The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

Review and Giveaway

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

Fiction, Paperback 401 pgs. (2005)

Penguin Books

A well-meaning physician decides to spare his wife from a life of raising a child with the disabilities and short life expectancy of Down's Syndrome. The child is one of twins she has just given birth to. The other child, a boy, is perfectly healthy. He orders his nurse to take the newborn girl away to an institution and make sure no one ever knows about her. The nurse is torn by his request and does something no one would ever expect. It starts in the late 1950's and follows the couple's life with their son and the doctor's guilt over what he still believes, for heart-breaking reasons of this own, was the right thing to do. We are told in a parallel account what happens in the life of the other child too as she grows up.
I was a child during this same time period and the attitudes and actions toward disabled children rang true for me. Many people did put their children "away" in institutions. And often never spoke of them again. This story, about the difficult decisions we take upon ourselves and the consequences to everyone around us is universal, and emotionally engaging. A good story, that I would read again. It's an impressive first novel and I look forward to Kim Edward's next book. Four stars out of five.

I'm giving a brand new copy of The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards to one of my readers. It's a paperback Penguin with a reader's guide. If you haven't read this one or want a copy to give to someone you know would enjoy it, this is your chance. Entry is open worldwide until midnight Wednesday, October 15, 2008.

1) To enter tell me which book of literary fiction (no genres) is at the top of your wishlist right now and why you want to read it.
2) Blog about this giveaway and put a link back to it and I'll give you a second entry. If you don't have a blog, email 4 friends telling them about this giveaway copying me at sfuhringer(at) sympatico(dot) ca.
3) Click on all three of the charity buttons in my sidebar, then click the button to contribute at each site; OR go to the sites and put the buttons on one of your own blogs, and I'll give you another entry. Be sure the links works and leave a note or a link telling me you did.

Please leave a contact address if you're entering the giveaway and don't have a blog where I can contact you. It's surprising how often people forget to.

Winner will be announced on Thursday October 16, 2008.

Quintet by Douglas Arthur Brown - Review

Quintet by Douglas Arthur Brown

Fiction, paperback 303 pgs.

Key Porter Press (2008)

Three brothers, identical triplets, have come home to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, to bury their parents who've been killed in an accident. They haven't been together in all the years since they left home as young men. They're on the cusp of forty now. They've reunited from Toronto, Halifax, and Copehagen. A carpenter who sings beautifully in church choirs but has no interest in religion, Cameron has a blind daughter and a wife now living separately. He has a great deal of guilt about his daughter, Mary Anne, wondering if drugs he took when he was young might be responsible for her blindness. Rory is an artist who exhibits his paintings in art galleries in Toronto. He experiences synesthesia, he hears colours, and his work is dominated by red. He's married to a doctor fifteen years his senior whom he adores. Adrian runs a haute cuisine restaurant in Copenhagen with his male partner who is seriously ill. Each of the three brothers has no idea what's going on in the others lives, they haven't kept in touch. They miss each other but are harbouring negative feelings toward each other and their parents, as most siblings do. But they all agree in their resentment of their older brother, "the Big B", who has stayed near his parents and has secrets of his own.

The story of their lives for the past twenty years is told in the form of a journal that each triplet keeps for four months then mails to one of the others. This form works very well, no sudden time shifts or confusion about which of them is telling their story in each chapter. Written in simple, not flowery language, as one brother opens up a little so do the others in what they tell about their loves, losses and triumphs. Their individual expression of themselves nicely dispels the myth of identical character so often presumed about multiple birth children too. Over time, they become more reflective and honest about their lives as children and the feelings that led to their ending up so far apart, at least in distance. They are clearly still deeply attached emotionally. Strong feelings emerge, a few raw emotions are revealed, but there is humour too. It's set in Canada and we get to travel through their eyes in Canada and Europe. And we are privileged to watch them come together in their journal accounts and rebuild a brotherhood of trust and love. I enjoyed their story. Four stars out of five.

This is Douglas Arthur Brown's second novel. His first was A Deadly Harvest.
He has also published a collection of short fiction, The Kimodo Dragon and Other Stories.

Douglas Arthur Brown's homepage
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/douglasarthurbrown/

Key Porter Press
http://www.keyporter.com/BookDetail.aspx?ISBN=1552639975

Thank you to Mini Book Expo and Key Porter Books for providing me with a review copy.

BOOK GIVEAWAY

I'm giving away my gently read paperback copy of Quintet by Douglas Arthur Brown. This is not an Advance Reading Copy, but a true copy.
Entry is open worldwide until midnight Wednesday,September 10.

Tell me you want Quintet and

1) Comment on any other book mentioned on my blog that you think you might enjoy reading and tell me why for one entry. This includes those in my personal library (shown by LibraryThing).
2) If you blog about this contest and put a link back to it I'll give you two entries.
3) Do both and you'll have three chances to win.

Winner will be announced on Thursday, September 11

Next review: Months and Seasons by Christopher Meeks

Previous review: Schooled by Alisha Lakhani

Ex-Cottagers in Love by J. M. Kearns

Ex-Cottagers In Love by J.M. Kearns

Fiction 380 pgs. Paperback

Key Porter Press (2008)

This is a first novel by an already best-selling author of non-fiction and it is an enjoyable one. Dave Moore, 40, is frustrated by the limits of his job as a paralegal at an L.A. firm and wonders whether his beautiful and insightful new girlfriend will be the end of his dream to write and record music or his best hope for the future. He takes her home to Canada to meet his family who've rented a cottage in the Muskoka region of Ontario. In fact, they spent all their summers in the family cottage that is now sold and everyone regrets the loss, no one more than his 13 year old nephew George and Dave himself who calls the island setting "the place he loved most in the world". Maggie's not an outdoors sort of woman, she doesn't understand their deep attachment to the memories of the old place and things do not go perfectly for the new couple, though Maggie does her best to make friends with everyone.

Back in L.A. he has major decisions to make about his job and his future with Maggie when his father in Canada has a stroke and adds to his worries. Darkly humorous, the story follows both the lighter moments and the sadder ones for Dave, and in a somewhat parallel story, young George and his grandfather back home. The story is more serious than the title first suggested to me and I'm glad of it. I liked these characters and hope that Kearns writes more fiction because he does it well. Four stars out of five. I recommend it.

J. M. Kearns has also written:

Why Mr. Right Can't Find You: The Surprising Answers that Will Change Your Life (January 2008)
Better Love Next Time: How the Relationship that Didn't Last Can Guide You to the One that Will (January 2009)

Key Porter Press
http://www.keyporter.com/BookDetail.aspx?ISBN=1554700000

J.M Kearns Home Page: http://www.jmkearns.com/

Thank you to Key Porter Books and Mini Book Expo for providing me with a review copy.

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