“The Girls”
by Lori Lansens
Published: September 2005
ISBN: 0676977952

(Updated: January 6, 2006.)

From the Publisher…

In Lori Lansens’ astonishing second novel, readers come to know and love two of the most remarkable characters in Canadian fiction. Rose and Ruby are twenty-nine-year-old conjoined twins. Born during a tornado to a shocked teenaged mother in the hospital at Leaford, Ontario, they are raised by the nurse who helped usher them into the world. Aunt Lovey and her husband, Uncle Stash, are middle-aged and with no children of their own. They relocate from the town to the drafty old farmhouse in the country that has been in Lovey’s family for generations.

Joined to Ruby at the head, Rose’s face is pulled to one side, but she has full use of her limbs. Ruby has a beautiful face, but her body is tiny and she is unable to walk. She rests her legs on her sister’s hip, rather like a small child or a doll.

In spite of their situation, the girls lead surprisingly separate lives. Rose is bookish and a baseball fan. Ruby is fond of trash TV and has a passion for local history.

Rose has always wanted to be a writer, and as the novel opens, she begins to pen her autobiography. Here is how she begins:

"I have never looked into my sister’s eyes. I have never bathed alone. I have never stood in the grass at night and raised my arms to a beguiling moon. I’ve never used an airplane bathroom. Or worn a hat. Or been kissed like that. I’ve never driven a car. Or slept through the night. Never a private talk. Or solo walk. I’ve never climbed a tree. Or faded into a crowd. 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."

I will admit to still being unsure how I felt or feel about this book.

I think the writing is incredibly “successful” in that it is clearly about two women who happen to be conjoined and not about conjoinment but then I don’t think that I imagined two people who happen to be conjoined differently than that to start with. So… that written… I look at how I felt about the story and I see that the story was ultimately about conjoinment, about viewing two people who happen to be conjoined as two people who happen to be conjoined. So… now I am somehow looped in my opinion, in finding “the point” of my having read this book which is ultimately to look at what has changed in me through the reading. To that end… nothing I think.

There were some lovely characters in the book — I really liked the aunt (and hence the uncle :o). There were some interesting looks at small town life and the amplified effects that “things” have in that context. And I liked the “other” sister better than the main character making me care a little less about the whole of it I suppose.

So… I have given this book a three out of five hearts on my scale. I looked forward to reading it and I suppose the next while will show me what my reading of it has allowed me to take away with me.

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