Book Review: Memory Keeper's Daughter - Two Stars

Although I missed my monthly book club last week when I was in Cabo I still diligently finished the March selection, Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. Let me begin by saying that I was really looking forward to reading this book, so many people I knew had read it and raved about it, so I suppose, as is the case with most things with me that I put expectations upon this book that were much higher than this poor little novel could ever live up to, and the overall result was that I was not very impressed with this selection.
For those of you that have not yet read the book, here's the story in a nutshell, mid 1960s Louisville, Kentucky, when a newly married couple is expecting a baby. Norah, the wife, goes into labor a little early in the middle of a snowstorm and as a result her doctor husband and a lone nurse are left to deliver her baby. They deliver a healthy baby boy and then while Norah is still out of it, they also deliver a second baby girl with Down's syndrome, the doctor, deciding that they couldn't handle this grief due to his past with a sickly sister, asks the nurse to take the girl to a nearby institution. The nurse a single woman in her 30s and slightly in love with the doctor cannot comply and instead leaves town with the baby to start a new life.
As you can imagine the secret that the doctor lives with is a heavy strain on him, his marriage and his relationship with his son, the remainder of the novel follows the family, detailing what this decision does to their lives as well as following Caroline the nurse and her life raising the doctor's daughter and how it shapes her future for the better. The story is highly readable and enjoyable enough, my complaint though is that this is such an obvious plot, and the neatly wrapped up ending is also a bit to trite. While the concept of the progression of a lifetime of events set in motion by a single act is a very intriguing plot technique, it just falls flat in this book as nothing highly original or telling is developed from the story in this case. Overall, I'd recommend as a read but only after you've exhausted all the 'must-reads' from your bookshelf.