Austin Area Reading Circle
Reader's Guide
June 2008
The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Kim Edwards
Edwards's assured but schematic debut novel...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...
- The central act in the story is the action by David to give his daughter away at birth. How did that play out in the lives of each of the main characters in the novel, i.e. David, Norah, Paul, Caroline, Al?
- Each of the characters, at one point or another, expresses the realization that he/she is living outside of self. What caused that experience? Have you ever found yourself in this same place?
- What role does Bree play in the story? Have you ever had a such a person in your life?
- How did the wasps bring change to Norah?
- Rosemary becomes the confidant for David. How did that change both of their lives?
- Can you imagine a time and circumstance in which you would choose to shield someone from the truth and make that lie a universal truth?
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