The Girls

Rose and Ruby are the oldest surviving craniopagus twins, tied together by a vital vein in their heads. As their thirtieth birthdays approach, Rose sets out to write her memoir, asking Ruby to contribute chapters. As you read this mesmerizing life history, you'll have to stop to remind yourself that this is fiction, that you aren't reading a true tale of sisterhood and found families. Rose writes, "So many things I've never done, but oh, how I've been loved. And, if such things were to be, I'd live a thousand lives as me, to be loved so exponentially." The sisters are blessings and curses to one another. When they were born, their unwed mother was so shocked by what appeared from her body that she fled the hospital, abandoning them in the care of their nurse, who raised them as her own. Doctors suggested that Ruby, the smaller, parasitic twin with clubfeet, be sacrificed for the health of Rose. When Aunt Lovey refused to do so, the family was forsaken by their church. Rose has carried Ruby around their entire life. If one consumes alcohol, the other feels its effects. Each has different dietary desires, but if one gets ill, the other will suffer the restrictions of being sick, too. As adults, Rose and Ruby have made a life for themselves working at the town library. They each have separate jobs, but are co-located on one another's shifts. When Rose needs a mental health day, Ruby has to miss her shift, too. Ruby enjoys working with children and answering their questions about her lifestyle and medical history. The memoir is created by Rose, who fancies herself the intellectually superior twin. She has to push Ruby (the prettier twin) to contribute chapters, and she constantly worries that Ruby is just rambling and repeating herself, not creating a narrative. Lansen presents each sister's chapters in different fonts, and their voices are distinctive. Certainly Rose is a superior memoirist in a traditional sense, but Ruby brings an essential perspective about their relationship and the anecdotes Rose considered unworthy of mention. Certain tales are told from both (contrasting) perspectives. The Girls is a beautiful book about sisterhood, friendship, and family ties, set in a non-traditional family. Fans of this book will enjoy Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.

Like other readers, I, too, am having a hard time moving on from the novel. Like Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones" and Audrey Niffenegger's "The Time Traveler's Wife", Lansens' "The Girls" owes its initial fame to a jaw-dropping concept, namely, a first person(s) fictional account of conjoined twin girls. Unlike those books, there is a fundamental joy brought forth from the sadness of the imagined situation. The two points of view, told in distinctively different voices and with different type settings, dance and weave with each other. Lansens, who has written for films and has an earlier novel, has a rich imagination coupled with a distinctive use of dialogue. But it is her gift for metaphor, and her voice that speaks of writing that causes the book to sit and simmer in your brain, ruining your concentration for those that come afterword....as Rose, the larger twin, the writer: "Words leak from my brain. Seep out my ear. Burble from my crooked mouth. Splash on my shirt. Trickle into my keyboard. Pool on my warped parquet floor. At least they're not gushing from my heart.....I catch the words as they fall. My hands smell. And the place is a wreck. From all the spilled words." Magnificent. The best book of 2005. Buy it, luxuriate in it.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but was floored by the beautiful writing, the prosaic metaphors, the sheer beauty of the entire story. . . not something you'd expect in regard to a tale of conjoined twins, fiction or not. It truly touched my soul and made me look at life through different eyes. I can only count on one hand the books that have affected me like this one. When I read the last few pages yesterday, I was weeping. I didn't want the book to end. It wasn't a sad ending, I just didn't want the story to EVER end. I don't like giving book reports, but suffice it to say that this book will move into your heart and soul after you read it and will never completely leave you. A magnificent book, pure and simple. It deserves 10 stars and a Pulitzer Prize.

I finished "The Girls" a couple of days ago, and it continues to haunt me. I keep thinking of it and am having a hard time concentrating on a new book. I suppose I was attracted by the theme of conjoined twins and was curious to see how the author would present it. It's actually a positive story of two girls, conjoined at the head, who manage to carve out a productive and happy life, with the support of loving adoptive parents. Perhaps the ending is a bit down, but Ms. Lansens handles it beautifully. I highly, highly recommend "The Girls."

I was lucky enough to get my hands on an early copy of this book. I opened it with no certainty that I planned on taking the time to read it. But the first sentences grabbed me, the early pages glided away, and by then, I was so entrenched in this world and entranced by the two main characters that there was no letting it go. This is a warm, open hearted gift of a novel. It demands to be read, and Lansens writes with such grace and clarity that it is easy to forget that this is fiction. I loved this novel, and I'm sure that I will return to it again.