Lori Lansens The Girls

The Girls

Lori Lansens

Little, Brown, May 2006, $23.95

ISBN: 0316069035

In Leaford, Ontario, their teenage mother abandoned the conjoined twins when they were two weeks old. Instead a nurse Aunt Lovey and her spouse Stash adopted and raised them as if Ruby and Rose Darlen were not connected at the head. Rose has the fully developed normal body but a distorted face pulled out of shape towards Ruby's pretty normal face. Ruby's legs never developed so Rose does the walking for both of them. As Lovey intended when she showered them witth love and nurturing as two people, they have differing personalities and even separate jobs at the library.

Nearing their thirtieth birthday, Rose starts writing her autobiography while persuading Ruby to do likewise. Rose tells much of their past starting with the birth during a tornado, the abandonment, and the loving nurturing of Lovey and Stash. Ruby provides some tidbits that she is not just a pretty face as her sibling insists with an Indian artifact collection as her proof. However, neither wants to explain how they are dying from a tumor though Ruby tries nor how Rose became pregnant (gave up the child for adoption) with a boy who kissed Ruby while deflowering her. This is the story of two sisters who have never looked into each other's eyes.

THE GIRLS is a terrific character study that looks deep into the relationship between sisters. The key to the tale is that Lori Lansens avoids turning the conjoined twins into melodramatic caricatures; instead they have distinct personalities and even rivalries as each lives a relatively normal lifestyle making them seem real and their relationship plausible. The support cast especially their adoptive parents add to the depth of two siblings living normal separate lives though facially tied together.

Harriet Klausner