The Memory Keeper's Daughter | 
 enlarge | Manufacturer: Penguin
Category: EBooks
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $4.01 (29%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  849 reviews
Sales Rank: 492
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
ASIN: B000OCXFWY
Publication Date: March 3, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Kim Edwards's stunning family drama evokes the spirit of Sue Miller and Alice Sebold, articulating every mother's silent fear: what would happen if you lost your child and she grew up without you? In 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins, he immediately recognizes that one of them has Down Syndrome and makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and to keep her birth a secret. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own. Compulsively readable and deeply moving, The Memory Keeper's Daughter is an astonishing tale of redemptive love.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
 Plot Holes and Annoying Characters August 20, 2008
I do not understand the popularity of this book. Our book club has deemed this book 'Our Least Favorite'. We found many of the characters 'unlikeable'. Additionally, there were several plot holes.
A book written by a woman to women (and maybe guys too) August 17, 2008
It was based on a similar concept of "Namesake", another contemporary book written by a woman, ie, that men has something terrible to hide from their spouses. :-) For guys it may be hard to relate to the characters, but even so I recommend it. Mainly because the book is fairly well written. I almost never read romantesque novels, so at least it was stimulating for me on this level. The characters are after all vivid and I could fell their pain (even if I did not buy into the premise). It is an okay book. I thought it would deserve more than a Lifetime movie, but it is all it got...
 A story about EVERYTHING ELSE BUT the Memory Keeper's Daughter August 13, 2008
-- The Beginning of the Story --
This book was a drag from start to finish. You get hooked by the first few pages, SO HOOKED, in fact, that you can't stop thinking that THERE MUST BE A COMPELLING STORY somewhere in these never-ending-pages. Well, you never really find it. The story makes circles around itself and its unrealistic characters. After the book is over, you feel that the actual story was never really told to you. TOO MANY EMBELLISHMENTS and NOT MUCH SUBSTANCE.
The MOST UPSETTING about this book is the fact that it supposed to be about the daughter Phoebe, about the girl twin diagnosed with Down syndrome. That is what I really cared about in this story, and despite the endless details about other characters, I was never given enough information to understand Phoebe's world, her part in this story. She is the least developed character, yet she is supposed to be the center of the story. It felt very fake, as if the author did not have any idea what she was writing about, it made me even doubt if she ever was around a person with a Down syndrome, especially a "High Functioning" one, as Phoebe is labeled. Phoebe does not sound believable, as if not enough research went into this story and into her part in it. Very disappointing! THE TITLE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE STORY. Out of 430 pages how many were about Phoebe?
--- The End of It ---
Finally, when after 25 years of separation the twins meet, the reader would hope to get the reward of reading about the two of them, but no. After the big secret, that has tormented so many people for years and has made enough damage, is FINALLY REVEALED, nothing really happens!!! It's like - what was the whole point in the suffering? What was the point for us to read about somebody's pain if nothing is learned, if the characters do not get stronger. As if a BAD JOKE, the point of finding Phoebe was so that the mother (Norah) could have her daughter present at her second wedding, after first husband dies?!?!?!?! Was that the whole point? Because, really, after the Phoebe is found, there is so little communication/connection between mother-and-daughter that it makes no difference to this story at all. All of those reflections, that Norah was shown capable of through-out the story, suddenly vanished and all she cared about now is to get married and fly away to Europe. Although that was the climax of the story (if there ever was one), the reader gets a few pages of blah... plain blah... Nothing really happens between the twins, their connection is not believable. It is as if the author was trying too hard to be nice-and-sweet around a topic she didn't feel comfortable writing about.
Screwed by Kindle August 3, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought the paperback version but followed the link "to start reading the book immediately on my Kindle" and Amazon charged me again for the book even though the Kindle book is only readable on the Kindle and so can't be shared with a circle of friends. So be forewarned, if you want to read the book on Kindle, and keep it too, you will be buying the same book twice.
Tedious Disappointing Read August 1, 2008
Many reviews here mimic my own feelings for this book. I thought the summary of the book was very appealing, but the actual story was a disappointment. It started of well enough and drew me in, but after the first 20 pages or so the details became overwhelming and unnecessary. The novel dragged on like an exhausting soap opera where the characters get ever so close to resolving their problems, but never actually do. At the other extreme, the end felt rushed and imposed.
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