What We’re Reading

The Girls | Lori Lansens

Born during a tornado in a small town in Canada, twins Rose and Ruby Darlen were abandoned by their mother at birth. Raised by the nurse who fell instantly in love with them they led an unusual life.

Why is Rose and Ruby’s story so unique? They are the world’s oldest craniopagus conjoined twins, which means they have spent their lives joined at the head. Rose says, “I have never looked in my sister’s eyes. I have never bathed alone…I have never used an airplane bathroom. Or worn at hat.”

Told in Rose and Ruby’s alternating voices, The Girls is their autobiography, and chronicles their joys, their sorrows, unexepected deaths and pregnancies and their fears and loves. Lansen’s writes these characters in a completely convincing voice, like she has channeled these characters and allowed them to speak through her. Fans of other rich characters like Dolores in Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone or Calliope in Eugenides Middlesex will truly enjoy Rose and Ruby.

An astounding and poignant read.

Find it in the Catalog

The The Girls | Lori Lansens by jenni, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 3rd, 2006 at 4:09 pm by jenni and is filed under Book Review. Find similar posts by selecting and of the following tags: abandoned children, adoptees, adult fiction, conjoined twins, sisters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.