»The Memory-Keeper's Daughter

Kim Edwards has written an eminently readable novel about the very ordinary strife of a family: The Memory Keeper's Daughter">The Memory Keeper's Daughter. A family slowly unravels after the birth of twins, their only children, one of whom the father hides from the mother: the child had Down's Syndrome, and the father feared that it would not be part of the picture-perfect family life he envisioned. He had this image of a Norman Rockwell small-town existence after moving away from his dirt-poor West Virginia family and eventually becoming a successful, educated member of his community in Kentucky. His family was itself ruptured by the death of his sister, who also had a terminal congenital disease.
The characters in this book are plain, even as they dissemble and act covertly. They grow gradually, and we can see the shadows cross their hearts well in advance. Still, Edwards's lucid writing makes each of the characters sad, at times blameless: the reader can see their motives, alternatively selfish and selfless, and understand why they act as they do, even if we do not condone the actions.
Part of the novel is set in Pittsburgh, and features the magnificent view from the Fort Pitt Bridge (why don't I have a picture like that?!?!). And it features quiet Regent Square.

Uncomplicated by heavy metaphor (beestings aside!), but with rather more foreshadowing than I found comfortable, this book entertained me. The difficult decisions that the characters made are the sort that we might each face as we grow, and right or wrong can be very tricky to gauge. And the decision that is wrong now might well be right five years in the future.