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A review by jenbsbooks
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
3.25
Liked it, didn't love it. Felt like I had to push through some.
Several POVs (David, Caroline, Norah, Paul) but all 3rd person, so the single narrator could give this omniscient overview ... I struggled to keep the POV straight at times though. Often stopping and starting the book, I would think "who's head are we in now?" and there wasn't any help from chapter headings either, I'd just have to wait and watch the text for name dropping to figure it out. I would have appreciated headers with the POV listed at the start of the chapters, and in the TOC. The TOC didn't have numerical listing, rather listing a year, then months as "chapters" ... some months getting multiple entries.
As for the overall story ... while I appreciated the writing, it rambled some. It would cover David and his family for a time, then switch to Caroline. Connected ... but completely different stories for the most part. I'd find myself disconnecting, especially right when it would switch between the two.
Some SPOILERS as long as David was pretending his daughter with Downs died, why didn't he just pretend she never existed? They hadn't known it was twins, so if he really wanted to save his wife the trauma and pain, why tell her she had a second baby but that it died? Why not just not say anything? There's a whole "what would have happened if they had kept the baby themselves?" question, but also what if Norah and Paul never even knew there had been a Phoebe? David/Norah and even Paul weren't particularly likeable, Caroline almost too perfect. And that Caroline happened to be the only one there at the birth, that she was willing to disrupt her entire life/leave and raise Phoebe on her own. Interesting to think of how the different times and oversight even allowed this to be an option. Some scenes (Paul coming in as a child and spoiling the film, he and his friends destroying photos/files later ... I never quite understood the inclusion, what those scenes brought to the story.
I didn't really get the title ... yes, David is a photographer and took pictures (keeping memories?) but still, the title just didn't click for me. Not sure I have a better one in my head either though ...
No discussion questions included in the book ... I found some online. I could see this having topics for discussion at a book club. I have to wonder what those with an intimate connection to Downs Syndrome think of the novel ... positive or negative? I thought Phoebe's few spoken words were handled well in the narration (encountering it before, one book had no vocal affect at all, which didn't work for me. I can see it could be touchy, not wanting to be seen as mocking).
No proFanity. Other words I note: Carnegie (standard pronunciation), swathed, detritus
I'd seen this one pop up here and there in FB discussions, usually positive reviews. When I found a physical copy at a thrift store, I recognized the title and picked it up for the LFL. Having a physical copy shifts a book up my TBR, even though I still borrow the audio and Kindle copy from the library. I went primarily with the audiobook for this.
Several POVs (David, Caroline, Norah, Paul) but all 3rd person, so the single narrator could give this omniscient overview ... I struggled to keep the POV straight at times though. Often stopping and starting the book, I would think "who's head are we in now?" and there wasn't any help from chapter headings either, I'd just have to wait and watch the text for name dropping to figure it out. I would have appreciated headers with the POV listed at the start of the chapters, and in the TOC. The TOC didn't have numerical listing, rather listing a year, then months as "chapters" ... some months getting multiple entries.
As for the overall story ... while I appreciated the writing, it rambled some. It would cover David and his family for a time, then switch to Caroline. Connected ... but completely different stories for the most part. I'd find myself disconnecting, especially right when it would switch between the two.
Some SPOILERS
I didn't really get the title ... yes, David is a photographer and took pictures (keeping memories?) but still, the title just didn't click for me. Not sure I have a better one in my head either though ...
No discussion questions included in the book ... I found some online. I could see this having topics for discussion at a book club. I have to wonder what those with an intimate connection to Downs Syndrome think of the novel ... positive or negative? I thought Phoebe's few spoken words were handled well in the narration (encountering it before, one book had no vocal affect at all, which didn't work for me. I can see it could be touchy, not wanting to be seen as mocking).
No proFanity. Other words I note: Carnegie (standard pronunciation), swathed, detritus
I'd seen this one pop up here and there in FB discussions, usually positive reviews. When I found a physical copy at a thrift store, I recognized the title and picked it up for the LFL. Having a physical copy shifts a book up my TBR, even though I still borrow the audio and Kindle copy from the library. I went primarily with the audiobook for this.