SOCIAL MEDIA

Review: The Girls

Why I picked it: My book club in Omaha read this book for our October selection and discussed the book with the author Tuesday evening.

I was so excited when they called me to talk and catch up!  I miss these ladies so much.  We talked for an hour (about everything)... as soon as I hung up the phone I thought... I forgot to ask:

Cheryl,  How are your boys doing? 
Lisa, Tell me about the call with Lori (we didn't even talk about it)
Linda, How are the grandchildren? How's the musician?

I could go on and on.... but with a dozen women in our group I will spare you the individual questions (ha).

Synopsis: Rose and Ruby are closer than most twin sisters. Indeed, they have spent their twenty-nine years on earth joined at the head. Given that they share a web of essential veins, there is no possibility that they can be separated in their lifetime.

On the eve of their thirtieth birthday, Rose sets out to write her autobiography. But because their lives have been so closely shared, Ruby insists on contributing the occasional chapter. And so, as Rose types away on her laptop, the technophobic Ruby scribbles longhand on a yellow legal pad. They’ve established one rule for their co-writing venture: neither is allowed to see what the other has written. Together, they tell the story of their lives as the world’s oldest surviving craniopagus twins – the literary Rose and straight-talking Ruby often seeing the same event in wildly different ways. Despite their extreme medical condition, the sisters express emotional truths that every reader will identify with: on losing a loved one, the hard lessons of compromise, the first stirrings of sexual desire, the pain of abandonment, and the transcendent power of love.

Quick Take: Recommend - I read The Wife's Tale earlier this year (loved it) and was excited to read this book for my Omaha book club. Someone from my book club suggested The Girls and talking with the author was a wonderful experience so it was an easy selection for us.  I know I shouldn't compare books but I will - I liked The Wife's Tale so much more than this one, there is a long family trip to Uncle Stash's home town that seemed to last forever (maybe it was the audio experience).  That said, I adored Ruby and the descriptiveness of how they live from day to day.  I know this is a novel loosely based on a particular set of twins which made the book more interesting.

Source: Library (audio)