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Half Life
Nora and Blanche are conjoined twins. Nora is strong, funny, and deeply independent, thirsting for love and adventure. Blanche, by contrast, has been asleep for twenty years. Sick of carrying her sister's dead weight, Nora wants her other half gone for good--a desire that takes her from San Francisco to London in search of the Unity Foundation, a mysterious organization that promises to make two one. But once in England, Nora's past begins to surface in surprising and disturbing ways, pushing her to the brink of insanity and forcing her to question her own--and Blanche's--grip on the truth.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published July 25, 2006
40 people are currently reading
1712 people want to read
About the author
Shelley Jackson
30 books124 followersShelley Jackson is an American writer and artist known for her cross-genre experiments, including her hyperfiction, Patchwork Girl (1995). Her first novel was published in 2006, Half Life.
In the late nineties, Jackson alternated hypertext work with writing short stories. She published her first short story collection, The Melancholy of Anatomy, in 2002.
Jackson's first novel, Half Life, was published by HarperCollins in 2006. She currently teaches in the graduate writing program at The New School in New York City and at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee.[14]
In the late nineties, Jackson alternated hypertext work with writing short stories. She published her first short story collection, The Melancholy of Anatomy, in 2002.
Jackson's first novel, Half Life, was published by HarperCollins in 2006. She currently teaches in the graduate writing program at The New School in New York City and at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee.[14]
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 173 reviews
October 1, 2007
This is the co-winner of the Tiptree this year, so I expected a lot more from it. The book is set in a world very similar to our own, except with more nuclear explosions and a population of conjoined twins large enough to have their own lobby groups. Nora is uncomfortable sharing her body with her conjoined (but perpetually unconscious) twin, Blanche, so she resolves to get Blanche surgically removed. I really love the idea of having two brains and thus, two personalities and two sexualities to a body, but the book doesn’t explore this. Instead, it focuses on Nora’s childhood in the desert, where she had quirky, twisted adventures in the radioactive dunes. By the end, Nora and the novel have lost all touch with reality—which is fun except for the fact that it’s completely unreadable. This book is the written equivalent of the last twenty minutes of “2001”—I’m sure *something* “deep” is going on, but I’m not sure what and mostly I just feel bored and nauseated.
I actually feel insulted that Jackson expected readers to slog through hundreds of pages of self-congratulatory cleverness, with no discernable plot and unlikeable, unrealistic characters.
I actually feel insulted that Jackson expected readers to slog through hundreds of pages of self-congratulatory cleverness, with no discernable plot and unlikeable, unrealistic characters.
May 22, 2007
Okay, so this won the Tiptree award, which is usually a good indicator of something interesting.
And it is an interesting idea: that there are a lot more conjoined twins in the world (because of radioactivity or something), so they've become a vocal minority like gay people.
Except that this is pretty much the ONLY idea in the book, and sure it's fun to imagine all the many, many different aspects of gay culture that could apply to conjoined twins, but you can't write a symphony using just one note.
Also, she seems to be a victim of Look-At-Me-I'm-A-Writer! syndrome. For example:
"Once, I plunged my right hand wrist-deep in a red ant den. Blanche did not move or cry, though a sun boiled at the end of that arm. I was the one who yanked out the swollen pentapod, brushed off the myrmidons sleeving our forearm in fire."
Jeez, lady. Calm down.
And it is an interesting idea: that there are a lot more conjoined twins in the world (because of radioactivity or something), so they've become a vocal minority like gay people.
Except that this is pretty much the ONLY idea in the book, and sure it's fun to imagine all the many, many different aspects of gay culture that could apply to conjoined twins, but you can't write a symphony using just one note.
Also, she seems to be a victim of Look-At-Me-I'm-A-Writer! syndrome. For example:
"Once, I plunged my right hand wrist-deep in a red ant den. Blanche did not move or cry, though a sun boiled at the end of that arm. I was the one who yanked out the swollen pentapod, brushed off the myrmidons sleeving our forearm in fire."
Jeez, lady. Calm down.
February 28, 2008
I've been spending my migraine filled days browsing through people's reviews of books and none struck me as much as the reviews for Shelley's book. I can see why so many people had trouble with this book when I look at the description from the publisher. Jackson first gained popularity on the writing scene with her hypertext work. She followed this hype up with a stunning collection of short stories called the Melancholy of Anatomy (a title that plays on the work by Robert Burton called the Anatomy of Melancholy). As she worked on Half Life and some of her children's books, she began work on a project called "Skin," a story tattooed one word at a time on people around the world. This, although interesting because no one will ever know the entire story (lest all the words happen to meet in one place and miraculously fall into the correct order), seems to have become a problem for Jackson. It seems people only want to talk about "Skin." The novelty over shadowed the theory behind the piece. So, people, hearing the buzz about her "Skin" story, bought this novel and seemed to be disappointed. Big surprise. Jackson is not part of a side show freak exhibit. She is a dedicated artist, who tells tales that exist in a realm just beyond us. Yes, the characters use the same sinks, televisions, trains, and computers as us, but they somehow slip into a thin fabric of otherworldliness (an onion skin) where they experience complications and revelations that other characters can't see.
Half life is as much about conjoined twins as it is about curiosity museums in England. It's a book that examines the possibility of our other selves. It's about a world that thinks of itself as a better half and can't realize that it might not be the better half.
There are a few weak moments, I will agree. The word play in some of the notes doesn't seem to move the book along as much as I would have like to see, but that's a small complaint when one looks at the size of the book.
Jackson scared me for a moment when I thought the book was going to take a turn into the cliché "split personality" ending that seems to be so popular these days. However, she doesn't go there. She leads the reader right to the point where s/he thinks they have it all figured out and quickly dashes it all away.
Sure, if you're looking for Middlesex or a book on twins or another "Skin" this book is not going to do it for you. However, if you put expectations aside and let Jackson take you into the post nuclear world of a West that could have existed, you might just be thankful these words weren't tattooed on somebody in Idaho.
Half life is as much about conjoined twins as it is about curiosity museums in England. It's a book that examines the possibility of our other selves. It's about a world that thinks of itself as a better half and can't realize that it might not be the better half.
There are a few weak moments, I will agree. The word play in some of the notes doesn't seem to move the book along as much as I would have like to see, but that's a small complaint when one looks at the size of the book.
Jackson scared me for a moment when I thought the book was going to take a turn into the cliché "split personality" ending that seems to be so popular these days. However, she doesn't go there. She leads the reader right to the point where s/he thinks they have it all figured out and quickly dashes it all away.
Sure, if you're looking for Middlesex or a book on twins or another "Skin" this book is not going to do it for you. However, if you put expectations aside and let Jackson take you into the post nuclear world of a West that could have existed, you might just be thankful these words weren't tattooed on somebody in Idaho.
September 21, 2010
wow. it started out with an intriguing idea and got weird real quick. then it got real dark, to the point that i was like "i'm not sure if i want to read hundreds more pages about something this intense and with a character i don't really like so much." but i stuck in and it was real good. the book kept twisting. i also liked that the book was a little choppy and used some things that weren't straight narrative. it was like this little world was created and you had more than just the main character's perspective on it and you could start to try to figure out your own independent idea of the things happening in the little world.
got a little weird towards the end, possibly because the slight surrealism got way surrealistic-er. sometimes i like for things to be a little more concrete and a little less "wait, is this actually happening? or is this a hallucination? or what the hell?" but i assume that tendency just means that i'm dumb and don't understand good literature or something. anyways, the point is that this book was so good.
got a little weird towards the end, possibly because the slight surrealism got way surrealistic-er. sometimes i like for things to be a little more concrete and a little less "wait, is this actually happening? or is this a hallucination? or what the hell?" but i assume that tendency just means that i'm dumb and don't understand good literature or something. anyways, the point is that this book was so good.
November 1, 2012
This reminded me of Ian Banks' The Wasp Factory (one of my favorites). It's an in-depth portrait of a mind(s?) coming apart. The writing, at the sentence level, was quite rich (too rich at times). The ending devolved into madness along with the narrator, which became a bit tedious, as it went on for far too long. Also, the author seemed to be in love (or obsessed) with the word creosote. Aside from these few flaws, this was really a stunning work. It was jam-packed with great imagery, disturbing situations, dark humor, and unsettling ideas. She did a wonderful job exploring what it means to be a conjoined twin, and didn't shy away from some of the more touchy subjects. The chapter entitled "So you're wondering about National Penitence?" alone is worth the price of the book.
October 4, 2009
Half Life is Shelley Jackson’s debut novel, a work of twisted fiction with an equally convoluted style. The story is set in an alternate history where nuclear fallout caused a “Boom” that saw the births of many Siamese twins, with Nora and Blanche as our protagonists. The kicker is, Blanche is in a coma, and Nora wants to get rid of her forever. To do this, she seeks out an outlaw organization, the Unity Foundation, which promises to rid her of Blanche forever.
If that were the plot by itself, then the story would be easy to follow. However, Jackson’s style is extremely visual and often takes on a stream of consciousness quality that allows her to jump neurotically from one topic to the next. Chapters are a mixed lot: some are Nora’s diary entries while others compose the Siamese Twin Reference Manual, which is like a scrapbook of fictional articles and thematic transcripts. Along the way, Jackson doesn’t hesitate to elaborate on the philosophical conundrums associated with sharing a body with another sentient being. One fake article even goes so far as to outline Siamese-twinn-ness as the “spiritual evolution of a species finally advancing beyond self interest”.
To me, that all sounds delightful on the surface. But it doesn’t work very smoothly. Since the narrative is so self-referential, it gets a bit too convoluted for its own good (though I give her points for the creative use of new portmanteaus such as “tyou” (two + you), “gop” (stop + go) and “twincest”). One could argue that Jackson’s mutation of writing is form fitting theme (a mutation in the human gene pool), but the writing gets too lost in the details for the actual plot to be fully digested. This, of course, is personal preference. I don’t believe the plot has to suffer for Jackson to question the mathematical concept of 1 as it relates to conjoined twins.
The book does take controversial current issues such as environmental degradation, euthanasia and abortion and gives them a more grotesque counterpart, but aside from that, I found myself struggling to really care about the plot. I commend Jackson for opting out of a simple telling, but her creative travels swayed a bit too far for my liking.
If that were the plot by itself, then the story would be easy to follow. However, Jackson’s style is extremely visual and often takes on a stream of consciousness quality that allows her to jump neurotically from one topic to the next. Chapters are a mixed lot: some are Nora’s diary entries while others compose the Siamese Twin Reference Manual, which is like a scrapbook of fictional articles and thematic transcripts. Along the way, Jackson doesn’t hesitate to elaborate on the philosophical conundrums associated with sharing a body with another sentient being. One fake article even goes so far as to outline Siamese-twinn-ness as the “spiritual evolution of a species finally advancing beyond self interest”.
To me, that all sounds delightful on the surface. But it doesn’t work very smoothly. Since the narrative is so self-referential, it gets a bit too convoluted for its own good (though I give her points for the creative use of new portmanteaus such as “tyou” (two + you), “gop” (stop + go) and “twincest”). One could argue that Jackson’s mutation of writing is form fitting theme (a mutation in the human gene pool), but the writing gets too lost in the details for the actual plot to be fully digested. This, of course, is personal preference. I don’t believe the plot has to suffer for Jackson to question the mathematical concept of 1 as it relates to conjoined twins.
The book does take controversial current issues such as environmental degradation, euthanasia and abortion and gives them a more grotesque counterpart, but aside from that, I found myself struggling to really care about the plot. I commend Jackson for opting out of a simple telling, but her creative travels swayed a bit too far for my liking.
January 16, 2009
This book was a lot of fun, but like a lot of sci-fi-esque novels that use a wacky trope to explore pertinent Social Issues (which is almost all sci-fi-esque novels), it fell short for me. I loved the idea of the Atonement (the US bombing itself to atone for dropping the big ones on Japan) and the way conjoined twins could function as a symbol of all kinds of minority identities). I'm into exploring the whole otherness=monstrosity thing, and she did a lot of funny stuff with it on the surface, but it just didn't gel for me. Plus the characters and plot also felt spotty and half-realized. I loved Nora's first-person narrative voice, and the "scrapbook" sections. I felt Jackson reaching--this is an incredibly ambitious novel, and that's hard to pull off. I enjoyed Half Life, but I wanted to love it.
January 17, 2008
In an imagined reality only a split atom away from our own, the United States government has turned the Nevada test site into the National Penitence Ground, where, since World War II, it has been flagellating itself with nuclear bombs. Many of the children conceived amid the fallout, “against a distant bloom of pink neon,” have developed the same mutation in the womb, entering the world as “twofers”: two heads, with two personalities, sharing one body — what you and I might call conjoined twins, and the fastest-growing voting bloc in the western hemisphere.
So it goes in Shelley Jackson’s first full-length novel, Half-Life, which revolves around the life-and-death struggle of one such pair, named Nora and Blanche. As the novel opens in the pre-dot-com mid-’90s, they have come to live in that “citadel of the sex-positive,” identity-validating San Francisco.
However, the move was a decision only one of them was able to make, as Blanche has been asleep for 15 years. Jackson is not quick to reveal what caused Blanche to relinquish control of their shared body. This central mystery is slowly teased out as the novel oscillates between their childhood in the ghost town of Too Bad, Nev., and the present. We do quickly learn that Nora suspects her sleeping sister may have begun to wake, the implied motivation behind Nora’s increasing desperation to murder Blanche. Or is it Blanche who is trying to murder Nora?
In addition to being a murder mystery, Half-Life functions as a gleeful satire on identity and sexual politics. The novel’s San Francisco is a place “where even the gay men could locate a G-spot if they had to, and even the straight men were savvy about anal health, and brunching gals of all gender descriptions talked dildos knowledgeably over crepes.” The sisters rent a room in a Victorian flat with a view of the Castro’s red rocks, where the communal kitchen is stocked with “gallon jars of beans and sunflower seeds and nameless beige grains.” Nora and her roommates work as phone sex operators to support their artistic careers. Trey aspires to be a fashion designer and creates sequined twofer getups; Audrey is a filmmaker. A “twin hag” who identifies as a twofer although she was born a “singleton,” Audrey is also a member of the Togetherists, a growing activist movement that promotes twofer rights but tends to fetishize the objects of their political efforts. To the embarrassment of the movement, many of its constituents are singletons; to compensate, some sport prosthetic heads alongside their real ones.
When Audrey drags Nora to a party and attempts to explain the dating, sleeping, and swapping histories of the partygoers — an arrangement so convoluted she draws it out as a diagram of interlocking circles on a cocktail napkin — Jackson lampoons their community as a microcosm of well-meaning but often misplaced political correctness, skewering the hot fervor surrounding identity politics that flourished in San Francisco during the ’90s. Imagine a satirical and more theory-heavy version of Michelle Tea’s raucous novel Valencia. As one partygoer is overheard saying, “The abject is my favorite.”
That unnamed character could well be Jackson's doppelganger, with so many events in the novel situated somewhere between the abject and the screwball. During the girls’ youth in Too Bad, they find a playmate in Donkey-skin, a foul-mouthed girl creature imprisoned in a birdcage suspended from a rafter in the barn of the (so-called) evil Dr. Goat. The sisters also curate a zoo of desiccated animal corpses, and Jackson lovingly details the grotesqueness of their playthings. She uses these macabre images to illuminate Nora’s morbid nature, her curious morality and fascination with death. But as the novel wriggles toward what should be its climax, it turns darkly slapstick.
So it goes in Shelley Jackson’s first full-length novel, Half-Life, which revolves around the life-and-death struggle of one such pair, named Nora and Blanche. As the novel opens in the pre-dot-com mid-’90s, they have come to live in that “citadel of the sex-positive,” identity-validating San Francisco.
However, the move was a decision only one of them was able to make, as Blanche has been asleep for 15 years. Jackson is not quick to reveal what caused Blanche to relinquish control of their shared body. This central mystery is slowly teased out as the novel oscillates between their childhood in the ghost town of Too Bad, Nev., and the present. We do quickly learn that Nora suspects her sleeping sister may have begun to wake, the implied motivation behind Nora’s increasing desperation to murder Blanche. Or is it Blanche who is trying to murder Nora?
In addition to being a murder mystery, Half-Life functions as a gleeful satire on identity and sexual politics. The novel’s San Francisco is a place “where even the gay men could locate a G-spot if they had to, and even the straight men were savvy about anal health, and brunching gals of all gender descriptions talked dildos knowledgeably over crepes.” The sisters rent a room in a Victorian flat with a view of the Castro’s red rocks, where the communal kitchen is stocked with “gallon jars of beans and sunflower seeds and nameless beige grains.” Nora and her roommates work as phone sex operators to support their artistic careers. Trey aspires to be a fashion designer and creates sequined twofer getups; Audrey is a filmmaker. A “twin hag” who identifies as a twofer although she was born a “singleton,” Audrey is also a member of the Togetherists, a growing activist movement that promotes twofer rights but tends to fetishize the objects of their political efforts. To the embarrassment of the movement, many of its constituents are singletons; to compensate, some sport prosthetic heads alongside their real ones.
When Audrey drags Nora to a party and attempts to explain the dating, sleeping, and swapping histories of the partygoers — an arrangement so convoluted she draws it out as a diagram of interlocking circles on a cocktail napkin — Jackson lampoons their community as a microcosm of well-meaning but often misplaced political correctness, skewering the hot fervor surrounding identity politics that flourished in San Francisco during the ’90s. Imagine a satirical and more theory-heavy version of Michelle Tea’s raucous novel Valencia. As one partygoer is overheard saying, “The abject is my favorite.”
That unnamed character could well be Jackson's doppelganger, with so many events in the novel situated somewhere between the abject and the screwball. During the girls’ youth in Too Bad, they find a playmate in Donkey-skin, a foul-mouthed girl creature imprisoned in a birdcage suspended from a rafter in the barn of the (so-called) evil Dr. Goat. The sisters also curate a zoo of desiccated animal corpses, and Jackson lovingly details the grotesqueness of their playthings. She uses these macabre images to illuminate Nora’s morbid nature, her curious morality and fascination with death. But as the novel wriggles toward what should be its climax, it turns darkly slapstick.
November 26, 2007
I bought this book because I was attracted to the artwork on the cover, which was probably not the best decision I've made concerning book purchases. The book revolves around Nora and her conjoined twin Blanche, who has been in a Rip Van Winkle-like sleep for some 20-odd years. The two live in San Francisco, in a world in which conjoined twins are the norm. In addition, there are two schools of thought as far as conjoined twins go: those who believe that they are best off remaining together and those who feel that the conjoined should be surgically separated. Nora is with the latter, as Blanche has basically been dead weight for most of their life and Nora would like to live the remainder of her years free of the burden of her sister. But bizarre happenings begin to occur when Nora is asleep that suggest Blanche may be awakening from her long slumber.
I had a difficult time getting through this book and found many excuses to put it down to read something else. I finally found the perfect solution in finishing the novel: a 9 hour flight from Chicago to Dublin. I confess that while awaiting my flight at O'Hara International I picked up another book, Digging to America by Anne Tyler. I finally finished Half-Life while in Ireland and I felt like leaving it in one of the guest houses I stayed in, but I didn't want the housecleaning staff to have to deal with it.
I had a difficult time getting through this book and found many excuses to put it down to read something else. I finally found the perfect solution in finishing the novel: a 9 hour flight from Chicago to Dublin. I confess that while awaiting my flight at O'Hara International I picked up another book, Digging to America by Anne Tyler. I finally finished Half-Life while in Ireland and I felt like leaving it in one of the guest houses I stayed in, but I didn't want the housecleaning staff to have to deal with it.
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June 13, 2023OH NO. It's the first (and hopefully only) ditched book of 2023! There are plenty of books I don't read, but I reserve the dishonor of ditching only for those that pass the 50 page audition. I stuck with this for a good long while, because it had everything I thought I wanted--mixed forms, conjoined twins, alternate futures--and then I started reading and my body horror alarms went bonkers because the protagonist is looking to remove her twin!!!!!
But sadly, no go. I schlepped this all the way to Germany and should've left it there.
But sadly, no go. I schlepped this all the way to Germany and should've left it there.
July 31, 2022
WOW. Uh. WHAT did I just read????????
April 4, 2024
Trying to condense my [many] thoughts on this as to save time and not insult this book too hard with my tryhard longwinded analysis. A dark cabaret-flavored, genre-annihilating body horror nightmare-comedy character study with prose that is nothing short of virtuosic*, as I'd come to expect from the dazzling brilliance of "Riddance" [this novel doesn't quite reach the heights of that one but at times it comes damn close], and probing a lot of the same themes and ideas as that book while using a completely distinct aesthetic toolset to get there; artful equilibrium between dread and laugh-out-loud humor, like all good things tend to be; passionate adoration for so many diverging literary, cultural and historical genealogies, to the point where this may be a Chimera [hold your applause] but is lovingly borrowing from so many places that it comes entirely and clearly into its own; and of course most appealingly to me, an empathetic and Refreshingly Blunt approach to the inescapable existential nightmare that is physicality and awareness of one's own flesh, and how we can either live with this reality or let it crush us, or both. More of a 4.5 since I found the beginning stretches a bit difficult to adjust to, but the novel just keeps improving and deepening with every chapter and the ending stretch alone justifies some of the earlier struggle. Why is no one reading Jackson again??
*[P.S. I try not to put too much emphasis on this sort of thing, but I couldn't help but laugh at some of the reasoning in the negative reviews for this book and found myself wondering how people who aren't inclined to this sort of thing even found this book?? The novel isn't perfect and there's plenty to critique and analyze further on rereads, but if your main complaint for a book with such gorgeous prose is unironically "the writer uses Writerly Language, just get to the point!!", then I don't understand why you don't just drop books all together and go watch a TV show or something. Sheesh, y'all.]
*[P.S. I try not to put too much emphasis on this sort of thing, but I couldn't help but laugh at some of the reasoning in the negative reviews for this book and found myself wondering how people who aren't inclined to this sort of thing even found this book?? The novel isn't perfect and there's plenty to critique and analyze further on rereads, but if your main complaint for a book with such gorgeous prose is unironically "the writer uses Writerly Language, just get to the point!!", then I don't understand why you don't just drop books all together and go watch a TV show or something. Sheesh, y'all.]
March 30, 2023
I tried so hard to finish this but the universe was against me.
I found this at a thrift store with Sarah for like 3 dollars. there was a whole STACK of them (keep this in mind). I got approached by a worker in Anthropologie who said "ooo I'm gonna get that!" I wonder if she did it. I wonder how she is now.
for context, this book is about a world where the US atones for Hiroshima by atomic bombing THEMSELVES, resulting in a wild amount of conjoined twins (who are like oppressed? like a new minority?). this girl is a twin and her twin sister head has been asleep for like fifteen years. BUT she opened her eyes once and has been throwing things and weird events are happening and now the awake sister is looking into getting the sleepy one REMOVED (which is illegal).
interspersed are weird anecdotes about conjoined twins called the "Siamese twin reference manual" and they did not add to the story in the slightest. they only confused/terrified me more.
normally I can look past a weird storyline if I am intrigued enough! but that is until I found a BLOODSTAIN. there is a DRAMATIC spill of blood across a page and it jarred me. WHO HAD THIS BEFORE ME. HOW DID THIS EVEN OCCUR. were the rest of the books in the stack bloody? also who owned like ten used copies of this book. I will never, ever know.
I was then convinced to rip out the page and continue just so I could find out if the sister head survives. There were more stains.
This book caused me so much harm. Three dollars. spent. goodbye to half life. I will never know if that sister head regains consciousness. That I am ok with.
I found this at a thrift store with Sarah for like 3 dollars. there was a whole STACK of them (keep this in mind). I got approached by a worker in Anthropologie who said "ooo I'm gonna get that!" I wonder if she did it. I wonder how she is now.
for context, this book is about a world where the US atones for Hiroshima by atomic bombing THEMSELVES, resulting in a wild amount of conjoined twins (who are like oppressed? like a new minority?). this girl is a twin and her twin sister head has been asleep for like fifteen years. BUT she opened her eyes once and has been throwing things and weird events are happening and now the awake sister is looking into getting the sleepy one REMOVED (which is illegal).
interspersed are weird anecdotes about conjoined twins called the "Siamese twin reference manual" and they did not add to the story in the slightest. they only confused/terrified me more.
normally I can look past a weird storyline if I am intrigued enough! but that is until I found a BLOODSTAIN. there is a DRAMATIC spill of blood across a page and it jarred me. WHO HAD THIS BEFORE ME. HOW DID THIS EVEN OCCUR. were the rest of the books in the stack bloody? also who owned like ten used copies of this book. I will never, ever know.
I was then convinced to rip out the page and continue just so I could find out if the sister head survives. There were more stains.
This book caused me so much harm. Three dollars. spent. goodbye to half life. I will never know if that sister head regains consciousness. That I am ok with.
August 30, 2007
the idea of this book is what drew me to it: Siamese twins are not so much an oddity only in freak shows but have become common enough to have their own language and activists fight for their rights. twins Nora and Blanche are among them, but are a special case since Blanche has been asleep/in a coma for years--just dead weight for Nora to carry around. Nora decides it's time to finally cut her off and become singular, but many strange occurrences ensue making Nora think her sister isn't half as dead to her as she thought and forcing her to come to terms with her past.
seems for a great, strange story, right? i thought so too. but Jackson creates such an odd, new world--rightfully claiming it as Nora and Blanche's--but i think she gets too carried away with it, losing the reader halfway. i've read other reviews and people seem to agree, but maybe i should just read it again at some point.
seems for a great, strange story, right? i thought so too. but Jackson creates such an odd, new world--rightfully claiming it as Nora and Blanche's--but i think she gets too carried away with it, losing the reader halfway. i've read other reviews and people seem to agree, but maybe i should just read it again at some point.
August 21, 2008
Shelly Jackson has created a nicely organic metaphor for exploring identity - plus I can't resist my own fascination with freaks. Part science fiction part murder mystery with some meaty philosophical exploration mix in. The more expository discussion of the philosophy may feel a little academic to me after enjoying her really good suspenseful story. I think I could get it more naturally from the story.
Sometimes the tread of the narritive and the interior insights of the narrator aren't as clear to the reader as maybe the author thinks. Or maybe I'm just not up on her references. It feels like Ms Jackson fights with conventional narrative even while she's creating what comes close to being a murder mystery. But ultimately, this is a fun, engaging novel that explores big intellectual topics. Not easy to do. I'm planning to poke through Half Life again after the dust has settled in my brain to feel like I really got everything the book has to offer.
Sometimes the tread of the narritive and the interior insights of the narrator aren't as clear to the reader as maybe the author thinks. Or maybe I'm just not up on her references. It feels like Ms Jackson fights with conventional narrative even while she's creating what comes close to being a murder mystery. But ultimately, this is a fun, engaging novel that explores big intellectual topics. Not easy to do. I'm planning to poke through Half Life again after the dust has settled in my brain to feel like I really got everything the book has to offer.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 19, 2007
I managed to wedge reading this in between the end of the semester at Sarah Lawrence and the beginning of the summer term at Columbia (I am having difficulty with prepositions in English right now, apologies). Witty, irreverent narrator and somewhat interesting premise; tired format (narrative with intermittent "scrapbook" elements, like Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredible Close and many, many others). The plot becomes increasingly convoluted as a sympton of the narrator's internal struggle (in the literal sense, not metaphorical--she is sharing a body with a conjoined twin who mentally "checked out" years before), but I found her elegaical revelries completely unreadable at the end. I have to admit, I don't quite understand what happened in the end--and not in a good way?
July 1, 2016
This book sucked!!!
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November 15, 2019Found this at the local book exchange, which was a good thing as I ended up taking months to gradually read it. I've got mixed feelings about it. It's ambitious, experimental, and often funny... a tale of a world in which nuclear radiation has produced numerous conjoined twins (twofers) who constitute a vocal minority. There are also two attitudes about them (among twofers and the world at large): that they are great and the future, and that it's better to have just one head. Nora, the narrator, wants to get rid of her apparently comatose sister Blanche, but that's not really legal, and even when she finally tracks down a doctor in England who specializes in head-removal... well... I'm not going to provide a plot summary. In many ways the book is scintillating, hilarious, satirical; but it was also often just too pyrotechnical and indeed hard to follow. Like one of the other people here who reviewed it, I liked it but would rather have loved it. But no, despite finding the San Francisco scenes particularly funny, I just couldn't love it. Still, I would recommend reading it if it sounds like it could potentially be your cup of tea. It has a lot to like, and I'm curious what the author will do next.
October 11, 2017
This book was a trip.
I loved Jackson's writing and the way she uses this crazy, disarming prose so that it takes a couple of sentences to get your footing every time you're thrust into a new situation. It's very original and makes it a delight to read, even if it's a bit disorienting at times. (And sometimes she just becomes actually confusing and I can't help but wish the employment of a comma or a reversed sentence structure was used to help out the humble reader)
The characters were fascinating and the alternate history was very interesting, if not slightly off from plausible. The duality of the self and the malleability of reality really clicked with me for some strange reason and I think perhaps I should seek therapy.
Also this book is full of fantastic dogs and that's a wonderful thing.
I loved Jackson's writing and the way she uses this crazy, disarming prose so that it takes a couple of sentences to get your footing every time you're thrust into a new situation. It's very original and makes it a delight to read, even if it's a bit disorienting at times. (And sometimes she just becomes actually confusing and I can't help but wish the employment of a comma or a reversed sentence structure was used to help out the humble reader)
The characters were fascinating and the alternate history was very interesting, if not slightly off from plausible. The duality of the self and the malleability of reality really clicked with me for some strange reason and I think perhaps I should seek therapy.
Also this book is full of fantastic dogs and that's a wonderful thing.
June 27, 2010
The trouble with this book is that it is too self-conscious of what it is doing, to the point of sounding very amateur. That's as succinctly as I can put it.
I picked it up quite by accident while absconding with a small library's entire collection of Shirley Jackson novels. Shelly Jackson had been shelved between an anthology and The Haunting of Hill House, and I took it home by mistake. When I noticed my error, I decided to read the book anyway. It had quite a bit of praise, and a very interesting premise. In fact, the premise is so good that I wish Shelley Jackson would revisit it, because this book is pretty much unreadable.
The major flaw is that Jackson wants to cram every ounce of postmodern alienation that she can think of into her book. This might work if the book is the size of War and Peace, because the angst would appear in a diluted form, and not in such high-concentrated, nigh-high school poetry doses. Though, even then, it'd probably be dull. Just look at the main character for a moment. She's a conjoined twin, and that is a very interesting premise. She is a lesbian, another interesting premise. She's in a counter-cultural lobby group --again, interesting. She doesn't fit in with other members of her group. That's also interesting. But, like a painting that just has way, way, way too much going on, this book suffers from way too many interesting characteristics. This character is alienated on all levels, and the angst factor is through the roof. She could have any *one* of these traits and be a completely interesting character. As it is, however, she has so many different traits, all of which serve to alienate her in some way, that her own, individual character is lost. It feels like a very childish way to try and write a fresh character. There's such a thing as completely out of our ability to relate, and this is it. We can't relate to her, because she can't relate to anyone, even in her own group. I felt like I was reading someone whine about how much of an unrealistic outsider she is while the author congratulated herself on her ability to be cleaver.
I picked it up quite by accident while absconding with a small library's entire collection of Shirley Jackson novels. Shelly Jackson had been shelved between an anthology and The Haunting of Hill House, and I took it home by mistake. When I noticed my error, I decided to read the book anyway. It had quite a bit of praise, and a very interesting premise. In fact, the premise is so good that I wish Shelley Jackson would revisit it, because this book is pretty much unreadable.
The major flaw is that Jackson wants to cram every ounce of postmodern alienation that she can think of into her book. This might work if the book is the size of War and Peace, because the angst would appear in a diluted form, and not in such high-concentrated, nigh-high school poetry doses. Though, even then, it'd probably be dull. Just look at the main character for a moment. She's a conjoined twin, and that is a very interesting premise. She is a lesbian, another interesting premise. She's in a counter-cultural lobby group --again, interesting. She doesn't fit in with other members of her group. That's also interesting. But, like a painting that just has way, way, way too much going on, this book suffers from way too many interesting characteristics. This character is alienated on all levels, and the angst factor is through the roof. She could have any *one* of these traits and be a completely interesting character. As it is, however, she has so many different traits, all of which serve to alienate her in some way, that her own, individual character is lost. It feels like a very childish way to try and write a fresh character. There's such a thing as completely out of our ability to relate, and this is it. We can't relate to her, because she can't relate to anyone, even in her own group. I felt like I was reading someone whine about how much of an unrealistic outsider she is while the author congratulated herself on her ability to be cleaver.
September 6, 2007
Pretty awesome. Every day now I think about how I am thrilled to only have one head. In an alt present, fucked up nuclear business has made Siamese twins prevalent. There are all kinds of groups with positions for or against the "twofers." Shelley Jackson creates a real world; with twofer songs, ads directed at twofers, a twofer film festival, singletons who believe they are really twofers just born in the wrong body, pronoun issues, a theory of Shakespeare as a Siamese twin, etc. I love that the protagonist Nora was totally unlikeable and shitty to everyone, always a plus. By the end, the narrative completely fractures and is actually using form to deal with really complex identity issues. I am too lazy at this point to deal with jumping into a book like that, but by the time this book got there, I was so into it. Her images are astonishing. She's the writer who did a novel in tattoos on different people? I would so be one of those people! Also she did the illustrations for Magic for Beginners. Also when Tish & I saw her accept the Tiptree award, she was beautiful and beaming and did fun dances. Sigh. Shelley Jackson.
March 28, 2015
I have to say, this is quite possibly the weirdest book that I have ever read, and that's not a light statement seeing as I have read a great many books in the 21 years I've been alive. That's not necessary a bad thing - I mean, I did finish the book after all - but sometimes it annoys me when you really have no idea what on earth is going on. I feel like I know what was happening for most of the book but by the time Nora was truly insane and writing stuff down, I lost the plot completely and as for the ending - well, I'm rather confused and if there is anyone out there who has any idea (however much a guess it is) as to what happened in the end, please do share it with me! Despite the weirdness though, this book really did compel me and I really did want to know what would happen next. I didn't like most of the characters, but somehow I still wanted to know what they would do by the end, especially Nora. This book is nothing like I thought it would be when I picked it up, and I'm not really sure how to rate it. I wanted to read on, I'm glad I read it, and yet I cannot really tell you whether I actually enjoyed it though.
October 13, 2016
And here’s something that doesn’t happen much – I abandoned this book. Let’s put it this way – if this had been a paperback that I owned, I would have torn out pages and gleefully set them ablaze. This book was AWFUL. Interesting ideas but OMG, the pretension. The narrative is intercut with entries into a fictional “twofer manual” and these interstitials is where the “hey, look at me being all clever and writerly” get totally out of control. Disorganized mishmash of ideas, characters who seem to go out of their way to be all “alternative” or edgy or weird or something, and some of the most bizarrely detailed descriptions of the human body and bodily functions I’ve ever read. Lest you think me simply squeamish, let me remind you – I read pathology books for fun. I totally dig true crime stuff about decomposing bodies. I’ve personally taken a year-long anatomy course (including regular dissection lab) for the sheer joy of learning (and to avoid getting stuck in typing)….I digress, all of that? And this book TOTALLY grossed me out. I. Can’t. Even. Short Summary: Practically Unreadable as it seems to be extended exercise in self-enchantment by the author.
August 30, 2007
Although this book was slow to hook me at the beginning, and seemed pretentiously written at first, I ended up loving it. The writing style stopped bogging me down and started drawing me in. I'm not usually one to appreciate individual sentences much, but this book had a few that I had to stop and reread because they were so perfect. The society's response to twofers, the two-headed, one-bodied conjoined twins that are the focal point of the story (and their response to society) rings true in every way. The book is also quite grotesque and morbid in a way that somehow manages to fit in without being too much. In sum, I loved it. The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars was its slowness in hooking me and the fact that it was just this side of *too* confusing/detailed and I think I missed things.
January 30, 2009
The one where conjoined twins are common enough to comprise their own pressure group, but Nora isn't interested in twofer pride; she'd just like to be rid of her twin and have her body to herself.
I notice several other reviewers have had the same response to this that I did: I found it reasonably interesting while I was reading it, but very easy to put down and surprisingly difficult to pick up again. I gave up on page 116, and at that point there'd been a lot of elaboration but very little development. I mean, I get it -- twofer pride fits beautifully into the San Francisco we know and love, and Nora would like to get rid of Blanche, and selfhood is not as simple as we think, and quirky secondary characters are quirky -- you've said that already. Could something else happen now, please?
I notice several other reviewers have had the same response to this that I did: I found it reasonably interesting while I was reading it, but very easy to put down and surprisingly difficult to pick up again. I gave up on page 116, and at that point there'd been a lot of elaboration but very little development. I mean, I get it -- twofer pride fits beautifully into the San Francisco we know and love, and Nora would like to get rid of Blanche, and selfhood is not as simple as we think, and quirky secondary characters are quirky -- you've said that already. Could something else happen now, please?
November 12, 2007
After the book sat on my shelf, unread, for months, I finally gave it a chance and really enjoyed the first 300 pages or so. It was clever, and interesting, and I had no idea where it would go. I'm not sure what changed after that 3/4 mark, but once the 'will she or won't she?' question resolved itself, I could've cared less. I itched to have it be OVER. Only by stubbornness did I finish the book and toss it down with relief. I think that part of the problem was that I didn't like Nora, and I lost interest in reconstructing her childhood, and at times the story was sacrificed at the altar of clever language.
August 15, 2008
A fairly funny yarn about a two headed twin (conjoined twin) who has come a bit unhinged. During her decent into eventual insanity, she hatches a plan to eliminate her sister who has been asleep for well past a decade. Although hilarious at points, it drags heavily in the last third of the book. It has the habit of being odd at points simply to be odd too.
April 7, 2008
Rarely do I read a book that starts out slow, turns into something totally mind-blowingly fabulous, and then about 50 pages before the end crumbles into complete nonsense. She had a great story flying right along, then decided to get 'experimental' and lost me. What a prick tease.
August 27, 2015
If you are at all curious as to how either conjoined twins or the human brain operate, read this. It's fun, quick, long enough that you won't finish it all at once and even manages to get a little weird (but not too weird).
highly recommended.
highly recommended.
January 31, 2023
2.5? maybe?
i was on board with this book for a good while. is it extremely overwritten? yes. are most of the characters incredibly annoying? also yes. but there was something in the beginning and in portions of later segments that i enjoyed.
honestly, this book is far longer than it has any right to be, and that definitely added to the low rating. there are sections of this book i was dragging myself through, waiting for it to get back to the plot i cared about. and then that segment wrapped up and i was dismayed to see there was still a hundred or so pages left that were even more meandering than the ones preceding it.
it skips around in time quite a bit, looping back and forth from the present to the past in a way that constantly threw me off. at different points of the book i preferred either the present sections or the past sections and was loathe to return to the opposite instead of continuing with the story i cared about. theres also so many organizations and groups that are created and name dropped that i had a ton of trouble keeping up with, plus certain minor events or characters that are called back to three hundred pages later that i'd already forgotten about.
i really tried to give this as much grace as i could, but in the end the last 150 pages dragged it down so much i can't give it a higher rating.
i was on board with this book for a good while. is it extremely overwritten? yes. are most of the characters incredibly annoying? also yes. but there was something in the beginning and in portions of later segments that i enjoyed.
honestly, this book is far longer than it has any right to be, and that definitely added to the low rating. there are sections of this book i was dragging myself through, waiting for it to get back to the plot i cared about. and then that segment wrapped up and i was dismayed to see there was still a hundred or so pages left that were even more meandering than the ones preceding it.
it skips around in time quite a bit, looping back and forth from the present to the past in a way that constantly threw me off. at different points of the book i preferred either the present sections or the past sections and was loathe to return to the opposite instead of continuing with the story i cared about. theres also so many organizations and groups that are created and name dropped that i had a ton of trouble keeping up with, plus certain minor events or characters that are called back to three hundred pages later that i'd already forgotten about.
i really tried to give this as much grace as i could, but in the end the last 150 pages dragged it down so much i can't give it a higher rating.
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