Daughter's Keeper [Paperback]

Ayelet Waldman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2004

How much would you sacrifice to save someone you love?

When Olivia, wild-haired and headstrong, makes a terrible mistake, she must turn to the person least likely to help--her mother, Elaine. Motherhood was a role that Elaine never embraced and her best never amounted to much. But now Olivia faces prosecution for a naïve connection to a drug deal and she needs Elaine more than ever. As the days count down and Olivia's future hangs in the balance, Elaine must decide just how much she is willing to give for a second chance with her daughter.

With Daughter's Keeper, Ayelet Waldman has crafted a redemptive journey at once highly emotional and unbearably suspenseful, as Olivia and Elaine's struggle builds to a beautiful, heart-wrenching climax. In this luminous, gripping novel, Waldman brings to life the tensions and the tenderness that forge the unshakeable bond between parent and child. Daughter's Keeper reveals the unlimited boundaries of forgiveness and the sacrifices we make for love.

"A powerhouse novel of complex emotions so compelling that when I finished the book, I started over again."--Amy Tan

"In Daughter's Keeper, Ayelet Waldman shows that the power of love, even when prickling with thorns, can ultimately provide what the criminal system cannot: a hard-fought, hard-won second chance."--Glen David Gold, author of Carter Beats the Devil

"Waldman's passion and affection for her characters shine through."--Publishers Weekly

"Waldman has written Daughter's Keeper with enough intelligence, tenderness and craft to shape outrage into a story that is both moving and enthralling." --Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and You Shall Know Our Velocity!

"Ayelet Waldman has brought the war on drugs home, and has shown us just how close to home it can come....She looks past headlines and into the heart. What she finds there is hope for us all." --Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Waldman, author of the Mommy Track mystery series, here takes a more serious tack, telling the story of a young woman who battles the American legal system's inflexible drug laws. Olivia Goodman, a rebellious 22-year-old, dropped out of college as a sophomore and headed for Mexico. After she moved back to her hometown of Oakland, Calif., she was followed by Jorge Luis Rodriguez Hernandez, with whom she had a brief affair in Mexico. Jorge crossed the border illegally and is unable to find work, and Olivia feels obligated to support him. Desperate for money, Jorge is persuaded to participate in a drug deal, and Olivia's vague complicity sweeps her into an intense legal battle when she is arrested with Jorge. To make matters worse, Olivia discovers she's pregnant with Jorge's baby. As Olivia fights for her freedom, her mother, Elaine Goodman, is doubly tormented. Elaine raised Olivia on her own, but never felt she could love her enough. Now, when she has finally found happiness with a man, she is forced to choose between helping her daughter and holding on to her fiance. Waldman takes a somewhat didactic approach-U.S. drug laws are discussed at length, and the story of Elaine and Olivia's relationship can read like a case history-but Waldman's passion and affection for her characters shines through.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Waldman departs from her relatively lighthearted "Mommy Track" mysteries with this politically charged, emotionally complex novel. Olivia, in her early 20s and living with her illegally immigrated Mexican boyfriend in Oakland, CA, identifies with a number of radical causes. Her pharmacist mother, Elaine, having struggled against her tendency to be free of the burdens of motherhood almost from Olivia's birth, is about to marry her accountant boyfriend, with whom she already leads a judiciously predictable life in a middle-class Berkeley neighborhood. When Olivia's boyfriend participates in a methamphetamine deal, the young woman is arrested as an accomplice. The machinations of federal law pertaining to drug conspiracy, the use of criminal informants, a mother's lifelong connection to her child, and the hothouse of Berkeley's raised consciousness on issues from biracialism to psychotherapy to choice of street slang all come to life. The two women and the men in their lives are fully realized, with both their sympathetic and shameful motivations clearly limned and juxtaposed to create optimum tension. How Olivia copes with her unexpected pregnancy and Elaine's eventual discovery of her own ability to nurture a dependent baby resonate with credible bumps and jerks that ironically enhance the plot's smoothness. Waldman gives readers the opportunity to consider how economics, the law, social mores, and human beings' natural tendencies interact with and counteract one another.
Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark; Third Printing edition (October 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402203136
• ISBN-13: 978-1402203138
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #127,994 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling look at America's "war on drugs", June 16, 2004

By 

Beth Cholette "doctor_beth" (Upstate NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Daughter's Keeper (Hardcover)

The main character of this novel, Olivia Goodman, is an outspoken young woman who drops out of college to travel to Mexico. While there, she meets Jorge, a charismatic young man with whom she has a brief affair. Olivia returns to the US, and to her surprise, Jorge soon turns up on her doorstep as an illegal alien. Their life becomes a dreary routine of Olivia supporting them through her waitressing job while Jorge attempts--mostly unsuccessfully--to find work. Jorge's desperation to become the breadwinner leads to his tangential involvement in a drug deal; unfortunately, his poor judgment results in not only his own arrest but Olivia's as well.

What follows is an interesting insider's view of America's legal system, particularly the "mandatory minimum" sentences which can result in lengthy jail sentences for innocent bystanders like Olivia. However, the novel also contains a series of engaging character studies, as the story is told from various perspectives. Olivia herself is confronted with the necessity of taking responsibility for actions in light of both her possible jail time and her impending pregnancy. Her mother, Elaine, is torn between her disapproval of Olivia and her desire to help her child; Elaine must face the lack of maternal instinct which has clouded her entire relationship with her daughter. Olivia's public defender, Izaya, is a jaded but brilliant attorney who is spurred on by Olivia's innocence as well as his growing feelings for her. Finally, lesser characters such as Jorge and Arthur, Elaine's boyfriend, also impact the storyline with their unique viewpoints.

I found myself caught up in Olivia's story, silently rooting for her as she faced trial. Although both Olivia and Elaine were not always likeable characters, it was easy to sympathize with them and the unfairness of Olivia's predicament. At the end of the novel, Olivia and Elaine each emerge as very different people; while this was not entirely believable, it made for an appealing and enjoyable read. Overall, I felt that this was a promising novel from an author who I would definitely read again.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not slush-pile, but not Pulitzer Prize s tuff either, May 23, 2004

By 

lisatheratgirl "lisatheratgirl" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Daughter's Keeper (Hardcover)

I read this book through to the end and tend to agree with almost all of the previous reviews. The story (the plot) is interesting and compelling and kept me going. The author did make her point about the DEA and the federal sentencing guidelines and how the federal system eats the innocent and the amateurs, while the hard-core professional criminals are rewarded for ratting out others. I am a lawyer and this is not my field of work, but I did know a little bit about the subject. I say this because even I was horrified at the results obtained in the case the author described and I'm sure it is accurate. I think the book is worth reading just to open people's eyes. That said, the author's writing technique is not very good, use of m--dashes on every other page to break up runon sentences drove me crazy, as well as all the other things reviewers mentioned. I also felt that her characters were not well thought out or believable, particularly Elaine. If you're going to deliever such an important message, take the time to do it well,

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poignant story of a family in crisis., October 12, 2003

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Daughter's Keeper (Hardcover)

Ayelet Waldman, in a startling departure from her Mommy-Track Mysteries, has written a serious novel called "Daughter's Keeper". It is about a middle-aged woman named Elaine Goodman who owns her own pharmacy, lives with a man she loves, and is contentedly looking forward to a restful retirement.

Elaine's happiness would be complete were it not for her contentious daughter, Olivia. Olivia is a college dropout and a political activist. She was jailed briefly on several occasions for participating in various protests, and she works as a waitress to support herself and her boyfriend, Jorge, an illegal immigrant. Olivia never knew her father, and her relationship with her mother has always been thorny.

This uneasy mother-daughter relationship is tested when Olivia faces a series of legal and personal crises that threaten to destroy her future. Suddenly, Elaine must make some tough decisions. Should she concentrate on keeping her own life on track, or should she sacrifice her plans to help Olivia?

Waldman slowly and deliberately sets up her story and she fleshes out her characters carefully. We get to know Elaine as a person who has suffered and struggled to get where she is, and who admits that mothering Olivia has never been easy for her. Olivia is a caring and compassionate individual who is too brash, naive, and impulsive for her own good. A particularly fascinating character in this novel is Izaya Feingold-Upchurch, a passionate defense attorney who helps Olivia when she gets into serious legal trouble.

Waldman explores many themes in "Daughter's Keeper". How much do we owe our children, especially when they reach their twenties and act irresponsibly? What is the statute of limitations for parents when it comes to rescuing their adult children? While telling the story of Elaine and Olivia Goodman, Waldman also discusses the legal and social ramifications of the often unfair and draconian federal mandatory minimum sentencing laws. This part of the book is both instructive and extremely disturbing.

"Daughter's Keeper" is a beautifully written and heartrending account of one family's wrenching journey towards understanding and reconciliation. Although it is a sad journey, it is one well worth taking.