I participated in a book club discussion of the book. The presenter chose it because she has a Downs Syndrome granddaughter. From a literary point of view, it is disappointing, densely detailed and overlong. Also, it presents its story in terms of a crime and punishment philosophy that I would think others besides myself would find objectionable. There are human beings who find the mission of taking care of a child with an anomoly a reward in itself. There are others who can not handle the task. Are they bad or good people because of this? Is there a punishment rendered, presumably by one's God? I doubt it. As I remarked at the end of the meeting, Dickens might have advanced this idea without the blink of an eye in an age of Victorian sentimentality, and I love Dickens. In our own age, it's a faulty argument.