authors I'm not crazy about. I'm glad my book club chose this book though bc I don't know that I would have read it otherwise, and I would have missed out on a great book!

I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about the ending... it's not quite how I thought it would all come together, but I just have to chew it over for a few days...

So yeah, I liked it!

Apparently it's a lifetime movie too... I'll have to try to catch that sometime.

I usually concoct little movies in my head when I'm reading and sometimes book characters will be really vivid to me. In this book (because of a google search I did mid-book) I totally was feeling David Henry as Dermot Mulroney. I was getting a strong Michael Cera (see pic) vibe from Paul as a teenager-adult... because he just seemed awkward and dorky but still a nice boy for the most part. Oh, and there's a pregnant teenager character, and I was getting the strongest Juno McGuff feeling from her, so maybe that's where the whole Michael Cera thing is coming from. IDK. Maybe I should just stop being obsessed w/ Juno... And I got a big Kelly Preston vibe from Norah. I don't know about Caroline...maybe like Charlize Theron or something. That's who I'm casting in MY movie :)