The Girls (2005)

I just finished listening to "The Girls" in the car and I loved it. I had no idea about Lori Lansens, originally from just down the road, nor about this book. The writing was exquisite at times and plain when it needed to be. I fell in love with the twins and their messy, real, fascinating lives. The Aunt Lovey and Uncle Stash "you" expression of love was just heartbreaking. If you have ever felt that everyone was staring at you, because you were missing a tooth, had a limp or just had crazy hair you'll love this story of two girls who overcame adversity to live full lives. ( )

One of my favorite books I've read so far in 2020. Come to think of it, the other book I loved this much in 2020 was also about twin girls -- The Grammarians by Cathleen Schine. ( )

Rose and Ruby Darlen have grown up in the small town of Leaford in Baldoon County, Ontario. Despite being twins, they’ve always striven to be different, refusing to wear the same clothes and cultivating different hobbies. Rose loves books, writing, and watching sports. Ruby is the pretty one, interested in magazines and TV, but also obsessed with the history and artefacts of the Neutral Nation peoples who once lived in their area. The girls’ lives have been simple: they grew up with their Aunt Lovey and Uncle Stash in a big old farmhouse on the outskirts of town and now share a bungalow in Leaford itself. In many ways they are perfectly ordinary. And yet, in one of the most significant ways, they are utterly extraordinary. For Rose and Ruby are craniopagus conjoined twins, joined at the skull. And as the book begins, they are twenty-nine: if they can only reach thirty, they will be the oldest living pair of craniopagus twins (not actually true: see penultimate paragraph). Taking it in turns, they embark on a joint memoir (Ruby being somewhat coerced into it) and Lansens’s absorbing, beautifully-crafted novel draws us into their remarkable lives...

For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2020/01/31/the-girls-lori-lansens/ ( )

This is a fictional memoir of conjoined twins, sad and sweet. It is also the love story of their adoptive parents. Each twin writes her own part and part of the fascination is how two people joined at the head can still see events so differently. ( )

This story of craniopagus twins born in a tornado in Southwestern Ontario was fun and sad and unusual and fascinating all at once. It is written from the perspective of both twins and I hugely admire Lansens's ability to write in two distinctly different voices. It was an enjoyable read and the backdrop of rural southwestern Ontario was one I particularly enjoyed. Occasionally, the writing slipped into the predictable and well, sloppy - a move which could have been a distinct choice since the main character expresses concern about writing sloppily - and towards the end, the story becomes a little tedious. But, all in all, it was an enjoyable read, the kind of book that makes you feel like you should strive to be a better, stronger person. ( )