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3.06 AVERAGE
3.06 AVERAGE
Overall I thought this book had a amazing concept. I loved the character developed and the flash back showing how the twins grew up. I only complaints I have are about the end of the book. I grew very confused about what was reality and what was Blanche's dream world, or if Nora was just crazy. I would have liked a solid ending to this book. Did Blanche take over? Did she die? What about Mooncow, was he returned to Audrey? Like I said the book had an overall amazing concept and writing style.
My friend Sam told me about this book - set in San Francisco, alternate world where there are a relatively large number of Siamese twins with one body and two heads. Umm, that was pretty much all I needed to hear to check it out from the library. Anyway, there's some great writing here, but it's a little messy in parts, especially in the latter half of the book. Still, I am so sold on the concept that I really liked it. Even Goodreads describes it as Geek Love + Middlesex - what's not to like?!
Weird. I was drawn to the book because of the main theme - conjoined twins. Who isn't fascinated by conjoined twins? The main characters are Blanche and Nora (get it - white and black - lots of cool stuff like that in the book). Nora wants to have a twin-ectomy in essence, as Blanche has been in a vegetative state for years - or has she? There's lots of stuff about atomic energy, "twofer" politics and dollhouses. Like I said at the beginning - weird. But well written. One of the author's other "books" is a series of tattoos that tell a story - I'll have to check that out!
Okay, so this won the Tiptree award, which is usually a good indicator of something interesting.
And it is an interesting idea: that there are a lot more conjoined twins in the world (because of radioactivity or something), so they've become a vocal minority like gay people.
Except that this is pretty much the ONLY idea in the book, and sure it's fun to imagine all the many, many different aspects of gay culture that could apply to conjoined twins, but you can't write a symphony using just one note.
Also, she seems to be a victim of Look-At-Me-I'm-A-Writer! syndrome. For example:
"Once, I plunged my right hand wrist-deep in a red ant den. Blanche did not move or cry, though a sun boiled at the end of that arm. I was the one who yanked out the swollen pentapod, brushed off the myrmidons sleeving our forearm in fire."
Jeez, lady. Calm down.
And it is an interesting idea: that there are a lot more conjoined twins in the world (because of radioactivity or something), so they've become a vocal minority like gay people.
Except that this is pretty much the ONLY idea in the book, and sure it's fun to imagine all the many, many different aspects of gay culture that could apply to conjoined twins, but you can't write a symphony using just one note.
Also, she seems to be a victim of Look-At-Me-I'm-A-Writer! syndrome. For example:
"Once, I plunged my right hand wrist-deep in a red ant den. Blanche did not move or cry, though a sun boiled at the end of that arm. I was the one who yanked out the swollen pentapod, brushed off the myrmidons sleeving our forearm in fire."
Jeez, lady. Calm down.
fairly good, but the narrative was confusing at times, and not in a good, mysterious way. more a i'm so smart and clever smug sort of way. overall the story was interesting but i didn't feel super connected to the the narrator. her journey felt false, as did the strange characters that crossed her path - they felt exaggerated for the sake of shock value, but they fell somewhat short.
worth a try, but i didn't feel satisfied when i completed the novel and i wouldn't be interested in revisiting it later.
worth a try, but i didn't feel satisfied when i completed the novel and i wouldn't be interested in revisiting it later.
Overall I thought this book had a amazing concept. I loved the character developed and the flash back showing how the twins grew up. I only complaints I have are about the end of the book. I grew very confused about what was reality and what was Blanche's dream world, or if Nora was just crazy. I would have liked a solid ending to this book. Did Blanche take over? Did she die? What about Mooncow, was he returned to Audrey? Like I said the book had an overall amazing concept and writing style.
This is the co-winner of the Tiptree this year, so I expected a lot more from it. The book is set in a world very similar to our own, except with more nuclear explosions and a population of conjoined twins large enough to have their own lobby groups. Nora is uncomfortable sharing her body with her conjoined (but perpetually unconscious) twin, Blanche, so she resolves to get Blanche surgically removed. I really love the idea of having two brains and thus, two personalities and two sexualities to a body, but the book doesn’t explore this. Instead, it focuses on Nora’s childhood in the desert, where she had quirky, twisted adventures in the radioactive dunes. By the end, Nora and the novel have lost all touch with reality—which is fun except for the fact that it’s completely unreadable. This book is the written equivalent of the last twenty minutes of “2001”—I’m sure *something* “deep” is going on, but I’m not sure what and mostly I just feel bored and nauseated.
I actually feel insulted that Jackson expected readers to slog through hundreds of pages of self-congratulatory cleverness, with no discernable plot and unlikeable, unrealistic characters.
I actually feel insulted that Jackson expected readers to slog through hundreds of pages of self-congratulatory cleverness, with no discernable plot and unlikeable, unrealistic characters.
I really enjoyed this book when I first started reading it, but by the time I was near the end nothing made any sense to me. Maybe I'm just not intelligent enough to pick up on what she was doing aside from showing Nora losing grip on reality, but it was just way to jumbled. And definitely in the last few chapters I was simply rushing to finish because it just all felt like someone's bad trip. Aside from those feelings I really did enjoy it up until shit got real weird, and if you read this you know exactly where that happens.
I'm not entirely sure what I thought of this book. A book about a Siamese twin (nuclear fallout, naturally) who wants to murder her twin, whom she hates. I enjoyed the beginning, was puzzled in the middle and was thoroughly confused/disturbed by the solution. This is a book about identity and it has a well-crafted unreliable narrator, unfortunately, the whole narration is fragmented and crazy. I found it hard to follow, and while I understand that was a part of the construction of the character, I didn't enjoy it as much as I might have if I had been able to follow the story better.