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The Memory Keepers Daughter
Has anyone read that book? I am having trouble understanding the main theme. If someone could sumarize it for me I would be eternally grateful. Mainly just explain the ending.
Thank You!
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Here's what I found:
David Henry didn't have an easy childhood, growing up in the 1950s. His sister had a heart condition that made her sickly and eventually killed her. His family, already poor and struggling, fell apart. David wanted to make a difference in the world as well as getting out of poverty, so he worked his way through school to eventually become a doctor.
David is deeply in love, almost obsessed, with his wife. When she goes into labor on a snowy evening, he finds himself in a horrible situation--he, an orthopedic surgeon, will have to deliver the baby with only a single nurse to help. All goes smoothly, though, and he safely delivers a perfect baby boy. What he didn't expect, though, was the baby girl that followed. When he delivers her he recognizes the obvious signs of Down Syndrome, and he thinks about how his own sister's condition tragically affected his parents. In an effort to protect his wife from pain as this child grows older and possibly has severe health problems, he gives her to the nurse with instructions to put the baby in an institution, a common practice at the time. He tells his wife the baby died at birth.
What David didn't predict was his wife's continued preoccupation with the dead baby. She can't seem to forget her daughter, as he expected she would. Whenever she brings it up he feels guilty and angry, which ends up driving a wedge between the two of them. They can't solve the problems in their marriage because David can't tell her this secret which is the root of everything wrong with them. As their son grows up, things get worse and worse.
Meanwhile, the nurse present at the birth can't bear to put the little girl into an institution. Instead she moves to a new city and raises the child as her own, fighting to get her opportunities and experiences not readily available for a Down Syndrome child in the 1970s.
If you need more summerization (sp?) go to this website-
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
and scroll down, there are 295 reviews on this book and a lot of the reviews have a summerization.
Good luck!
-volleyball2150
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