Laugh when you can,
Apologize when you should,
And let go of what you can't change.

July 20, 2008

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

I just finished this book, The Memory Keeper's Daughter. It's about a doctor in the 60's that delivers his wife's baby in a snowstorm and it ends up being twins, a boy (healthy) and a girl (with Down Syndrome). He tells the nurse to take the girl (who his wife does not see) to an institution. The nurse can't do it and takes the girl away to raise her. I won't say anymore because I don't want to give the story away but the book is about how this decision affects all of their lives.

I'm fairly aware of what Down Syndrome is and reading yet another book on the topic didn't overly excite me. However, the book really isn't about the girl having Down Syndrome at all; it's about relationships. The author does an excellent job at conveying what the characters are feeling to the reader. She is able to show how different people view the same situation in such glaringly different ways. A lot of authors attempt this, but this one succeeded. It was almost gut-wrenching at times, knowing what one character was thinking and seeing another character take their actions completely out of context. It's an interesting book that really makes you think about how situations are not necessarily what they seem to be.

1 comment:

Amy said...

This one keeps popping up to me every time I see it at the bookstore. Glad to have a good rec for it. Maybe this will be a good late night read while Im up with Nathan.