The Memory Keeper's Daughter (2005)

This book could have been good; it is too bad it only lived up to being so so. The writing is actually the highlight of it, and I hope that the author keeps on writing. But the story fails to convey the emotional tension that it keeps at hinting all the time. Yes, I do believe that a secret as big as the one central to the plot would have the power to permeate and destroy relationships, but I would like to have come to that conclusion on my own by following the lives of the characters. Instead I was told every third paragraph that this is what was happening.
Like others here, the 3 stars are for the writing.
( )

I feel kind of bad giving this less than par review, but I didn't like this book all too much. I will admit that it was beautifully written and there was so much description and beautiful sounding prose that I liked, but the plot was dreadfully slow and depressing. I honestly think that the only thing that kept me going after the first several chapters was the need to know how and when everyone would gradually find out about the horrible thing that David Henry did to his family by giving away his new daughter who was born with Down Syndrome. Had the book been poorly written, I don't think I would have been able to finish it. It depressed to read about these people's lives which didn't seem to get any better with age and only seemed to get sadder and sadder as their time went on. No one was close, and those were were seemed to have other issues. Strangely enough, I would recommend this book, but only to people who can read realistic books, and perhaps romance novels, because ultimately, this was a (strange) happy ending. ( )

Children being treated like meat puppets, disabled children being lesser, unwanted, cheating spouses and gawdlike doctors...spare me.

Very mawkish writing, quite clearly aiming to Be Emotional and Send A Message:
You can't stop time. You can't capture light. You can only turn your face up and let it rain down.
–and–
She imagined herself as some sort of vessel to be filled up with love. But it wasn't like that. The love was within her all the time, and its only renewal came from giving it away.
Pleased for you if this guff makes you happy. It does not make me anything but irked. ( )

Leading a life based on lies, small and one particularly large one, David Henry and his family have to live with themselves -- and are missing out on their personal growth because they do not raise their daughter with Downs' syndrome. ( )

Can't remember why but I did not like this novel. Says a lot really. Library copy, thank goodness.