The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

Finally, a book I liked reading. This one made it on to my booklist from the New York Times’ 2006 best-books list, I think.

Memory Keeper’s Daughter told the story of a couple who have twins, and the husband discovers that the daughter has Downs Syndrome. He decides to tell his wife that she died at birth and gives her away, ostensibly to live in an institution. However, the nurse charged with bringing her to the institution decides to keep her instead. So far we are on page 20, so I’m not ruining anything for you.

This book had a significant number of well-written characters, at least seven. Following their lives over thirty years is no small feat, but Edwards does a great job of it. And the book ends up being only marginally about Downs Syndrome, although it is worth mentioning that the attitudes towards D.S. in the 1960s and ‘70s portrayed in the book are disturbing. This book is about what all great books are about: love, betrayal, siblings, marriages, regret, and so on.

There were some great contrasts in this book, between the mothers of the babies (Caroline and Norah), the fathers of each of the children, the birth mother and her sister, and of course the children themselves as they grow up. I’ve been thinking a lot about how siblings can often reveal an alternate version of one’s self, a more extreme or less extreme picture of one’s fears and desires. This book takes that concept and applies it to all the parallel characters masterfully.

Caroline, the mother of the child with Downs, was probably my favorite character, and I think she is supposed to be. One of the things about her I loved is that she sees her struggles as a mother as specific to her child’s disability. It is clear to the reader (partially through the contrasts to Norah, the other mother) that these concerns are specific to mothering, not to mothering a child with Downs. As she learns this through the story, one cannot help but think about one’s own pains and examine whether they are unique to us or more universal.

There was also just some plain great writing in the book. At one point, a character's sister asks her, “Do you and David talk about big things or small things.” At another point, one of the characters "nodded, unable to speak above the sound of the river, the smell of its dark banks, the starts roaring everywhere, swirling, alive." Though this is not a short book, at times Edwards says a lot with a few carefully chosen words.

Towards the end of the book, Norah finds boxes of photographs that her husband had kept. "Norah glanced at the boxes of photographs, wanting to take that young woman she had been by the arm and shake her gently. Keep going, she wanted to tell her. Don't give up. Your life will be fine in the end."

And for many of the characters, it is.