MADreads

Two heads are better than one…or are they?

July 7th, 2008 Kylee

I get excited about circus books.  Trapeze artists, tightrope walkers… I’m fascinated by all the color and sparkle, but I prefer it without the crowds and animals of the real circus.  Last summer I was really excited to read The Girls by Lori Lansens, which I thought would be a fun tale of the life of two conjoined twins - not circus performers, but still interesting.  Maybe my expectations were narrow-minded, but I was sadly disappointed.  The book was a very sweet story about the sisters’ relationships with each other and with their family and friends, and they never once performed any sort of act.  It was nice, but really not what I was hoping for. 

I found the excitement I wanted this summer in Half Life, by Shelley Jackson.  Like The Girls, the conjoined twins in the novel are far from the circus, but they live in a world that’s a bit different than ours, which creates its own sort of sparkle.  Due to radioactive fallout, birth defects - particularly conjoined twins that share one body but have their own heads - are becoming increasingly common, to the point where “twofer” rights have become a major political issue.  While most twofers accept their lot and learn to share their body, Nora Olney longs to be a single person.  Her twin, Blanche, has been asleep since a childhood trauma, and Nora is sick of the literal extra weight on her shoulders.  She begins to research the services provided by the mysterious Unity Foundation, which promises to solve her problem with a simple but illegal surgery.  However, as she gets closer to making a decision about Blanche, it begins to seem that Blanche may not be sleeping soundly after all.

Jackson does a terrific job creating an alternate America; her attention to detail makes her country a believable place where twofers have become a real subculture, complete with its own logos, slang, artists - even bookstores.  This setting is delightful in itself, and when Nora’s story begins to intensify as the Unity Foundation leads her to its secret headquarters, it has all the excitement of a murder mystery.  This is Jackson’s first traditonal novel, but she’s something of an expert in abstract storytelling.  Her previous work includes a hypertext novel and a story told through words tattooed on the skin of over 2,000 volunteers.  She’s clearly no stranger to the unconventional, and her approach to conventional storytelling shows her unique perspective brilliantly.

Entry Filed under: Literary Fiction, Science Fiction