Kim Edward’s The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

From Amazon, “Edwards’s assured but schematic debut novel (after her collection, The Secrets of a Fire King) hinges on the birth of fraternal twins, a healthy boy and a girl with Down syndrome, resulting in the father’s disavowal of his newborn daughter. A snowstorm immobilizes Lexington, Ky., in 1964, and when young Norah Henry goes into labor, her husband, orthopedic surgeon Dr. David Henry, must deliver their babies himself, aided only by a nurse. Seeing his daughter’s handicap, he instructs the nurse, Caroline Gill, to take her to a home and later tells Norah, who was drugged during labor, that their son Paul’s twin died at birth.”

 Edwards uses beautiful language, but the whole time I was eager for the book to end. It dragged along the whole last half, and you had to wonder when something was going to finally happen to change the plot, or heighten suspense. Basically, it was boring, and I don’t know how it received the rave reviews that I’ve read. Very disappointing.