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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
May 2006, 352 pages
Paperback:
Apr 2007, 368 pages
Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse Review Team
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From the book
jacket: Meet Rose and Ruby: sisters,
best friends, confidantes, and conjoined
twins. Since their birth, Rose and Ruby
Darlen have been known simply as "the
girls." They make friends, fall in love,
have jobs, love their parents, and
follow their dreams. But the Darlens are
special. Now nearing their 30th
birthday, they are history's oldest
craniopagus twins, joined at the head by
a spot the size of a bread plate.
When Rose, the bookish sister, sets out
to write her autobiography, it
inevitably becomes the story of her
short but extraordinary life with Ruby,
the beautiful one. From their awkward
first steps--Ruby's arm curled around
Rose's neck, her foreshortened legs
wrapped around Rose's hips-- to the
friendships they gradually build for
themselves in the small town of Leaford,
this is the profoundly affecting
chronicle of an incomparable life
journey.
Comment: Lansens minimizes the
voyeurism in her tale of conjoined twins
living in a small Canadian community to
focus on the individuals themselves.
Like regular twins the two girls have
separate personalities and interests and
even their own jobs. When Rose, the
bookish one, decides she's going to
write her autobiography, Ruby at first
ignores the project then, reluctantly,
starts to write her own version; both agree not to read each
other's work until they are finished.
By juxtaposing the two stories Lansens
cleverly takes us deeper into the
personalities of each woman - Rose is
the more circumspect of the two, whereas
Ruby's writing cuts straight to the
chase showing her to be a lot more
than the "shallow pretty girl" that Rose
thinks she is, and revealing much more
about her sister than we learn from Ruby
alone.
If you've enjoyed books such as
The Time Traveler's Wife, you
are likely to find that Lansen's blend
of tragic-comedy will draw you in and
leave you well satisfied.
Lori Lansens's
first novel,
Rush Home Road, about the
descendants of
the "underground
railroad" living
in Chatham,
Ontario, was published in
Canada in 2002
to considerable
acclaim, with
publishing
rights sold in
11 countries and
at least 8
languages. She
wrote it while
she was pregnant
with twins. For
her second
novel, she was
planning to
write about a
man living with
multiple wives
but saw a
documentary on
the
Schappell
sisters, the
oldest-living
craniopagus-twins (now 46-years-old), and found
herself
intrigued.
This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in May 2006, and has been updated for the
April 2007 edition.
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