The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter takes place in the 1960s, when a doctor’s wife gives birth to twins during a snowstorm, in the doctor’s office, with only his nurse there to witness it. The first baby, a boy, is born healthy, but the second baby is born with Down Syndrome, and the wife (sedated with gas, as they did in those days) is told by her husband that the baby died. While the wife was sedated, the doctor handed the baby to the nurse and told her to take the baby to an institution for the feeble-minded, and leave her there. (Remember, this was in the days where they more commonly did such things.) The nurse attempts to do it, but can’t bring herself to leave the precious baby in the depressing home, so she runs off with the baby girl.

That’s only the beginning. The rest of the story deals with the results of that night . . . the guilt of the father, the grief of the mother (whose baby is “buried” without her ever seeing the body), the life of the unmarried nurse raising the baby, and the son who grows up without his twin sister. Lots of dysfunction in this family. They really could have used some family therapy!

I enjoyed the story, although this writer’s style is way too heavy on the descriptions for me. I don’t really need to know what every person smelled like, for example. As for the characters, I liked the storyline of the nurse, but I didn’t care for the family very much, with all their dramatics.

This book is a bestseller, though it’s one of those where some people love it and other people hate it. Give it a try and see what you think. Ultimately, I guess I was glad I slogged through it, though at times it took effort.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, a Hercule Poirot mystery

I have not read Agatha Christie before, so I wanted to see what a mystery by one of the masters of the genre was like. She sets up a good story with a variety of interesting characters, and has a sly, dry sense of humor, poking fun at human nature with sometimes rather comical characters. The mysteries are timeless, though I caught an anti-Semitic statement in there (this was written in the 1920s). The British words and phrases sometimes confounded me, as well as spelling the word “clue” as “clew.”

I tried to figure out “whodunit” on my own, but I guessed wrong. The problem is that we are not privy to all the clues that Christie’s hero, the great detective, Hercule Poirot is. He painstakingly put together all the subtle “clews” that I glossed over, and in his final summary revealed some things that I, the reader, didn’t know, so don’t feel bad if you don’t guess correctly! It’s a fun, quick read that kept me interested. I would like to read more of her books now and then. Maybe I’ll try something starring her heroine, Miss Marple.