Edwards navigates the right and wrong in lying
By: Joan Ruddiman
"What a tangled web we weave, when first we do deceive."
That was one of my mother’s lines, as she was ever vigilant against lies, from the little white ones to the bigger, darker ones. Her voice with these words was much in my head as I read the best seller, "The Memory Keeper’s Daughter" (Penguin Books, 2005).
Is it possible to do the wrong thing for seemingly right reasons? A man who strives to be truly good in his life as a husband, as a doctor makes a decision to abandon an imperfect infant who he believes will die young in order to spare his young wife heartache. Is he heartless or too much in love?
"The Memory Keeper’s Daughter" opens with the line, "The snow started to fall several hours before her labor began." Meticulous plans are thwarted when a freak snowstorm in Lexington, Kentucky prevents David and Norah Henry from getting to the hospital in time in meet Norah’s doctor. So Dr. Henry makes the decision to stop at his medical clinic where he calls his nurse, Caroline, to come help him with his wife’s delivery.
"For a girl, Phoebe. And for a boy, Paul…," Norah says as the nurse soothes her in the minutes before the delivery. Caroline agrees, "Those are good names."
Baby Paul is perfect in all ways. But then it is apparent that Norah is having twins. When David sees the infant girl, he recognizes the signs of Down syndrome. With only thoughts of Norah, David instructs Caroline to give his wife more gas so she is rendered senseless. David then hands the baby girl to Caroline with directions to an institution where Caroline is to leave her.
In the darkness of that snowy night, David tells Norah that the infant died at birth. Caroline, appalled by the institution, decides to make a new life for herself and the baby she calls Phoebe.
And so the first strands are spun of what will become a complex web of lies.
Kim Edwards says she heard a version of this sad tale years ago from her pastor, but ignored the suggestion that it would make a good book. Her short story collection "The Secrets of a Fire King: Stories" (W.W. Norton and Company, 1997) had just been published and Ms. Edwards relates that she did not see herself writing a novel.
"The Secrets of a Fire King" won several major awards including the Whiting and the Nelson Algren. Praised as a remarkable first effort, the 11-story collection demonstrates elements of Edwards-the-novelist. Set in places all over the world, with women of all ages and some unlikely experiences, the stories are connected by Ms. Edwards’ examination of how love allows women to survive.
Ms. Edwards is a graduate of the prestigious Iowa Writer’s Workshop and is now a professor of English at the University of Kentucky. Over the years, the story of the abandoned twin stayed with her. When she finally began the book, she says that the first chapter "came swiftly, almost fully formed, that initial seed having grown tall while I wasn’t really paying attention."
Then, citing Katherine Anne Porter, "…it’s not the event itself that’s interesting, but rather the ripples the event creates in the lives of characters." She continues, "Once I’d written the first chapter, I wanted to find out more about who these people were and what happened to them as a consequence of David’s decision; I couldn’t stop until I knew."
Those critical decisions in the first chapter do draw the reader into the story. But the reader shares the author’s need to know what happens to these people and readily follows the storyteller to the end of the tale.
In a heartbeat, David makes a decision to give away his child. In an equally spontaneous moment, Caroline walks away with a baby in her arms. These decisions are grounded in the desire to do something good to spare Norah terrible sadness and baby Phoebe a horrible existence.
But David and Caroline, as the reader comes to discover, have other motives operating in those split second decisions. Caroline spends a lifetime working to face hers. David spends his lifetime behind the lens of a camera "The Memory Keeper" holding tough realities at arms’ length.
Ms. Edwards moves effortlessly between characters’ minds and lives Norah, David, Caroline and across time from the mid-1960s to 1989. David and Norah become increasingly miserable, and neither can figure out why or what to do to make their lives better. Caroline’s life becomes richer and more wonderful as she works to realize the future she wants for herself and Phoebe.
It is ironic that those with what appears to be everything have so little at the core. David, Norah and Paul live lives full of depression and despair. What society would deem a "poor single mom with the retarded daughter" has a life worth living. Though Caroline could be defined by all the factors as a failure, she lives with grace, dignity and great hope. It is interesting to consider, as the story unfolds, how lies told for whatever reason can be rectified. Or not.
Is it possible that good can come from doing the wrong thing for the right reason? Ms. Edwards lets the reader ponder big questions while seeking the answers within the quiet lives of simple people.
Joan Ruddiman, Ed. D., is a teacher and friend of the Allentown Public Library.