The Memory Keepers Daughter - Kim Edwards [August/06]

I started this book back in July because I had seen it several places and thought it looked good. I just couldn't seem to get into it, though. I really struggled my way through it, and not because it was a bad book, I just think I picked a bad time in my life to read it. It is a rather depressing book, with one problem after another plaguing the main characters. It just wasn't as good as I thought it would be. I plan to hold onto it and read it again one day because I think it has potential.

From the back of the book:

This stunning novel begins on a winter night in 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy, but the doctor immediately recognizes that his daughter had Down's syndrome. For motives he tells himself are good, he makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse, Caroline, to take the baby away to an instituation. Instead, she disappears into another city to reaise the child as her own. Compulsively readable and deeply moving, THE MEMORY KEEPER'S DAUGHTER is a brilliantly crafted story of parallel lives, familial secrets, and the redemptive power of love.

It sounds so good, but for me, it was not. I just sat there and waited for another bad thing to happen to the family. We look back on David's life, his sister had heart trouble and his family suffered through that. Then, he has this perfect relationship with his wife, asking her out on the spur of the moment and having a whirl wind relationship. And then, the night of the blizzard comes, and there are no happy moments left. There is always anger and frustration. You sit there and think, when is the existence of the baby sister going to be understood, because only David and Caroline know the true story. This book just slogged along in depressing mode and nothing ever seemed to get better. Even the moments of happiness were so brief that they were unimportant considering all the bad stuff going on around them. I know people have liked this book, and maybe another day I will pick it back up and love it, but right now I was very disappointed in the book.

3/5