The Murderer's Daughters

A shame and a disagrace or as the author writes in Yiddish, "shandah and a charpeh." What a book! From the very first chapter, when Lulu (Louise) and Merry (Merideth) are unwilling witnesses and participants in their father's murder of their mother, I was drawn into their lives and their tragic vulnerabilty. Thrust into an orphange after their mother's death and their father's incarceration, Lulu and Merry are victims of the cruel system and their abandonment by the remaining family. They are shamed as the murderer's daugthers, no one wants them. The mother's aunt uses the excuse that these girls are part of their father who struck down her beloved sister. As the reader, who read most of this book sitting on the runway during the recent Midwest blizzard, I was caught up with the fact that this family was Jewish. I am sure there are Jewish families who commit crimes and do not give a home to the orphaned children, but this twist made the story more interesting and heart breaking. No one could take these poor girls? This was the shame and the disgrace! Lulu, a tenacious bright girl, protected her pretty sister who was consumed with guilt and no direction. Merry visited her father in prison (Lulu did not) to seek his approval, to maintain a connection, to find answers, but she was used by her father, too. He played a part; he would keep up his "Hi Sugar Pop, Cocoa Puff" sweet talk to gain some allegiance from his daughter, and it worked with Merry. The regulations, the other visitors, the physical building of the prison would forever make Merry an "expert" prison visitor. At an important educational point in their life, Lulu and Merry were fostered to a rather wealthy Jewish family who saw to their education but really could not give them they love they needed and deserved. Meyers writes with profound understanding of how foster children will do anything to please a foster parent to avoid being sent back to an orphanage which is probably worse than their father's prison. I learned about the "system" as I did in White Oleander, but I felt this was a stronger book because the two sisters knew they only had each other and avoided the revelation of the murder scene in order to function in this world. Consumed with guilt, Lulu becomes an excellent physician and Merry is fraught with impossible relationships but works hard all the time to maintain the relationship with her sister. Lulu's anger shows in a myriad of incidents and Merry's sadness blankets the novel. I loved this book. There is much to be learned. No one was glorified, even the dead Mother, reality of their family, the orphanage, the grandmothers made this a more haunting, plausible book. I know this was a debut novel, but it is the best that I have read in a long time.

I've been reading a lot of books about families lately, fiction and non-fiction memoirs. "The Murderer's Daughters" is the fictional account of two young sisters who are left alone after their father murders their mother and goes to prison for thirty years. The sisters are shunned by their mother's family and live for a few years in a girls' orphanage until fostered out to an affluent family. The two girls - Louise the older, Merredith the younger - are each other's only family and protectors. But Merry, also stabbed by her father in his attack on his wife, is also the only family her father has. Lulu shuns her father through adulthood, telling everyone her parents were killed in a car crash when the girls were young. Merry goes along with the story of her parents' deaths, but continues to visit her father in the NYC prison in which he is incarcerated. When they grow up, Lulu goes to medical school and becomes part of a family by marrying a loving man and having two daughters. Merry drifts through life, working in the court system in Boston as a crime victims' advocate. She never marries and continues to visit her father. Merry's nieces - Lulu's daughters - are never told about their grandfather and the crime he committed until an incident at Merry's office reveal to the two girls the secret their parents and aunt have been concealing for thirty years. The novel, told in both Merry and Lulu's voices through the years, is a very good account of the aftermath of one very bad crime, and how the repercussions echo through the succeeding generations. Thankfully, Lulu's two daughters receive therapy and are able to make sense of what has happened. This book is not for everyone, but is very good reading for someone interested in family relations.

This novel about two sisters, Merry and LuLu who experienced the murder of their mother by their father when they were young children and how this affected their relationship, relationships and their entire lives is a real "can't put it down, page turner. It tells the story of abandonment, life, so-called, in an orphanage, struggle for survival and love, and finally acceptance and relief from painful memories. I highly recommend this book. In fact, although this is a very sad story, it has redemption and hope as its backbone. Read this book you will love it.

Violence impacts a child's life and continues, in the future, to haunt that child. Whether a child feels responsible for causing the violence or for failing to prevent it, every action and reaction they experience is colored by that past. Randy Susan Meyers has written an emotionally powerful novel about two sisters - Lulu and Merry - who have both experienced the effects of domestic violence. After convincing Lulu to allow him to enter the apartment, their father murders their mother and attempts to kill Merry, the younger sister. Spanning a 32-year period, "The Murderer's Daughters" follows the two girls' lives through a trying childhood into middle age as each eventually faces and overcomes the past. Lulu deals with her demons by compartmentalizing the trauma and denying the past in order to function in the present. She relies on her own inner strength and her intelligence to become a successful doctor. With the exception of Merry, Lulu allows only one individual, her husband Drew, to learn the truth and to see behind the façade she has created. Merry, convinced that their father needs family, accompanies her grandmother and visits the prison every other week as a child; she continues the contact even after her grandmother's death. Unable to trust a man, Merry moves from one superficial sexual relationship to another; her affair with a married man remains the one constant, yet unfulfilling, relationship. Even her professional life is governed by her past - Merry has become a parole officer and seeks ways to rehabilitate, to "save," her parolees. A hostage crisis, involving Lulu's daughters and taking place in Merry's office, finally forces both women to confront their past and to move forward. Lulu realizes she cannot erase the past, but does not have to allow it to control her future; Merry realizes she did nothing to provoke her father's attack and that she must "save" herself before she can save others. In "The Murder's Daughters," Meyers has created well-developed, complex, and believable characters. The psychological impact of domestic violence affects both Lulu's and Merry's reaction to situations and to people; it is extremely realistic. If you have been or if you know someone affected by domestic violence, you will recognize the two protagonists. Other individuals, their mother, grandmothers, foster parents, father, and Lulu's family have distinct personalities and add to the novel's depth. Using first person narration and switching between the two sisters' voices provides the reader with two differing perspectives on the book's theme and the story. If you are looking for a book that will affect your emotions and make you care about the characters, this is one for you. It is a story that will haunt you after you have finished reading the book. It is a story in which the victims of violence are courageous survivors who eventually conquer their past. In the end, it is a story about the triumph of the human spirit.

I knew this book was going to be one of those that stuck with me long after I finished reading it. It is inconceivable to most that someone could injure or kill their child. Merry & Lulu, the two little girls this story is about not only witness their mothers murder, but one of them is savagely attacked by their own father. Because of their selfish, abusive father, these two sisters grow up shuffling between foster homes & relatives as well as living in constant fear that their father will be released from prison. Lulu feels terribly guilty for her mothers murder and feeling like she didn't protect her sister from her father, while Merry is confused about her feelings towards her father, which aren't what she or anyone would expect considering what he has done. I absolutely LOVED this book - but not in a "warm fuzzy" way. More in a "I cannot get over this" sort of way. There were some parts of it where I could feel my pulse quicken because I got so into it, it's THAT good.