The Girls by Lori Lansens
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Marguerite & Steve
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The Girls by Lori Lansens
I am 3/4 of the way through this book, and finding it very (sadly) interesting, you can't believe what kind of life they lead, anyway this is a review that may interest you.
The story is about Rose and Ruby Darlen. What isn't made clear by the cover of the book is that Rose and Ruby are conjoined twins. I think that fact is quite misleading, as when you read the book, you realise it is impossible that the picture on the cover was representative of the novel, a bad decision on the part of the publishers. (I have included a picture of this cover so you all know what I mean). Rose is a fully devloped woman, and Ruby has deformed legs, meaning Rose carries her around like a child.
Rose and Ruby are in fact the world's oldest craniopagus twins, at 29 years old. Craniopagus twins are actually joined at the head. We come into the book a short while before the girls are due to celebrate their 30th birthday. The novel is written in the style of being Rose's autobiograpy, although her sister, being less academic and less keen on reading ad writing, isn't too excited about the idea.
Rose begins by saying "I have never looked into my sister's eyes" and that for me is one heck of a powerful opening line. It sets up an image in your mind of how the girls must look, something you need in order to fully appreciate this book. She starts off introducing the girls' adoptive parents Lovey and Stash Darlen. She graphically speaks of their birth and abandonment by their birth mother, and speaks of the first few weeks of their life with Lovey and Stash. However, the girls never refer to them as Mum and Dad, but Aunt Lovey and Uncle Stash.
Rose changes between narrating their life for the autobiography to the present day when she starts talking about actually writing the book. At these points, I found it difficult to remember that it was actually a fictional novel, not a real person's autobiography! I actually found the small and infrequent contributions by Ruby Darlen to be amusing and very easy to read. Only a few times did she reminice and even then, she managed to make it light-hearted. I liked very much how Lansens changed the font style for each sister, it made a definite reading difference.
Rose does introduce us and go into a lot of perhaps unnecessary detail about various people the girls have met throughout thei lives, such as a young boy who was swept away in a tornado when he was very young. I found these bits slightly boring and dull, and not all that relevant to the story which was a bit of a shame. What I found was clear though was the enormous friendship and closeness of the girls, never did they express a wish to be without their sister, or to not be conjoined. I found Rose dealt with the obstacles in her life magnificently, particularly choosing to have her own daughter adopted out for fear of her being ashamed of her mum. I found this part of the book particularly emotive.
The final 1/4 of the book was the part of the novel that I found most interesting. The girls approach to their death was very heart-warming, and although we never know what the actual outcome of the lives of thhe girls is, I found this part very emotional and Lansens really excelled herself in her writing style for this part. I loved Ruby's young naivety, despite her age in the excitement for their 30th birthday, and the contrast in Rose's mature almost bored approach was very contrasting, and made the novel far more interesting to read.
I have never heard of an author approaching such a controversial and emotive subject before, and I believe that Lansens really has done the subject complete and utter justice. She must have done a lot of research before writing this, and this comes out in the informative and unpatronising way Lori Lansens writes. I also liked some of the descriptions of places in Canada, they made a nice little added extra into the novel.
I really loved this novel, and I can see why it was shortlisted into Richard and Judy's Summer Book Club 2007. It really made me think about conjoined twins and their feelings, something I wouldn't have done had I not read this book. I found it quite light-hearted considering it's subject matter, amusing in places, and informative and emotive. I would recommend you read this book, sheerly for the experience of reading about this subject, I am sure you won't regret it!
This book will remain on my bookshelf for a long time, and I intend on reading this book again in the near future.
The story is about Rose and Ruby Darlen. What isn't made clear by the cover of the book is that Rose and Ruby are conjoined twins. I think that fact is quite misleading, as when you read the book, you realise it is impossible that the picture on the cover was representative of the novel, a bad decision on the part of the publishers. (I have included a picture of this cover so you all know what I mean). Rose is a fully devloped woman, and Ruby has deformed legs, meaning Rose carries her around like a child.
Rose and Ruby are in fact the world's oldest craniopagus twins, at 29 years old. Craniopagus twins are actually joined at the head. We come into the book a short while before the girls are due to celebrate their 30th birthday. The novel is written in the style of being Rose's autobiograpy, although her sister, being less academic and less keen on reading ad writing, isn't too excited about the idea.
Rose begins by saying "I have never looked into my sister's eyes" and that for me is one heck of a powerful opening line. It sets up an image in your mind of how the girls must look, something you need in order to fully appreciate this book. She starts off introducing the girls' adoptive parents Lovey and Stash Darlen. She graphically speaks of their birth and abandonment by their birth mother, and speaks of the first few weeks of their life with Lovey and Stash. However, the girls never refer to them as Mum and Dad, but Aunt Lovey and Uncle Stash.
Rose changes between narrating their life for the autobiography to the present day when she starts talking about actually writing the book. At these points, I found it difficult to remember that it was actually a fictional novel, not a real person's autobiography! I actually found the small and infrequent contributions by Ruby Darlen to be amusing and very easy to read. Only a few times did she reminice and even then, she managed to make it light-hearted. I liked very much how Lansens changed the font style for each sister, it made a definite reading difference.
Rose does introduce us and go into a lot of perhaps unnecessary detail about various people the girls have met throughout thei lives, such as a young boy who was swept away in a tornado when he was very young. I found these bits slightly boring and dull, and not all that relevant to the story which was a bit of a shame. What I found was clear though was the enormous friendship and closeness of the girls, never did they express a wish to be without their sister, or to not be conjoined. I found Rose dealt with the obstacles in her life magnificently, particularly choosing to have her own daughter adopted out for fear of her being ashamed of her mum. I found this part of the book particularly emotive.
The final 1/4 of the book was the part of the novel that I found most interesting. The girls approach to their death was very heart-warming, and although we never know what the actual outcome of the lives of thhe girls is, I found this part very emotional and Lansens really excelled herself in her writing style for this part. I loved Ruby's young naivety, despite her age in the excitement for their 30th birthday, and the contrast in Rose's mature almost bored approach was very contrasting, and made the novel far more interesting to read.
I have never heard of an author approaching such a controversial and emotive subject before, and I believe that Lansens really has done the subject complete and utter justice. She must have done a lot of research before writing this, and this comes out in the informative and unpatronising way Lori Lansens writes. I also liked some of the descriptions of places in Canada, they made a nice little added extra into the novel.
I really loved this novel, and I can see why it was shortlisted into Richard and Judy's Summer Book Club 2007. It really made me think about conjoined twins and their feelings, something I wouldn't have done had I not read this book. I found it quite light-hearted considering it's subject matter, amusing in places, and informative and emotive. I would recommend you read this book, sheerly for the experience of reading about this subject, I am sure you won't regret it!
This book will remain on my bookshelf for a long time, and I intend on reading this book again in the near future.
Laugh when you can, apologize when you should, and let go of what you can't change.
Life's too short to be anything... but happy.
Life's too short to be anything... but happy.
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nickiwynne
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Hello Marguerite,
We read this book in my book circle some time ago and it provoked a lot of lively discussion.
I agree with you that some of the extra threads in the story were superfluous but we found it quite shocking and desperately sad at times as well.
Well worth the read.
Nicki
PS we read 'Alone in Berlin' by Hans Falladafor our last meeting. I thoroughly recommend this.
We read this book in my book circle some time ago and it provoked a lot of lively discussion.
I agree with you that some of the extra threads in the story were superfluous but we found it quite shocking and desperately sad at times as well.
Well worth the read.
Nicki
PS we read 'Alone in Berlin' by Hans Falladafor our last meeting. I thoroughly recommend this.
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Clarence
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Kate
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