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39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Food for thought, 20 Sep 2007
I am surprised that this book has received such mixed reviews.
Personally I really enjoyed it, but then it is a subject close to my heart, as my niece has Downs Syndrome.
Set in the 1960's it is quite an eye-opener how views have changed towards such disabilities since then. The fights of those parents for their children's rights are largely responsible for the opportunities available to such children today.
On a snowy winter's evening Nora Henry goes into labour. With the help of a nurse her doctor husband delivers her a healthy son, but there follows an unexpected twin sister who has Downs Syndrome. As was frequently the case at that time, the Downs child, Phoebe, is sent to a home to be cared for. The job of taking her there is entrusted to the nurse, Caroline, who takes one look at the place and decides to care for Phoebe herself.
Meanwhile David Henry makes his big mistake and informs his wife that their daughter was stillborn, setting in motion a chain of events that has repercussions for years to come.
Even though there are reasons in David's past that might explain his response to the birth, it is hard to feel great empathy for him after this event. However, his fascination for photography has interesting symbolism which is explained towards the end of the book.
Caroline and Phoebe made the more enjoyable reading for me, as they struggled to make a life away from Phoebe's home town.
Nora, the bereaved wife, was the least interesting and a rather frustrating character.
The other person in this situation was the brother, Paul, who always felt distant from his distracted parents and who compensated by putting his whole being into his music.
A fascinating book, with plenty of food for thought, though it could have done with being 100 pages shorter.
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54 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Telling portrait of family dysfunction and sadness, 8 Nov 2007
Having just come off reading "The House at Riverton" and "Bark of the Dogwood" and loving both those books, I was prepared for a letdown with "The Memory Keeper's Daughter." Not so. I was anything but let down. I wasn't in love with the style of writing, but the story itself is fascinating and haunting. And it's virtually impossible to tell you what happens and why this is so great without giving away the plot. Also, so many have gone over the main points, that it seems silly to do so here. My two cents worth is that this is one book you should not ignore. Get it. Read it. Never forget it.
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35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A frustrating read, 6 July 2007
I picked this up because I loved the intriguing storyline but goodness me, it's sooo slooow!
The 400 pages of tiny font could have been reduced by half if the mind-numbing observations about "daffodils, delicate as skin and almost as luminous, collecting the light from the hall" and the like had been left out.
I want to know about the baby, the woman who's caring for him and the fallout the parents experience when the mum discovers her daughter didn't die but was given away. Images of dappled daffs in hallways are poetic, sure, but compared to the potential story itself, not remotely interesting.
The story gets off to a slow but intriguing start, but the next logical step in the tale - the one the reader really wants to know about - inexplicably doesn't happen until the end. You have to be awfully interested in these characters to follow them through the intervening 25 years.
I ended up reading the first couple of chapters, then skim reading the next couple, one or two in the middle, and the last one, and don't feel like I missed anything of interest.
If you like a slow-burner in which every apparently relevant aspect of every scene is spelled out at length you'll probably love it. If you don't, expect to join me in yelling: "OH GET ON WITH IT!"
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