Book Club Discussion Questions
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INTRODUCTION
It is 1964 in Lexington, Kentucky, and a rare and sudden winter storm has blanketed the area with snow. The roads are dangerous, yet Dr. David Henry is determined to get his wife Norah to the hospital in time to deliver their first child. But despite Davids methodical and careful driving, it soon becomes clear that the roads are too treacherous, and he decides to stop at his medical clinic instead. There, with the help of his nurse Caroline, he is able safely to deliver their son, Paul. But unexpectedly, Norah delivers a second child, a girl, Phoebe, in whom David immediately recognizes the signs of Downs Syndrome.
David is a decent but secretive manhe has shared his difficult past with no one, not even his wife. It is a past that includes growing up in a poor, uneducated family and the death of a beloved sister whose heart defect claimed her at the age of twelve. The painful memories of the past and the difficult circumstances of the present intersect to create a crisis, one in which his overriding concern is to spare his beloved Norah what he sees as a life of grief. He hands the baby girl over to Caroline, along with the address of a home to which he wants her taken, not imagining beyond the moment, or anticipating how his actions will serve to destroy the very things he wishes to protect. Then he turns to Norah, telling her, our little daughter died as she was born.
From that moment forward, two families begin their new, and separate, lives. Caroline takes Phoebe to the institution but cannot bear to leave her there. Thirty-one, unmarried, and secretly in love with David, Caroline has been always been a dreamer, waiting for her real life to begin. Now when she makes her own split-second decision to keep and raise Phoebe as her own, she feels as if it finally has.
As Paul grows to adulthood, Norah and David grow more and more distant from each other. Norah, always haunted by the daughter she lost, takes a job that becomes an all-consuming career, and seeks the intimacy that eludes her with her own husband through a series of affairs. Feeling as if hes a disappointment to his father, Paul is angry and finds his only release through music. David, tormented by his secret, looks for solace through the lens of his camera, the Memory Keeper, trying to make sense of his life through the images he captures.
But as The Memory Keepers Daughter so eloquently shows, life is a moving image, unfolding and changing beyond our control. Despite our desire to freeze a moment or to go back into the past and alter events, time presses us forward. With her heart-wrenching yet ultimately hopeful novel, Kim Edwards explores the elusive mysteries of grief and love, and the power of the truth both to shatter and to heal.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- When David hands his baby girl over to Caroline and tells Norah that she has died, what was your immediate emotional reaction? At this early point, did you understand Davids motivations? Did your understanding grow as the novel progressed?
- David describes feeling like an aberration within his own family (p. 7) and describes himself as feeling like an imposter in his professional life as a doctor (p. 8). Discuss Davids psyche, his history, and what led him to make that fateful decision on the night of his childrens birth.
- When David instructs Caroline to take Phoebe to the institution, Caroline could have flatly refused or she could have gone to the authorities. Why doesnt she? Was she right to do what she did and raise Phoebe as her own? Was Caroline morally obligated to tell Norah the truth right from the beginning? Or was her moral obligation simply to take care of Phoebe at whatever cost? Why does she come to Norah after Davids death?
- Though David wanted no part of her, Phoebe goes on to lead a full life, bringing much joy to Caroline and Al. Her story calls into question how we determine what kind of life is worth living. How would you define such a life? In contrast to Phoebes, how would you describe the quality of Pauls life as he grew up?
- Throughout the novel, the characters often describe themselves as feeling as if they are watching their own lives from the outside. For instance, David describes the moment when his wife is going into labor and says he felt strangely as if he himself were suspended in the room . . . watching them both from above (p. 10). What do you think Edwards is trying to convey here? Have you ever experienced similar feelings in your own life?
- There is an obvious connection between David and Caroline, most aptly captured by a particular moment described through Davids point of view: Their eyes met, and it seemed to the doctor that he knew herthat they knew each otherin some profound and certain way (p. 12). What is the significance of this moment for each of them? How would you describe the connection between them? Why do you think David married Norah and not Caroline?
- After Norah has successfully destroyed the wasps nest, Edwards writes that there was something happening in Norahs life, an explosion, some way in which life could never be the same (p. 139). What does she mean, and what is the significance of Norahs fight with these wasps?
- When David meets Rosemary (p. 267) it turns out to be a cathartic experience for him. What is it about her that enables David to finally speak the truth? Why does he feel compelled to take care of her?
- The secret that David keeps is enormous and ultimately terribly destructive to himself and his family. Can you imagine a circumstance when it might be the right choice to shield those closest to you from the truth?
- What do you think Norahs reaction would have been if David had been honest with her from the beginning? How might Norah have responded to the news that she had a daughter with Downs Syndrome? How might each of their lives have been different if David had not handed Phoebe to Caroline that fateful day?
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