Lori Lansens was born and raised in Chatham, Ontario, a small Canadian town with a remarkable history and a collection of eccentric characters, which became the setting for her first two bestselling novels. Living with her family in southern California now, she could not resist the pull of her fictitious 'Baldoon County' when she set out to write The Wife's Tale. She took the journey, along with her main character, from Canada to the Pacific Coast of America, where she enjoys the sunshine, and has learned a thing or two about transformation.
In Lori Lansens' astonishing second novel, readers come to know and love two of the most remarkable characters in Canadian fiction. Rose and Ruby are twenty-nine-year-old conjoined twins.
Born during a tornado to a shocked teenaged mother in the hospital at Leaford, Ontario, they are raised by the nurse who helped usher them into the world. Aunt Lovey and her husband, Uncle Stash,
are middle-aged and with no children of their own. They relocate from the town to the drafty old farmhouse in the country that has been in Lovey's family for generations.
Joined to Ruby at the head, Rose's face is pulled to one side, but she has full use of her limbs. Ruby has a beautiful face, but her body is tiny and she is unable to walk.
She rests her legs on her sister's hip, rather like a small child or a doll.
In spite of their situation, the girls lead surprisingly separate lives. Rose is bookish and a baseball fan.
Ruby is fond of trash TV and has a passion for local history.
Rose has always wanted to be a writer, and as the novel opens, she begins to pen her autobiography.
Here is how she begins:
I have never looked into my sister's eyes. I have never bathed alone. I have never stood in the grass at night and raised my arms to a beguiling moon.
I've never used an airplane bathroom. Or worn a hat. Or been kissed like that. I've never driven a car. Or slept through the night. Never a private talk. Or solo walk. I've never climbed a tree.
Or faded into a crowd. So many things I've never done, but oh, how I've been loved. And, if such things were to be, I'd live a thousand lives as me, to be lovedso exponentially.
Ruby, with her marvellous characteristic logic, points out that Rose's autobiography will have to be Ruby's as well — and how can she trust Rose to represent her story accurately?
Soon, Ruby decides to chime in with chapters of her own.
The novel begins with Rose, but eventually moves to Ruby's point of view and then switches back and forth.
Because the girls face in slightly different directions, neither can see what the other is writing, and they don't tell each other either. The reader is treated to sometimes overlapping
stories told in two wonderfully distinct styles. Rose is given to introspection and secrecy. Ruby's style is "tell-all" — frank and decidedly sweet.
We learn of their early years as the town "freaks" and of Lovey's and Stash's determination to give them as normal an upbringing as possible.
But when we meet them, both Lovey and Stash are dead, the girls have moved back into town, and they've received some ominous news.
They are on the verge of becoming the oldest surviving craniopagus (joined at the head) twins in history, but the question of whether they'll live to celebrate their thirtieth
birthday is suddenly impossible to answer.
In Rose and Ruby, Lori Lansens has created two precious characters, each distinct and loveable in their very different ways,
and has given them a world in Leaford that rings absolutely true. The girls are unforgettable. The Girls is nothing short of a tour de force.
發表於2024-09-10
The Girls 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載
“你不一定是因為發瘋纔會做蠢事,也有可能是年少無知。” “這是奇跡的重量,她想,但也是憂慮的重擔。” “你一直想著“最終”、“最好”、“再也不能”這類字眼,等你真的到那個地步時,並沒有多少東西是你樂意終結的” 摘自原文 還好我是一個有著正常態的人,可是世界卻是...
評分在這個煽情成為消費品的年代,做讀者的有時難免自我設防。就好比在閱讀羅莉・蘭森的《那兩個女孩》之前,我已經聽說這部小說講的是一對連體雙胞胎姐妹。心理建設在翻開書頁之前自動完成瞭:也許是個悲劇,也許會讓人哭。 所以讀瞭十幾頁之後便有種坐過山車的感覺,...
評分想到《那兩個女孩》這本書,我常會想起一件很妙的事,那就是,身邊聽我說過《那兩個女孩》故事的人,都會問我:這是真人真事嗎? 小說與真實的邊界,到底在哪裏? 描寫姐妹情感、女性成長和傢庭關係的小說已經太多,現在市麵上也不乏直接以姐妹為主角的暢銷書,為什麼還要再...
評分“你不一定是因為發瘋纔會做蠢事,也有可能是年少無知。” “這是奇跡的重量,她想,但也是憂慮的重擔。” “你一直想著“最終”、“最好”、“再也不能”這類字眼,等你真的到那個地步時,並沒有多少東西是你樂意終結的” 摘自原文 還好我是一個有著正常態的人,可是世界卻是...
評分我本來是因為好看的封麵纔把手伸嚮這本書的。 外國人有度假帶一本厚小說的習慣,我本身卻不是小說的偏好者,頭骨相連的雙胞胎姐妹讓我第一個想到馬戲團裏被圍觀的異類,我開始擔心閱讀經驗會像早餐吃錯瞭東西那樣帶來一整天的不適。 我當然錯瞭。 用交替敘述口...
圖書標籤: 原版 novel fiction English Canada 2006
The Girls 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載