The Girls by Lori Lansens

Published: 2006
Genre: Fictional Autobiography
Pages: 343

I'm going to apologize in advance for the length of this post, but there was just so much I wanted to say about and quote from this book that I just couldn't shorten it.

I had already decided I wanted to read this book when I first read about it as a British Book Award nominee. Then, my Surly friend read and highly recommended it so it moved up to the read soon category. I’m so glad it did. This book is wonderful. It is funny, sad, heartwarming and heartbreaking all at the same time.

Rose and Ruby Darlen are 29 year old identical twins. They are very different individuals with different interests and viewpoints of their shared experiences. They are also conjoined twins. Joined at the head and not eligible for separation surgery, they have spent their lives together without being able to look each other in the eyes. This fictional autobiography begins as Rose’s story, but she encourages her reluctant twin to also write her story. They agree not to read what each other has written and have someone else combine their writing logically when they are done.

There has never been a possibility of my being separated from Ruby. We have known that it could not be, and declared that even if we could, we wouldn’t. Still, I have an elaborate fantasy life in which I am a singular woman. My right arm belongs to me. My right leg is the exact length of my left, and I tote nothing on my hip but a funky leather bag. My features have been surgically corrected and I have my sister’s pretty face. I am mysterious. I live alone in a small but chic apartment in Toronto with a view of the lake. I take long bubble baths with dozens of candles. I am a well-known author and I have a poet boyfriend (actually many boyfriends – not all poets) for whom I dress provocatively. (Oh yes, in this fantasy I also have large shapely breasts.)

There is some alienation, of course, in being so different, but it’s also been fascinating, and a unique opportunity, I think, to have observed our generation without fully participating in it.

Born to a teenage mother, the girls are raised by a nurse who was present at their birth. Aunt Lovey and Uncle Stash, as they become to Rose and Ruby live in a small town in Southern Canada. The story of the girls is a fascinating one. The writing is wonderful and Lansens manages to give a unique voice to both writers. I found myself occasionally forgetting they were conjoined and then suddenly being reminded abruptly, such as when Rose stops to explain just why going down a staircase is so difficult for them, or the side effects she suffers from medication that Ruby requires.

When I groaned about it to Aunt Lovey, she’d said, “Ruby’s going to summer school for the math, but you’ll be learning a valuable lesson too, Rose.”

I’d have stomped if I were a stomper. “It’s just not fair,” I whined.

“Yep.” She’d nodded. “That’s the lesson.”

The individuality of Rose and Ruby is clear, and the places where they describe the same experiences with different viewpoints stress that. They even manage to keep some secrets from each other. The relationship between the sisters is fascinating and the book is just beautifully written.

I can’t say exactly why I’ve chosen to write about the particular things I’m writing about. There are doubtless better stories from my life that I’m missing, events and escapades I’m not wise enough to know were important. If heaven is tolerant and writers are allowed (bunch of liars though they are), I wonder if they gather for coffee to ponder the prose they should have written instead.

This is definitely one of the best books I’ve read this year.

All of the above quotes are from Rose, but this final one is from Ruby

Before she closed her eyes tonight, Rose said she regretted that she has not done something heroic in her life. Well, it’s not like she can suddenly climb a tree and save a cat, or go to medical school and begin some important cancer research.

But Rose has been my sister.

I think that’s heroic.