The+Memory+Keeper's+Daughter+(Jessie+Hermann)

The Memory Keeper's Daughter Kim Edwards 401 Pages

** Author: ** Kim Edwards is the author of // The Memory Keeper's Daughter. // Kim was born in Texas on May 4th, 1958. She was raised in Skaneateles, New York, and she had three siblings. She graduated from Colgate University and the University of Iowa. While at college, she earned an MFA in fiction. She also received an MA in linguistics. She got married, and they traveled around Asia, teaching. It was in Asia where she began to write her first publications, short fiction. She won the Nelson Algren Award in 1990 for a story she wrote, called "Sky Juice." Since then, her short stories have been published in periodicals and they have won many awards. Edwards has had two of her short stories performed at Symphony Space, and one has been broadcasted in Public Radio International. Edwards has written a short story collection called // The Secrets of a Fire King // as well. Among the awards she has won, Edwards has received a Whiting Writers' Award in 2002, a National Magazine Award for Excellence in Fiction, and the Pushcart Prize. She is a assistant professor at The University of Kentucky, and she has taugh t few MFA programs at Warren Wilson and Washington University. Her book, // The Memory Keeper's Daughte // r, is a #1 // New York Times // Best Seller. This book has been published in many different countries including, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Portugal, Spain, Poland, China, Taiwan, Israel, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. If you would like more information on Kim Edwards, view here: [|Kim Edwards]

Norah and David Henry had a perfect life. It was the winter of 1964, and there was a huge snowstorm, and Norah went into labor. With all of the snow, they couldn't make it to the hospital, so Dr. David Henry delivered his own children, with the help of his Nurse, Caroline, in his own clinic. Two babies were born. Paul, a healthy baby boy, was born first. The baby girl, Phoebe, was born with down syndrome. David quickly made the decision to have Caroline bring the baby to an institution because he knew what having a disabled child was like. His sister had died at a young age due to a disability, and he didn't want to have to live with that grief with his own child. He planned to tell this to his wife. But, as soon as Caroline had left and Norah had woken up a few hours later, he couldn't find it in himself to tell her the truth. He told Norah that the baby had died, and this is what starts all of the tragedies in this compelling novel. While the Henry's life and marriage is falling apart from this one single lie, Caroline is living another life. She had driven to the institution just as Dr. Henry had asked, but as soon as she got there, she left...and she still had Phoebe. She couldn't leave a newborn baby at such a place, and she brought it upon herself to raise Phoebe. She came to love her, and raised her as her own. // The Memory Keeper's Daughter // is about relationships, and how dishonesty can tear a family apart. It is about how secrets can take over a person's life, and it is also about how love and how telling the truth can lead to families being built back up. Norah Henry lives with the loss of her daughter, and she feels as if it is haunting her. She feels lost, and strives for things she can't have, trying to feel fulfillment in her life. David Henry feels his secret haunting him, and he doesn't know how to deal with it. Caroline is always concerned about Phoebe, but she also experiences the best years of her life with Phoebe. She finally gets the life that she wanted, and her goal is to give Phoebe the life she deserves, even though she faces the struggles of her disability and not fitting in. Paul feels hurt by his parents, and deceived by his mother. He has to live with his parents' tenuous relationship. The tangled lives of all these characters create many different feelings for the readers: compassion, love, loss, sympathy, heartbreak, pity, redemption, regret, surprise...To find out what happens, read //The Memory Keeper's Daughter//, by Kim Edwards. This is the film that was made from the book //The Memory Keeper's Daughter//:
 * Plot Synopsis:**

media type="youtube" key="Nq6q_j8QEVE" height="385" width="480" align="center"

**Literary Terms:** GENRE: The genre of // The Memory Keeper's Daughter // is drama. THEME: // The Memory Keeper's Daughter // by Kim Edwards reveals that dishonesty can tear a family apart, but the truth can lead to a family being built back up. One single lie that a character makes changes all of their lives forever. POINT OF VIEW: This book is written in the omniscient third person view. The narrator is not any character, but yet they know everything that is happening, and they know the emotions that the characters feel. The author wrote it like this so that readers can understand the feelings of every character. This style of writing helped me feel the emotions that the characters were feeling. It also helped me look at the story in many different perspectives. It would change between the two family's stories to help inform you of each side of the story. SETTING: The setting is in the winter of 1964. It goes throughout 20 years of Phoebe's and Paul's life. DICTION: The diction in this book is mostly neutral diction. It is fairly common, but she uses rich, figurative language. Overall, the language is very ordinary and not hard to comprehend. TONE: The tone in this book differed a lot. The two different families had different tones associated with them. Whenever Edwards was writing about the Henry's, she created a sad, mourning, and mysterious tone. While reading, you felt lost and distant. Although the tone was somewhat depressing while in the lives of the Henry's, Edwards changes it when you read about Phoebe and Caroline. When you read about Caroline and Phoebe, the tone is very upbeat and optimistic. You always get a sense of positivity when you saw how happy they were together and when you read about Phoebe's accomplishments. Edwards played very well with tone to help create different stories and to enhance the theme. PROTAGONIST/ANTAGONIST: I feel as if the conflict was a person vs. self battle in this book. Everyone fights with themselves about what they think is right or wrong, and if they are making the right decisions.

**Literary Analysis:** **(may be a spoiler for those who have not read the book)** The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards reveals that people will act in unusual ways out of love, which can lead to the destruction or the creation of relationships. Edwards shows this theme through both the tone and the conflict in the story. Throughout the story, Edwards uses the tone to show how the two different families are very different. Whenever the author is writing about the Henry's, she uses a very sad and morose tone to show how the family is falling apart. In one part, while Norah is talking, she says, "It's not only about you," Norah said. "You're hardly home anyway. Maybe it's me who misses her, David. Sometimes, honestly, I feel like she's so close, just in the other room, and I've forgotten her. I know that must sound crazy, but it's true" (116). This just shows how lonely she is and how she feels the loss of her daughter. She is striving to fill the emptiness in her life, but she simply can not. On the other hand, while Edwards writes about Caroline and Phoebe's life, she shows how happy they are and creates a tone that is joyful and cheery. When Phoebe learns to grab on to things for the first time, Caroline shows her joy when Edwards writes, "Caroline touched her own neck too, feeling the quick burn of joy. //Oh yes//, she thought. //Grab it, my darling. Grab the world//," (105). Also, Edwards shows this theme with conflict within the story. Caroline shows this when the author writes "What he had asked of her-that she take his infant daughter away without telling his wife of her birth-seemed unspeakable," (22). This just shows how Caroline felt about the whole situation.

**Criticism:** //The Memory Keeper's Daughter// is definitely a book I would recommend. I would suggest this book to anyone who enjoys reading books with the genre of drama. Also, this would be a good book for anyone who enjoys to read test that has very rich, deep, and figurative language. If I had to rate this book out of 10 starts, I would give it and 8.5. I would give it this rating because although it was a very interesting and wonderfully written book, it moved sort of slowly. It was also really sad, and it didn't have the "happy ending" that I was hoping for, but it still had a message. I really liked the way that Edwards made it so that you could understand the feelings of each character, by writing the book in third-person omniscient point of view. It helped me connect with each person, and get more into the book. Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I would recommend it to anyone who was in the mood for a tear jerker, and a great page-turner! ** If you enjoyed this book, check out some of these novels! (Click on the books to learn more)

**

Also, if you would like more information, check another wiki: Jenny L, The Memory Keeper's Daughter If you would like to learn more about the movie created about this book: [|Movie Information]

 **__Citing Sources:__ The book: //The Memory Keeper's Daughter//, by Kim Edwards Google Images (for all of the images you see) Youtube (for the movie trailer) Thanks to all (people, websites, book) who have helped me create this wiki! **