The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Tessa: Secrets. Every single one of us has one. Whether we like it or not it occupies a
small place inside of us that keeps us alone and separated from the world as though a
film exists between you and those closest to you. It's what makes us unknowable. Kim
Edwards in her debut novel The Memory Keeper's Daughter explores how a secret
insidiously weaves its way through the heart of a young family and how a generation
later it continues to shape the relationships affected by it.

In 1964 Dr. David Henry and his wife Nora make their way through a snowstorm to the
hospital as Nora's contractions come faster and faster. Unable to make it to the
hospital Dr. Henry, an orthopedic surgeon, delivers the children himself. The first
child, Paul is a healthy boy, The unexpected second child, Phoebe, is mongoloid. In a
split second decision that will irrevocably change the course of his and his family's
life he asks the attending nurse, Caroline Gill, who is in love with him, to take the
child to a home. She takes the child to the home and horrified by what she sees she
takes the child to another city and raises Phoebe as her own.

The fact that Dr. Henry sends his child to a home would not have been an uncommon
decision in 1964 and ultimately he believes he is acting out of love for his wife.
What he doesn't realize is that the lie that is created grows between them until
ultimtately their relationship falls apart many years later. From the moment the
children are born the lie and everything that is never said between them grows into
palpable silence and isolation. And still he cannot bring himself to tell her because
as the years pass the nature of his crime weaves itself into the very fabric of his
life and his relationships with his son and Nora. Their house is large, affluent and
empty.

The parallel story follows Caroline Gill and Phoebe's life as she struggles to find a
her place as a single mother with a challenged child in a brand new city. That we see
Phoebe grow up as a delightful young woman who's mother has fought tooth and nail to
allow her the opportunities of any child, makes it even more poignant because what we
see here is the fabric of a rich life. One full of challenges absolutely but
definitely rich.

This is, of course, not only what Nora Henry has been robbed of but what David Henry
and his son are robbed of as well. The Memory' Keepers Daughter is an auspicious
beginning for this debut novelist. Kim Edwards skillfully weaves the insidious nature
of this secret throughout her narrative without ever making the reader want to
abandon or dislike the characters. Dr. Henry makes a bad choice but her skill as a
storyteller allows us to see him as he is; a flawed man but also a good man.
Again, this is a great read. It's a tearjerker that makes you think as well as feel.

My Sister's Keeper and The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Tessa: I recently finished reading My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult and The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. Both of these books are coincidentally New York Times Bestseller's and both of them are tearjerkers. So if you're looking to give gifts this Christmas that are guarenteed to reduce friends and family members to tears then be sure to pick up a copy of either of these two and that should do the trick.

I'll start with My Sister's Keeper. Although Jodi Picoult has written several novels, I had never actually heard of her but a friend lent it to me urging me to read it so we could discuss it afterwards. Admittedly I had a hard time putting this book down. The story is about two sisters Anna and Kate. At the age of two Kate is diagnosed with leukemia. Through preimplantation genetic diagnosis Anna is conceived as a perfect bone marrow match for her sister and until the age of thirteen unquestioningly allows herself to be subjected to countless transfusions, surgeries and shots. But by thirteen Anna begins to question the trauma of these endless rounds of hospital procedures. When Anna's parents offer her kidney for transplant to Kate Anna initiates legal action against her parents for medical guardianship over her own body. It's clear that although a hospital would never compromise a healthy child to save a dying child, Anna's permission is never asked. Her parents take it for granted that she will subject herself to procedure after procedure for Kate.

At the heart of this narrative is the issue of medical technology and this is a topic that Picoult navigates her way around very well. Having been a parent of a very sick child she is able to draw the reader into the emotionally charged and tortured journey that families of very sick children are forced to make. The choices clearly aren't easy and when Anna's mother pushes the envelope in favour of her dying daughter she at times appears monstrously one-sided and blind to Anna's needs as a human being. In the end Anna was conceived as a donor to save her sister's life. What her mother neglects to understand is that her daughter is a human being first.

The premise of this story is timely, as the long term implications of stem cell research unfolds in the American political arena. But like all issues, we as a society, are increasingly blindsided by ethical implications of medical technology. This book certainly has its weaknesses, namely the uneven and sometimes ludicrous characterizations of Campbell Anna's lawyer, and the fact that Anna and Kate's mother after years of being a stay at home mom returns to court to handle her own case against her daughter. Perhaps this is done to add levity to an emotionally charged topic that stands at the centre of this narrative. Overall, however, this is a riveting book that is sure to generate debate and yes, tears.

Next book review: The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Suite Francaise

Tessa: I recently finished reading Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky on the recommendation of a friend who had called the book one of the most 'humane stories' she had ever read. I enjoy reading war stories (my favourite book is The Things They Carried and so looked forward to this one which takes place in France in 1941 when the Germans occupied Paris. I was initially surprised at my friend's enthusiasm for the book because the story takes a candid look at French society from the highest to the lowest classes and ruthlessly pillories each and every one of them. Leaving no stone unturned Nemirovsky clearly has no sympathy for the French or the fate that awaited them during the war. I'm glad I stayed with the story because it's in the second half of the book as well as in the Appendices that the full emotional import of what the author documents bears fruit.

The fact that the author, a Russian Jew, is in France during the occupation at the time this story was written and later perished in a concentration camp makes this story even more poignant. Suite Francaise was never published until now, sixty five years later when her surviving daughter discovered a suitcase she assumed was her mother's journals was in fact this novel.

Suite Francaise brilliantly creates an authentic tableau of French society and the impact of the German occupation during this period. What she reveals in its telling isn't very pretty. With clinical precision she unpeels the layers of civility to reveal what people are truly made of when confronted with horrific and often life and death circumstances. The characters she portrays come from all walks of French life from urban upper middle classes, to farmers, aristocrats and villagers. While some of the characters disappear early in the book the story truly hits its stride when we're introduced to Lucille a young, beautiful, married French woman who ultimately falls in love with the German soldier billeted in her mother-in-law's home.

It is against the backdrop of the German occupation of this small village that Lucille and Bruno's love for each other unfolds. Here we see a parallel relationship between the French and their German occupiers and Lucille and her German officer. During their three month stay the initial shock and shame of having foreigners in their homes and village dissipates as familiarity creates a skein of normality that allows day to day life more or less to continue. When the immediate pressures of war fall away, friendship and in the case of Lucille and Bruno, love blossoms.

Love like war is chaotic and has no rules. It's only when a French farmer kills a German soldier that the reality of the occupation re-asserts itself and both Lucille and the villagers find themselves once again at odds with their occupiers. In the end, love like water can't be contained but in dangerous times it poses a real threat. Nemirovsky's real skill here shows not only how war, class, jealousy and other malignancies keep people from love but also what brings them to love in spite of all these obstacles. Therein lies the humanity in this book.

What I also found interesting was Nemirovsky's depiction of French class structure and how it invited complicity when the war came. When the Germans occupied the small village the aristocrats, notorious for hoarding and unwilling to sell food to the starving villagers, began to assume a comfort level with the German soldiers. In the end they knew that these foreigners would protect their interests.

This book is brilliant in its detail and evocation of everyday life under the German occupation and shows yet another sorry time in our contemporary history. It's a great read.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Tessa: I usually buy books through one of three methods; a book review, a recommendation from a friend who has reasonable book taste or by browsing in the bookstore and reading one or two pages from random books.

I recently picked up Jonathan Saffran Foer's Jonathan Saffran Foer's recently published book Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close on the recommendation of a friend. I read the book quickly and overall quite enjoyed it. The story is set in post 9/11 New York and follows a year in the life of Oskar Schell, a precocious nine year old, who embarks on a journey to find the lock that matches a key that belonged to his father who died in the World Trade Center. The book transitions between the sometimes hilarious journey Oskar takes in the wake of this horrific tragedy and the journey his grandmother and grandfather took over 60 years ago as survivors who lost everything in the firebombing of Dresden. And while the transition between these two stories is sometimes confusing the parallels between Oskar and his grandparents is apt. War takes a heavy toll on those who are left to carry on. The price that is paid is both personal and political. As Oskar, his grandmother and grandfather struggle to come to terms with each other and their loss, a zeitgeist of violence, pain, healing and revenge is created on different levels. Although Oskar's journey ends in coming to terms with his father's loss, the looming issue of war is increasingly the cornerstone of all of our realities. In the end the reason I liked this novel as much as I did was because it brought home the reality of loss. War no longer feels so far away. It's not an artifact of history or of another place. Jonathan Foer lets us know that war is on our turf.