The Memory Keeper's Daughter

That is what I'm thinking, though I still have two hours left of the recording. This is not a bad story - it just tends to go on and on and on with details that don't add anything to the characters or to the story.

The narrator is not one of the best that you'll ever listen to. There seems to be "chic-lit" style of narrator for these types of books and they have a tendency to make each sentence sound like a question. It can be a bit annoying at times.

This novel has a good concept, a good beginning, and a good ending, and that was almost enough. The first half was good, tight, and interesting. Then it got bogged down with fill material until the last two chapters. It would have been a better (and shorter) novel without the mostly meaningless fill of events and characters that did not really matter. On the plus side, the story is worthy of Greek tragedy and the ending was subtle yet powerful. At a few points the writing is brilliant. Non sequiturs and mistakes in details really bug me, better editing would have helped in this department. Nevertheless I would, with reservations, recommend this book – it did end up being worth the listen.

I had heard good things about this book and was disappointed. The main characters are not likeable; they are self absorbed and don't relate well to each other....hard to believe they truly loved each other at the beginning of the book. The nurse character is more interesting but takes a back seat to the doctor and his wife.

The book is repetitive, plays on one's heartstrings. I found the plot implausible. Each character sounds the same, "Oh, it's so beautiful" is a repeated phrase and "beautiful" is the author's favorite word. I found it boring, although I couldn't stop listening to it because I wanted to find out how it ended.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the narrator's performance. Each scene of the characters' lives presented with such clarity, detail and emotion that the reader is left with a sense that they experienced it themselves and are now looking at a photograph from that time.

I had read the reviews of this book and would not have gotten it except for the fact that my book club is reading it. That is the only thing that got me through it. What tripe! I didn't like any of the characters or identify with them; they were unbelievable to me. Someone compared it The Secret Life of Bees which was an excellent book, unlike this ridiculous "women's magazine" short story turned into a novel. Spend your credit elsewhere. No stars if that were possible.

I finished this audiobook. Kept hoping something would happen. Nothing ever did. Very long. Try the abridged version.

Everyone I knew who read this book loved it. I can't say I hated it, but it is definitely one I could have survuved without. Each of the members of this primary family (husband, wife, son) are terribly unhappy and unconnected. Even the secondary family (nurse who stole the baby, the man she ultimately marries, and the baby grown up) seems a bit disconnected but they are better than the other.

The detail brought forth in each of their lives adds nothing to sum it up in the end. In real life it happens that way a lot, as we don't understand the big picture of our lives. But in fiction, I hope to see a little more relevance brought in.

The narrator did well. As someone else mentioned, this would have been better in short snippets in a women's magazine serial. Together, it was long, drawn out and almost boring.

Excellent story. It was so moving, perhaps because it is personal to me as an adoptee. This is one of my favorite books. I love the voice of the narrator, and I felt as if I knew the characters personally.

This was my first fiction download and must say that I am throughly dissapointed. I only purchased this book because it was listed as the best seller in the New Times Book list for 32 weeks. The story is long and boring with no clear direction. The dragging length of the drama takes away from the pitiful situation of the twin's medical contidion and makes the reader flip several chapters to want to know "well what really happens in the end."

I did not have the stamina to hear till the end and I feel that even if one reads the one paragraph review, one would get a good idea of the story as there is no content within the pages.
I assure you, you would come out very depressed and frustrated mid-way. So please beware.