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A review by dreesreads
Twin: A Memoir by Allen Shawn
1.0
I can't believe I read the whole thing.
Shawn has a probably autistic twin sister, who was institutionalized at the age of 8, in the 1950s. She has lived in institutions (nice private ones, not state-run) ever since.
Per the book flap: "Twin reconstructs a parallel narrative for the two siblings, who experienced such divergent fates yet shared talents and proclivities."
Um, no.
"Twin highlights the difficulties American families coping with autism faced in the 1950s"
Um, not so much.
Shawn in a successful composer and professor, with a lot of phobias. (He is very talented and has studied with important people! Be impressed! There is a lot of name dropping. His brother is also very successful! And his dad was very important!) In this book, he basically blames all of his phobias, fears, and problems on the fact that his parents institutionalized his twin sister Mary. He has only realized this recently--he "never thought about it" before. So much of the book is him writing things he doesn't remember thinking about at the time. Really. So, he is describing things as he thinks he felt then, though he has no memory of actually feeling that way, but he must have. YAWN.
Aside from the incessant name-dropping and the interpreting-of-memories-he-doesn't-remember, there is the discussion of how embarrassing it was to ride in a limo to visit his sister, because it made him seem rich. Um, you and your brother both went to boarding school, and your sister was in a private institution. You were rich. And then there are the descriptions of his father--editor of The New Yorker. Important. Always at work. Phobic. And with another family on the side.
Yes, he blames his phobias on sister's being institutionalized, yet then drops that his father began suffering from phobias at the age of 6. Maybe it's....genetic?! Maybe his dad's being largely absent due to "work"--when there was actually another family that Shawn's mother knew about, and then that the sons knew of--caused more of his issues.
I could go on about the overall poor organization of the book. But I don't want to. I want to put this out of my mind forever!
Shawn has a probably autistic twin sister, who was institutionalized at the age of 8, in the 1950s. She has lived in institutions (nice private ones, not state-run) ever since.
Per the book flap: "Twin reconstructs a parallel narrative for the two siblings, who experienced such divergent fates yet shared talents and proclivities."
Um, no.
"Twin highlights the difficulties American families coping with autism faced in the 1950s"
Um, not so much.
Shawn in a successful composer and professor, with a lot of phobias. (He is very talented and has studied with important people! Be impressed! There is a lot of name dropping. His brother is also very successful! And his dad was very important!) In this book, he basically blames all of his phobias, fears, and problems on the fact that his parents institutionalized his twin sister Mary. He has only realized this recently--he "never thought about it" before. So much of the book is him writing things he doesn't remember thinking about at the time. Really. So, he is describing things as he thinks he felt then, though he has no memory of actually feeling that way, but he must have. YAWN.
Aside from the incessant name-dropping and the interpreting-of-memories-he-doesn't-remember, there is the discussion of how embarrassing it was to ride in a limo to visit his sister, because it made him seem rich. Um, you and your brother both went to boarding school, and your sister was in a private institution. You were rich. And then there are the descriptions of his father--editor of The New Yorker. Important. Always at work. Phobic. And with another family on the side.
Yes, he blames his phobias on sister's being institutionalized, yet then drops that his father began suffering from phobias at the age of 6. Maybe it's....genetic?! Maybe his dad's being largely absent due to "work"--when there was actually another family that Shawn's mother knew about, and then that the sons knew of--caused more of his issues.
I could go on about the overall poor organization of the book. But I don't want to. I want to put this out of my mind forever!