High Concept, Limited Talent A thoughtful reader who reads this book hoping for insight into the actual lives of Chang & Eng is going to be greatly disappointed: the author himself (in a brief afterward) renounces almost all claim to biographical accuracy, and I found any hint of psychological insight to be absent as well. To say that the novel is "rigorously grounded in historical fact" as the Amazon.com reviewer states, or "assiduously researched" as Publishers Weekly claims, is absurd. (One simple example: in real life the twins courted their wives for 4 years; in the book it's less than a month. Another example of a more troubling historical inaccuracy: Strauss has a character in 1826 refer to the big city of New York and its "electricity." Nope, that's a little too early.) Okay, so it's not claiming to be history or biography, but as a novel I found it simply tedious. Instead of interesting character development or intriguing riffs on historical fact or setting, you get clumsy and usually static descriptions of various locales and a simple dichotomy between the two brothers endlessly repeated. Yes, Eng is more thoughtful and refined, desirous of separation, while Chang is willing to degrade himself in quest of acceptance and connection. Okay, and then...? Well, that's it--for 300 pp. Nearly half of the book is devoted to Eng's desire for Chang's wife. This could be absurdly funny, but unfortunately it's not--it simply becomes repetitive: something to keep the domestic half of the story limping along. It's certainly a great concept--using these Siamese twins--but the imagination and skill to make much of the material is lacking. Eng does not seem so much like a Siamese twin born in 1811 as he does your basic (if somewhat snooty) contemporary American--with an American's notion of "individuality" and subjectivity--who can't get away from his brother. And that leaves so much of the rich possibility of this material out. Throughout the book, I found myself imagining what a good writer could have done with this material! (Thomas Pynchon! Philip Roth! Alice Munro! David Foster Wallace!) What Strauss gives us is basically just a Hollywood version of the story, schematic and simplified, with far too much excrutiating description.
Stranger Than Fiction! Darin Strauss has elegantly polevaulted over the difficult hurdle of writing a novel based on historic fact while keeping his story refined and tight enough that the novel stands on its own merits, as though the "fiction" is beautifully embellished by "fact". Not only does he make the history of the famous Siamese twins Chang and Eng read like a flawlessly constructed novel, he has obviously carefully researched his subject so that all of the peripheral data (pre-Civil War America, early New York, the Civil War, the stature of Siam in the 19th century, supporting cast that includes PT Barnum et al) ring true.
In writing about the twins whose life was supported by being a carnie show act Strauss is sensitive to the concepts of how people out of the groove we consider "normal" relate. These twins are wholly believable in their interaction with each other, with an estranged society, with their two wives. At first the curiosity factor may be the reason for buying and reading this book. And for those readers who enjoy a sojourn into the bizarre, the incredible, this book supplies all that. By alternating chapters of the twins' childhood to manhood histories with chapters devoted to their adult status as husbands and fathers this fascinating book charges our interest to read until the inevitable slides under our eyes. Very fine writing, this, and a terrific lesson in human kindness and tolerance. Grady Harp, August 08
JUST WE TWO... This is an ambitious and intriguing debut novel, which is based upon conjoined twins, Chang and Eng, who were born in Siam during the nineteenth century. It is through them that the term "Siamese Twins" entered the vernacular. Here, the author takes known facts about these famous twins and weaves an expertly woven story about their lives, while attempting to individualize them, giving each of them their own distinct and unique personality.
The author tells the story of the conjoined twins through the first person narration of Eng. Born in 1811 in a house boat on the Mekong River in Siam, which is now known as Thailand, Chang and Eng entered the world linked together at the chest by a fleshy band of cartilage. It would be this short band of flesh that would forever bind them together, ensuring that they would never have a truly private moment. For their entire lives, they would be bound to each other, and the two would be forced to live as one.
The author explores their private and often strange lives, which the reader views through Eng's eyes. It is through his intimate thoughts that the reader envisions how the twins may have possibly viewed their own lives. The reader follows the path that their lives took, from their poverty stricken childhood on the Mekong River to their presentation to the King of Siam. It then shows how, as adolescents, they came to arrive in America, where they were displayed as oddities. Eventually, they became an international sensation, becoming nineteenth century celebrities.
Amazingly, they went on to marry two sisters, Adelaide and Sarah, with whom they fathered a total of twenty-one children. Chang and Eng set up house in North Carolina, where they raised their family. Still, this book is not so much about the factual portion of their lives, but rather, about the thoughts of Eng, as he and Chang pass through life together. It is a very intimate, insightful look at their lives and, in particular, the longings of Eng to experience life as most do, as one and not as two.
This is a well-written and delicately nuanced work of historical fiction that is highly imaginative. Instead of having the reader remain on the outside of the lives of Chang and Eng, looking in, the author manages to take the reader into their lives, having the reader look out onto the world from the perspective of Eng. Through Eng, the reader sees the twins as having two very distinct and unique personalities and realizes the angst that they must have experienced in never being able to have a truly private moment. At times, Chang and Eng appear to have had a love-hate relationship. This is a poignant and haunting look at these two individuals, who were, by necessity, constrained to live as one.
For those who are intrigued by the lives of Chang and Eng, but would prefer a purely biographical treatment, "The Two" by Irving Wallace and Amy Wallace is excellent and highly recommended.
Facinating...Can you imagine? I read this last year. I have always been fascinated by twins and I thought that Darin Strauss did a wonderful job of fictionalizing the thoughts and perceptions of Chang and Eng Bunker the famous conjoined twins from Siam.
I enjoyed the personalities of the brothers and the voice that Strauss creates for Eng. I also enjoyed reading about this period in our history.
I thought it was a very interesting fictionalization and well written.
Imagine having two heads - literally Any reader who seeks out unusual topics of interest should give this a spin. Every time I come across this book somewhere, I smile and get queasy at the same time. I had to take a break here and there - I don't know if this was because it was so weirdly disturbing or if the story sometimes lost its flow. Nonetheless, it's definitely worth the read.
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