Novel #22 - The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
"Her voice, high and clear, moved through the leaves, through the sunlight. It splashed onto the gravel, the grass. He imagined the notes falling into the air like stones falling into water, rippling the invisible surface of the world. Waves of sound, waves of light: his father had tried to pin everything down, but the world was fluid and could not be contained."
In the midst of a blizzard, Dr. David Henry was forced to deliver his own twins. A healthy boy came out first, but the baby girl, Dr. Henry realized, had Down Syndrome. He asked his nurse, Caroline, to take the baby girl to an institution, instead she ran away with the baby and raised it as her own. Then he told his wife Norah that the baby girl had died during childbirth. The lie caused the Henry's marriage to fall apart and they later on divorced. Dr. Henry became a photographer, recording memories of his son for the future, at the same time keeping in his darkroom Phoebe's pictures and Caroline's letters. Phoebe, despite her condition, grew up to be a healthy young woman. She and Paul both were interested in music. When Dr. Henry died, Caroline went to see Norah to tell her that Phoebe was alive, loved and cared for. Norah and Paul went to meet Phoebe, her daughter and his sister. Paul took Phoebe to their father's grave.
i read that there's going to be a movie based on this novel. in hollywood, nothing's sacred, everything has to be made into a movie, or remake an old movie.
-o0o-
okay, so i am addicted to the mirror framing i have to double it up. i found this little house in a quiet semi-upscale neighbourhood. this is the most beautiful garden i've ever seen. i think i took about 70 pictures of the garden. i also think that the person living there and maintaining it would be in the business of landscaping/gardening. it was so beautiful all the other gardens i've seen and admired now look like second rates.
and thank heavens 365 is back up again! i wouldn't have been able to sleep if it didn't!
funny, i picked this book up in the second hand book shop last week and didn't end up buying it! They wanted $14! outrageous!
I will read it tho' for sure. great shot of this lovely cottage!
I have not read the book, but did see the movie -- and it was well done. Compelling story of how the lie destroyed his marriage, his life.....and how the sweet girl brought so much love and joy to her adopted parents, and then eventually love and healing to her own brother and mother! The picture is perfect -- makes me think of the sweet home the daughter grew up in. Framing is the perfect effect for the story -- kind of emphasizes the ripples that lies cause.....!
@cscecil - wow! CS that is some prose you waxed in there, i feel so inadequate and i call myself a writer :-) now i might want to see the movie. so the movie's been made and shown. how long ago was that? i got to get the DVD then. thank you, CS!
@summerfield Yes -- can you tell (talky, talky, talky!!!) -- ! Weird stuff -- I think it's allergies that just wipe me out most of the day -- then late afternoon I start feeling like myself again. I've never had allergies of any sort before and am not enjoying this! I just want to be well!
@summerfield i know, the local 2nd hand bookshop is a ripoff and I donated a big box of books to them!
lovely long weekend in Sydney, very tired now, need another holiday! lol
@cscecil - aww, come on, CS. i'm blushing here! but thank you. 2008? wow, how time flies! i think i just read a while ago it's being made into a movie. this time travelling is confusing me so. :-)
@cscecil - i remember the scene in the book when Norah and Paul came to see Phoebe towards the end of the novel. this angle seems the perfect angle from which they were looking before Caroline, who was tending the garden, saw them, and Phoebe came out to the patio. brilliant! i knew i chose this shot for a reason! :-)
the saddest thing of all is that some parents would still rather not raise a child with special needs and abilities; the photo hints at secrets and of things about the house that are hidden by the foliage...great way of capturing the essence of the book
September 18th, 2011
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I will read it tho' for sure. great shot of this lovely cottage!
how's your long weekend? good thing you came back just in time. 365 was down for a few hours.
lovely long weekend in Sydney, very tired now, need another holiday! lol
@cscecil - amen!