The Girls: A Novel

Since their birth, Rose and Ruby Darlen have been known simply as "the girls." They make friends, fall in love, have jobs, love their parents, and follow their dreams. But the Darlens are special. Now nearing their 30th birthday, they are history's oldest craniopagus twins, joined at the head by a spot the size of a bread plate.

When Rose, the bookish sister, sets out to write her autobiography, it inevitably becomes the story of her short but extraordinary life with Ruby, the beautiful one. From their awkward first steps--Ruby's arm curled around Rose's neck, her foreshortened legs wrapped around Rose's hips--to the friendships they gradually build for themselves in the small town of Leaford, this is the profoundly affecting chronicle of an incomparable life journey.

As Rose and Ruby's story builds to an unforgettable conclusion, Lansens aims at the heart of human experience--the hardship of loss and struggles for independence, and the fundamental joy of simply living a life. This is a breathtaking novel, one that no reader will soon forget, a heartrending story of love between sisters.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Six Stars, 2008-11-21
Seldom have I been moved by a novel as much as by this one. Lori Lansens writes with a sparkling clarity and directness, not to mention tenderness. Her other gift is to have concocted such an unusual and ingenious premise for a story and to have seen it through from beginning to end with a breathtaking sure-footedness. Even so, it could well be argued that the craniopagus twins of the title serve mainly as a conduit for Lansen's true purpose, her exploration of the human condition as it applies to all of us. For indeed everything is here: joy, fear, wonderment, loyalty, devotion . . . and of course love and death.

My own sense of wonder is that, long since I finished the book, seldom a day passes that one or more of these vividly realised characters don't at some point enter my mind and in so doing touch on issues that are normally all too easy to simply rush past on the way to the usual worries of everyday life. If it wasn't for the cliché of the life-changing book I'd surely want to venture out and use it about this one.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Sisters closer than most live and die together, 2008-11-17
Having greatly enjoyed Lansens' debut novel, "Rush Home Road," I was immediately interested in this one -- particularly given the ununsual storyline. Protagonists Rose and Ruby Darlen are 29-year-old conjoined twins, born during a freak tornado and soon after abandoned by their unwed teenage mother. Lovey Darlen, the nurse who tends to the twins, immediately decides to take them home herself, and the girls are raised lovingly by her and her husband Stash.

At the time of the book's writing, the twins are soon approaching their thirtieth birthday -- which would make them the world's oldest surviving craniopagus twins. Unfortunately, they are also suffering from a brain aneurysm, which can burst at any moment. While it's technically in Rose's brain, their heads are joined, so it would also kill Ruby.

Thus Rose's idea of writing a book to preserve their story is born, with Ruby grudgingly agreeing to include a few chapters from her point of view.

The sisters discuss their comfortable adult life, working in the town library after the deaths of Aunt Lovey and Uncle Stash, as well as their upbringing in a tiny Canadian town where they grew up haunted by the death of a four-year-old boy who would've been their neighbor.

As might be expected, given the subject matter, "The Girls" is something of a depressing book. Still, the flashbacks provide readers with glimpses of an extraordinary life, a glimpse into a sisterhood that many, if not most, could never even imagine.




2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Beautiful layered novel!, 2008-09-06
As an English teacher and avid reader, I appreciate a standout novel when I read one. This is a beautifully written book and the plot is textured and reveals itself little by little all through the novel. It's a novel of sisterhood, family love and married love. I cannot find enough stars here to rate this book... It deserves a million stars. The book is being handed along our hallway from English teacher to English teacher. And for another treat, find her other novel. she's a master at describing nonstereotypical families and showing how loving these families can be.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

a sweet, heartwarming story, 2008-08-21
This was definitely an enjoyable book for me. When I first started reading it, I wasn't sure what I was going to think about the book because something about Rose's voice, her story, didn't click with me. I think my initial problem was that she was telling SO many stories from their childhood when I really just wanted to get to know the two of them as they were in the present - how they lived their day to day lives as 29 year old conjoined twins. But once Ruby joined in, the story really started to pick up and go back and forth between their past and present, and I began to get involved with the characters and care about them. Once that happened, I fell in love with these two extraordinary women and their story. Lansens did such an amazing job writing their two voices so distinctly different from one another, and I actually came to enjoy one twin more than the other, which was kind of interesting. There weren't a lot of secondary characters in this novel (besides their "parents", Aunt Lovey and Uncle Stash), but the ones that were there played an important part in the book and helped tie everything together.

I've been meaning to read this book for so long now, and I'm very glad that I finally got to it. I can't say it's the best book I've read or anything, but it is a very sweet and heartwarming story with wonderful characters as well. I would definitely recommend picking this one up.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Loved this novel, 2008-08-06
I had a tough time at the beginning of this novel trying to figure out if I would enjoy it. But my the middle I was not enjoying it, I was eating it up with a spoon. I loved these two girls and reading about their adventures. Even though I knew it was fiction I couldn't help thinking somewhere two girls were living this conjoined life. It gave me a glimpse into something that I was not familiar with am intent on becoming more familiar with.

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