The Memory Keeper's Daughter

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OK here is a little relationship tip for all you guys and gals out there.  Ladies if you are pregnant and you get stuck in a freak snow storm and your husband has to deliver your child, make sure you stay awake through out the whole ordeal.  And fella's if your wife is pregnant and you get stuck in a freak snow storm and you have to deliver your own child don't claim the baby died and then send it off to live with the nurse that helped with the delivery.  This isn't good for your marriage.  It causes problems, and tension, and walls to be built up.  And I'm no psychologist people, but I do know that this may lead to divorce some where down the line!  You may snicker at this little scenario and tell yourself well that won't ever happen to me, but be warned my friends, because this is just what happened in The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards.  

So here is a little run down on what happens in this story.  David Henry is very much in love with his wife Nora.  So in love in fact that he wants to shelter her from heartbreak and a life of struggle, so when he has to deliver his twins on one cold and blustery night he keeps their perfect son (Paul) and sends off his less than perfect (in his opinion) daughter (Pheobe, she has Down Syndrome) off with the nurse (Caroline) while his wife is still passed out from the gas they gave delivering mothers back in the '60s (ummm... What happened to that gas).  When Nora wakes up David tells his wife that their daughter was born dead and that he had sent her little body with the nurse to dispose of.  This starts a downward spiral in to a life of depression for Nora.  She loves Paul with all her heart but she always has a missing part of her soul for her daughter that she never even got to see.  Mean while David is living with this horrible secret that his daughter is alive and well and living with Caroline somewhere out there in the world.  

The story hops back and forth from one Characters point of view to another and I really enjoyed getting into all the characters heads.  Except for Nora's; I was so annoyed with Nora's life, I know I was supposed to feel sorry for her because she was unaware that her daughter was out there somewhere and she was struggling with an unhappy marriage and depression, but I got really tired of her depression, and her "whoa as me" attitude.  I enjoyed the chapters about Pheobe and Caroline the best.  I have always had a soft place in my heart for people with Down Syndrome and they depicted Pheobe perfectly with a big heart and an sweet and inquisitive personality, I just instantly fell in love with her.  Also, I loved that the book took place in Kentucky between Lexington and Louisville.  There are so few books that take place here in Kentucky so when one does I LOVE it because I can picture the people and the places they live so vividly!  I was listening to the book not reading it and it felt like it took me 27 years (the span on the book) to listen to it.  It was LONG in other words.  Even though I enjoyed it I was SOOOOOO ready for it to be over by the end.  In a nut shell it was well written, and a good book to discuss so if you are in a book club you should probably suggest this as your next read!

BOOK vs. MOVIE:  Lifetime made this a TV movie back in 2008 and I am sure it is a tear jerker because most Lifetime movies are.  I haven't seen it but I think I might search it out.  I would love to see how it compares.  I hope it doesn't feel as long as the book felt.

RATING:  3 stars

3 More reviews on The Memory Keepers Daughter:

Sophisticated Dorkiness 

Adventures in Reading 

Shelf Love  

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

ISBN 1428125558

14 Discs (16 hours 15 minutes)

Narrated by Martha Plimpton

Lolita

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Oh Vladimir Nabokov you dirty, dirty, witty, genius you.  You had me laughing, you had me gagging, you had me hanging on your every lushes word with your masterpiece Lolita.  I was told that Lolita was a must read and so it went on my list of books to be read in 2010.  I have to admit that when I first realized what the story was about I was pretty much repulsed.  I was listening to the audio book and I almost shut it off but something (probably a perverse curiosity of where the story could possibly be going or the narrators witty and poetic dialogue) kept me from hitting the eject button on the CD player.  I couldn't believe that the content in the book was actually published in the mid 1950s, as it is scandalous even by todays standards!!  With vocabulary that one might encounter in a Harlequin Romance or a dirty movie, you can be sure that I blushed every now and then.  But despite the off colored subject matter I can't say enough how beautiful the words in this book are.  I LOVED the contrast between the ugly story and the beautiful writing.

Lolita is narrated by Humbert Humbert, a European literary scholar that when you first meet him is in prison.  The story that he tells is actually his written statement to the jury that will be used in his trial, where he is being accused for murder and statutory rape.  His statement takes you through his young years when he was 13 years old and living in Europe.  That summer he meets a beautiful girl named Annabelle and he falls in love and enters into a young love affair that starts to become physical as some young relationships do.   But right before Annabelle and Humbert Humbert consummate their young relationship, summer ends and then Annabelle tragically dies.  This affects H.H. so badly that he becomes obsessed with 13 year old girls to replace the feeling he had with his dear Annabelle.  Obviously this starts to become quite a nasty little obsession as he gets older and older.  Soon he moves to the US and struggles with his attraction to young girls (nymphets as he calls them), he finds himself in and out of psychiatric facilities and eventually he finds himself in a small little town and boarding with a single woman Charlotte and her dangerously prepubescent daughter Doloris (Lolita) Haze.  H.H marries Doloris's mother all the while lusting heavily for this 13 year old girl.  When Charlotte dies H.H. jumps at the chance to become Lolita's "Daddy" and he pretty much detains her in his car as he travels around the country for a year with this little girl carrying on an illicit love affair.  Surprisingly precocious Lolita is well versed in physical relationships (some encounters at summer camp) and she becomes a somewhat willing party in this "romance".  Eventually Lolita leaves H.H. and he goes a little insane.

Before you write this book off as Classic Smut I have to say that the writing is superb and as I mentioned earlier the witty dialogue had me riveted despite the content.  I would absolutely recommend this book to certain people (I understand that this isn't everybody's cup 'o tea.)

BOOK vs. MOVIE: This book as been adapted to film twice once in 1962, then again in 1997.  And as shocking as it that the book was written and published in the 1950s I am equally astounded that they made the film version in the 1960s!!!!  I haven't seen either film adaption but I have put them on my "to see" list.  I would like to see both versions so I can compare the different time eras and how they tackle this sensitive subject.

RATING: 4 Stars

3 More Reviews of Lolita:

• The Kea 
• Books for Breakfast, Drinks for Dinner
• Ahab's Quest

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov {Audio Book}

ISBN: 9780739322062

10 Discs {11 hours 32 minutes}

If you liked this book I really don't know what to recommend.