2nd Reading Response

I am still reading, The Memory Keepers Daughter, but now I am almost finished with the book.

In the lives of Norah, her husband, and her son, everything is coming unraveled. Norah's Son Paul is a teenager now, and becoming ever more distant to his mother and father. Not without reason is he becoming distant though. Paul's father is obsessed with his work at the hospital and his photography, and Paul's mother is bitter and harboring the secret of an affair. Paul and his father both know Norah had an affair over their vacation. but no one speaks of it. Meanwhile, Caroline the nurse that took Phoebe, Paul's twin that was abandoned at birth, is working to steadily, but slowly teach Phoebe basic life skills. In this era of the 1970's Down syndrome is not commonly accepted.

The author of The Memory Keepers Daughter writes this book in pattern which each chapter switches the point of view. So far there has been four different point of views; Norah, Paul, Caroline, and David. I love this style of writing because you get so many different views on the story being told.

A line that I really connected with was, “Here, this did not matter. Only the dream mattered..."

The reason I loved and connected with this line, from Norah's point of view, was because I have been in countless situations where I knew I was doing something not acceptable but what mattered was the moment I was in. Norah was speaking of the moments where she was with the man she has an affair with. I never have done anything this extreme, but in moments like disobeying my mom to go to an event or friends, I did something I really enjoyed even though I knew my mom would be disappointed in me.

I decided to post this photo because Norah’s affair happened at a beach house, by the ocean.

The scenes described by Norah about her affair were very vivid, and I could feel the emotion she had when I read it.

Beginning of Narrative

The Story Of My Leaving

A jittering excitement climbed throughout my body as the clock turned over to midnight. I waited contained by my third floor apartment for my best friend Journey, to arrive and carry me away to an escape dripping anticipation. My suitcase lay awkwardly on my unmade bed as I snapped photographs of my bedroom and myself. I wore a particular outfit that I would never imagine I would be forbidden, by my own heart, to wear; simple shorts and a short sleeve T-shirt. I quickly sent the photographs of myself smiling in easy happiness, to my boyfriend Moustafa, faraway in Egypt. As I waited till 1am, I sipped on coffee, loving the caffeine banging through my heart adding to my thrill. This was the summer of 2011 that would change my life till it was stripped bare of nothing and built into something utterly different.

Reading Respones 1

I was reading a book titled A Suitable Boy. In the pages I read I could figure out that the book was set in India in 1950's. The characters that I was introduced to were a girl that was 19, that was attending her sister’s wedding. Her mother, niece, best friend, and brother-in-law were also introduced in the first few pages. The activity taking place was the 19 year old girl was talking with different people at her sister’s wedding.

I had a special connection with this scene in this book. I have a good friend from Pakistan that got married this past summer. Pakistan culture is much like in India and my friend; Sumiya's wedding was a perfect reflection of the wedding in this book. But only Sumiya was the bride and the point of view in A Suitable Boy was the brides' sister. After reading this I had a mixed emotion of bitter sweetness because it reminded me of Sumiya and me miss her, but I am so happy for her getting married.

Although I really enjoyed reading the beginning of A Suitable Boy, I would not

Recommend this book to everyone. It was a book that you have to be interested in the culture of India. I stopped reading this book after I read the first chapter because it just did not put me in like I want a book to. It was also a very large book and I found myself not curious about what might happen.

Since this book I was started reading The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. I have already read around four chapters out of this book. I love the descriptions and it is absolutely mesmerizing. The connection the author makes with human emotion is rich and satisfying.

 The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a story of a baby girl that was cast out of a family because of her disease, Down syndrome. David, a doctor, and Norah, a pregnant house-wife, is a typical married couple in the 1960’s. Till the night of Norah’s birth to her two twin babies. Norah, David, and Nurse Caroline’s lives are transformed to never be the same.