The Memory of Water

Customer Reviews

• One of the best I have read this year...  Jul 11, 2008 (8 of 9 found this helpful)

  What a pleasure to read a novel that has it all together - characters that are real and easy to see, a setting that draws you in and wants to keep you there, and a plot that keeps you wondering right up to the last minute. This was not a book I plowed through at breakneck speed. I was savoring it too much - it's one of those ones you really don't want to end. The surprising thing I learned when I completed the book was that Karen White doesn't live anywhere near the water - and she has never sailed! You will swear that she is sitting in an oceanfront cottage writing this story - with her sailboat tied to her dock. Bravo, Karen, for all your research. The rich detail of the characters, home, town and sailing experience, is perfection!
  
  Karen has a wonderful facility for leaving a trail of information that eventually adds up to a plausible conclusion. I love those "Aha!" moments and the pleasant re-thinking one goes through as the pieces fall into place. This is my first Karen White book, so I now have the pleasure of looking forward to reading the others!
  
  

• A Haunting tale  Apr 7, 2008 (7 of 7 found this helpful)

  When I read Karen White's The Memory of Water it was like watching an artist paint, with every word she writes you can actually see the landscape she describes come to life.
  It was a haunting tale of mental illness and about those who survive it and those who don't.
  A bewitching tale of love and loss and love found at last, about the story of sisters and a love that only sisters can share and understand.
  This book is a must read for any of you out there that love great fiction.
  

• strong family drama  Mar 6, 2008 (6 of 7 found this helpful)

  After being away from her hometown for almost a decade, Arizona school teacher Marnie Maitland returns home to McLellanville, South Carolina. She only came back to the Low Country because her former brother-in-law Quinn begged her to help her nine-year-old nephew Gil whom she has never met.
  
  As Marnie and Gil connect and to a lesser degree she with Quinn, her sister Diana resents her intruding in the life of her son and for that matter hers. Marnie realizes her sibling is angry with her and assumes the reason is the boating accident when they were kids that killed their mother while they survived. Whereas Marnie recalls little of that fatal day, Diana has tied the accident to the "Maitland Curse" that has haunted the family for decades.
  
  THE MEMORY OF WATER is a strong family drama due to the four prime players feeling real especially their flawed interrelationships. The story line smoothly changes viewpoint between the quartet so the audience sees different looks at the same event or issue; especially how the sisters interpret their mother's death. With a final plausible yet surprising twist, readers will be LEARNING TO BREATHE while waiting for her next tale.
  
  Harriet Klausner
  
  
  
  

• I Hope I Lose My Memory of This Book  May 14, 2008 (5 of 11 found this helpful)

  Wow! I read the synopsis of the book in the store and though it might be a good bet. The story starts out okay and quickly turns into a soap opera. Could only force myself through the first 100 pages and skimmed the last bit. If anyone out there is reading this book and is unsure of continuing it --- rest assured, you won't miss anything by putting it down. Thankfully, I did so today and am starting Augusten Burrough's newest offering. I am sure it will be great reading.

• Beautiful, moving story!  Apr 2, 2008 (4 of 5 found this helpful)

  I don't know which I enjoyed more: the gorgeous descriptions that Karen White uses to place the reader so vividly in Carolina's Low Country, or the surprising plot twists that make you keep turning those pages! She tells an emotional story using the voices of four different characters, deftly moving between them so that each one adds to the narrative in a unique and moving way. The emotional intensity of the story combined with the beauty of the prose reminded me of "The Prince of Tides" (minus Conroy's over-the-top violence). This is a gripping but lyrical, superbly well-written and enjoyable book.