The Girls: A Novel (original 2005; edition 2007)

It took me a long time to read this novel. I was more than a bit skitterish getting into it, which says much about its power. I came to feel as though I really knew and cared about these two women, conjoined (crainiopagus) twins Rose and Ruby. Each was vividly drawn, along with those who peopled their world. I came to the end of the novel with tremendous sadness, feeling as though ending it deprived me of two dear friends. It's an excellent and worthwhile work of fiction. ( )

Half friendship story, half family drama--because in this case it's the friendship and family dynamic between two sisters, who happen to be conjoined twins. Their respective personalities show through their writings (it's easy to tell, not just through the font changes, which character is talking at any point), and you really root for things to work out well for them. Heartfelt drama without being melodramatic. ( )

The idea of a novel based on craniophagus twins (conjoined twins connected at the head) sounded fascinating. Fortunately, the book was as good as the idea of this story. Rose and Ruby are the twin sisters who narrate this story. Their combined tale is warm and realistic with its focus being love and respect for themselves and each other and living as normal a life as possible despite their situation. Somehow, I could see this as being one of those Oprah picks from her former book club. Anyway, the strength of the story comes from the fact that it shows the two girls so different that, in reading this book, one forgets at times that they are conjoined at all. ( )

The girls are a set of conjointed twins at age 29/30 who remember their life and put it to pen and paper - or well, one to pen and paper and the other to her loved laptop. I kept forgetting that this is a fiction book while reading it. The stories are captivating. The girls seem so life-like with their thoughts and memories. Wonderful book. ( )

Craniopagus twins, Rose and Ruby, are abandoned by their mother at birth and adopted by Lovey and Stash Darlensky. Raised in small town southern Ontario, the twins are known simply as The Girls. Their lives, simultaneously miraculous and unremarkable, are written about here in their own alternating voices. Rose, aspiring writer, observes:

“I thought my story’s path would be a straight one. A simple one. After all, it is the true story of my life, to the point I have already lived it, and for which I know even the most incidental detail. But the story isn’t straight. Or simple. And I see now, as I begin to think of the next chapter, that even the truth can spin out of control. My story. Ruby’s story. The story of Aunt Lovey and Uncle Stash. The story of me, and we, and us, and them. The story of then. And the story of now. How can the story of me exist without all of it?”

The Girls is a difficult novel for me to review. I found large chunks of the story simply did not hold my interest. And I disliked that the girls’ “story” was really a long series of random reminiscences – too much randomness, I thought. Still, Lansens is so authentic that I felt surprised when I realized the twins are fictional. And her writing is beautiful – so gifted. The sensory language in this next passage just captivated me.

“I was thinking of when Ruby and I were children, sleeping under the entwined-hearts quilt in the old orange farmhouse on Rural Route One. I was thinking of the soft bed beneath the open window. The lowing of livestock. The stinking sweet air. The mice in the corner under out chair The crows in the field. The kittens wet born. And the world beyond the whispering corn.”

Recommended for the beautiful writing, with the hope that other readers will find the story more gratifying. ( )