The Reader's Shelf—Born Together: The Literature of Twins

Twins make for fascinating reading. In considering the emotional landscape of twins, authors explore the deepest of interconnected relationships. Duality, polarity, coincidence, and competition are just a few of the themes that run through the literature. Be it a true-life story of deep friendship and tragic separations or the fictional premise for a fantastic plot, memoirs, nonfiction titles, and novels abound with twin topics.

Proving that truth can be stranger than fiction, in Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited (Random. 2007. ISBN 978-1-4000-6496-0. $25.95), twins Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein tell how they learned of each other's existence at the age of 35. Filmmaker Schein began a cybersearch for information about her biological mother. Eventually, she received a letter from an adoption agency bearing the news that she was the younger of twin girls. When Schein and Bernstein reunite at a Manhattan café, they are relieved to see they are not carbon copies of each other. But as they become acquainted, they wonder about the circumstances of their earliest years. Were they separated as part of their adoption agency's secret twin study? Together they chase down the facts behind their separation, pushing and poking at the newly forged bond between them.

In psychologist Nancy Segal's Indivisible by Two: Lives of Extraordinary Twins (Harvard Univ. 2007. ISBN 978-0-674-02570-7. pap. $15.95), the author, who is a fraternal twin and director of California State University's Twin Studies Center, clearly delights in gathering tales of the world's most uncommon twins. She introduces us to identical twins Jack and Oskar, one raised as a Trinidadian Jew, the other as a German Catholic during the era of Hitler's rise to power. We meet Melanie and Mira, who exhibit selective mutism and rarely talk to nonfamily members yet are very popular at grade school. Our hearts ache for Linda, who lost her identical twin, Brenda, in the World Trade Center attack.

Novels about twins present intriguing variations on the themes of intimacy and individuation. Joanna Trollope's A Spanish Lover (o.p.) examines the lives of twins Lizzie and Frances in midlife. Lizzie has been deeply blessed. She is happily married, with four children, a sprawling home, and a successful crafts gallery. Her sister, Frances, a travel agent, has stayed single. As the story progresses, Lizzie's business and marriage run into rocky shores, and Frances falls in love with a married man. In the face of their troubles, both women are challenged to reframe their expectations of each other.

Long-held secrets imbue Kim Edwards's The Memory Keeper's Daughter (Penguin. 2006. ISBN 978-0-14-303714-9. pap. $14) with melancholy suspense. Dr. David Henry, forced to deliver his own children, banishes his daughter, Phoebe, when he sees she has Down syndrome. He tells his wife that their daughter died at birth and hopes that she can focus all her love on their son, Paul, Phoebe's fraternal twin. Yet it is not to be. The novel traces the parallel lives of the Henrys, all haunted by a secret only David, and Caroline, the nurse David entrusted to take Phoebe away, understand.

In Lori Lansens's novel The Girls (Back Bay: Little, Brown. 2007. ISBN 978-0-316-06634-1. pap. $13.99), Canadian conjoined twins Rose and Ruby take turns telling their story of sisterhood, friendship, and love. Born during a tornado, they grow up under the fierce protection of their Aunt Lovey and Uncle Stash and as young women find work in the town library. Because they are joined side-by-side, the twins have never looked directly into each other's eyes. Rose, the more intellectual of the two, takes the lead in writing their story, spilling her love of words all over the page. Ruby, said to be the prettier, is less driven to write but, at Rose's prompting, fills their memoir with background and detail.

Divided Minds: Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophrenia (Griffin: St. Martin's. 2006. ISBN 978-0-312-32065-2. pap. $14.95) by Pamela Spiro Wagner and Carolyn S. Spiro, M.D., is a deeply probing double memoir about being a twin, being a sister, and suffering from a harrowing mental disease. Wagner began a lifelong struggle with schizophrenia in middle school, cutting and burning herself and seeing evil everywhere. Despite, or perhaps because of, these challenges, she grew up to be a critically acclaimed poet. Her sister, struggling with how to deal with her twin, became a psychiatrist. Their moving book reveals their complex relationship in all its love and exasperation.