A Less Than Memorable Experience (TheMemory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards)

Member Name: skidd

Product:	TheMemory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards
Date:	14/08/07 (167 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Parts are worth reading

Disadvantages: Improbable premise and characters lacking in credibility

Kim Edward’s debut novel has proved to be a number one bestseller in the States where it has attracted high critical acclaim. I was therefore looking forward to an inspiring and gripping read. Unfortunately I was to be extremely disappointed and after reading the first two chapters I left the book gathering dust for a couple of weeks. I finally decided to persevere and, although it did start to engage me around the half way point, I was lured by the expectation that something dramatic was about to happen. Not wishing to include any spoilers, I can only say, my expectations were not met!

The story opens in 1964 in Lexington Kentucky where Nora Henry is expecting her first child and goes into labour in the middle of a heavy snowstorm. Her husband, David, manages to get her to the hospital where he works as an orthopaedic surgeon and, when the obstetrician is prevented from attending by the weather conditions, he is forced to take on the role of midwife himself with only a nurse, Caroline Gill, to assist him. A baby boy, Paul, is successfully delivered and is closely and unexpectedly followed by a girl, Phoebe. However, David’s medical knowledge enables him to diagnose immediately that, although Phoebe is quite healthy, she is a Downs Syndrome baby. Without any apparent hesitation he arranges for nurse Caroline to whisk Phoebe away to a mental institution. Caroline agrees because, although she is not happy with the situation, she has long been secretively in love with the doctor (most conveniently). David returns to Norah and explains that she had given birth to a second child but that the baby girl was born dead.

Caroline subsequently decides she cannot leave Phoebe in the soulless home her father selected for her and takes her back to her own home. Her motivation in this is never too clear but maybe it is, in part, because she feels David may change his mind. However, learning that Norah has arranged a memorial service for Phoebe, she realises that the fate of this child now rests with her. She disappears and sets up a new life for them both in Pittsburg.

The remainder of the novel deals with the consequences of this event over the subsequent twenty five years and the psychological impact on all concerned. Norah is locked in her own grief over the loss of the baby she never saw. David cannot communicate about the loss and becomes increasingly withdrawn inside his own guilt as the marriage slowly erodes. Paul grows to resent the “roar of silence” between his parents and eventually rebels. Caroline gains strength and confidence campaigning for the rights of Downs Syndrome children and contentment in her role as Phoebe’s “ Mum”.

Not just the opening scene but the whole plot contains so many elements which seem to lack credibility and the characterisations are weakly drawn. Norah comes across as a reasonably strong woman who organises a memorial service to her daughter despite her husband’s opposition and yet previously had not pressed her demands to see her supposedly dead child when he opposed it. David is an intelligent man, a doctor, with a heart so warm that he treats charity cases who cannot afford his services but he makes such a swift and harsh decision to cast out his newborn disabled daughter and lie about her existence. Caroline meets truck driver, Al, just once by chance and there is no romance between them during their first encounter but he subsequently spends two years searching for her. These weaknesses, if acknowledged at all, are covered by convenient and rather simplistic psychological explanations. In ridding himself of the unwanted child, David is said to be motivated by wanting to save Norah and Paul the hurt his family had endured when his sister died in childhood of a heart condition and this excuse is reinforced at regular intervals throughout as if even the author is not sure it is convincing!

The strongest and most appealing element of the book is in the portrayal of Phoebe and the empathy which the author demonstrates in her descriptions of a Downs Syndrome child progressing, against the odds, whilst inspiring affection in those who come into contact with her and bringing joy to her “mum”, Caroline. It is surprising that, on these occasions, Edwards does not resort to the over-sentimentality which often mars other parts of the text. In fact Phoebe is by far the most believable character in the book and the reader cannot fail to warm towards her. Apparently the author actually got the idea for the novel when she was told the story of a man who gave up a Downs daughter without telling the child’s mother. She was inspired to develop the story when she began a writing workshop for mentally challenged authors and then spent several years researching Downs before embarking on the novel. It is a shame that the quality and merit of this part of the story is not matched throughout.

The book has attracted much hype and has been hailed as a masterpiece by many critics and acclaimed authors have heaped praise upon it. Jody Picoult describes it as “so lovely you have to reread……just to be captivated all over again” . Sue Monk Kidd is similarly effusive finding it to be “an absolutely mesmerising premise, drawing you deeply and irrevocably into the entangled lives of two families and the devastating secret that shapes them both….riveting!” Obviously I am completely out of step with the literati but could it be that for anybody to honestly criticise a work dealing with a Downs Syndrome child is not politically correct?

Strangely enough I would still recommend the book as one to read because Kim Edwards does have an ability to spin a tale and her descriptive scene-setting expertise is also powerful. Moreover the parts of the story dealing with Phoebe and her life in the sixties and seventies are enlightening. It’s such a short time ago but in those days Downs Syndrome children were often stigmatised, their abilities underestimated and their rare qualities unappreciated. Caroline’s struggle to gain acceptance and equality of opportunity for her “daughter” is a compelling story in itself. But, as a whole, the book failed to live up to my expectations consisting as it does of a plot, springing from a highly unlikely premise which meanders unconvincingly along, forever threatening an explosive crescendo of loud and resonating fireworks but never actually reaching that point and eventually fizzling out like a damp squib.

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Kim Edwards is an assistant professor of English at the University of Kentucky. Her only previously published work is a collection of short stories, “The Secrets of a Fire King”.

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The Memory Keeper’s Daughter paperback edition was published by Penguin in April 2007 (ISBN 978-0141030142) and currently available from Amazon reduced form £7.99 to £3.99.

Summary: A book much praised but it didn't work for me