Throwback Thursday: The Girls

In which I share vague recollections of books I read long ago that have stuck with me.

Last week I mentioned that American Horror Story: Freakshow brought to mind Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. But the second book to come to mind was The Girls by Lori Lansens.

Rose and Ruby are a pair of craniopagus twins - conjoined at the head - born to, and abandoned by, their teenage mother. They're adopted by the nurse who delivers them and the novel is the tale of their entire lives.

I was reminded of them by Bette and Dot from Freakshow, conjoined twins who were sort of the opposite - they were one body with two heads - but otherwise similar. Like any two sisters, both of these pairs had their different personalities and disagreements, but were literally stuck together despite their own individual needs and desires.

Can you even imagine? I have a hard enough time living together with another person (and one I chose myself!) The thought of going through life attached to another body sounds horrible. But if that's all you've known, I suppose it's a bit different.

I don't recall how I first heard about The Girls, but it was the book that introduced me to Lori Lansens. She is an under-appreciated author who deserves to be read more widely. I also really enjoyed her novels The Wife's Tale and The Mountain Story.

The Mountain Story

The Mountain Story by Lori Lansens (2015)

The version I read

When Wolf went up the mountain on his eighteenth birthday, it was with the intention to commit suicide. But he stumbled into being a guide for three women, and the four became lost and desperate in the rugged wilderness. For five days they stuck together and fought to survive without food, water, or shelter.

The novel opens and closes with a letter Wolf is writing to his son, with whom he is finally sharing this story. When these events took place, Wolf was still trying to deal with his best friend's tragic accident. He had moved to California from Michigan with his father, Frankie, and Byrd was the first friendly person he met. His life with Frankie was rough, and even worse now that they were living in a trailer with his aunt and her numerous filthy children. But Byrd was a great friend, and got him out of the house and into the woods, teaching him everything he knew about the mountain. When he became lost, he was able to use his knowledge, and through his experience discovered reason to live.

The Mountain Story packs some emotional punches, primarily late in the book, but even before then Wolf's pain was apparent. This kid had dealt with his mother's premature death, constantly sought affection and approval from a distant, alcoholic father, and then felt responsible for losing his best friend. Lost on the mountain, he bonded with the three Devine women - Nola, who had come to scatter her husband's ashes in their special anniversary spot; her daughter Bridget, self-absorbed and training for a triathalon; and teenage Vonn, who came only reluctantly but was perhaps the strongest woman in her family.

I love the Canadian cover so much more

As I mentioned, this novel was in the form of a letter from Wolf to his son, revealing for the first time his complete story. Sometimes when I read a book like this, I get past the initial introductory part like this letter, get into the story and totally forget that it's supposed to be a story within a story because it's so unnecessary. Here we get also another bit at the end, because there were things revealed in the story that Wolf knew would affect his son. Still, I thought the story would have held on its own. Is this just a way to make it ok to write in the first person?

It doesn't matter though. I got so into this story of wilderness survival, I don't care what the outer frame is all about. I loved Wolf. He was so sensitive, but also strong. Nola was so well-drawn she seemed like someone I knew. Bridget was irritating, but in that way of someone you put up with anyhow because they're important to you. Vonn was sort of an enigma, but I really enjoyed getting to know her. Caring so much about these characters made me anxious for their survival, and the result was a very suspenseful story. I spent a few days getting halfway through and then read the remaining 150 pages in one evening on a weekday after work. That doesn't happen often!

Lori Lansens isn't an especially well-known or popular author, but I have really enjoyed the three of her four books that I've read. Her first novel, The Girls, is about a set of conjoined twins, which is what reeled me in but I was hooked by her complicated and well-crafted characters. I also really enjoyed The Wife's Tale, in which a morbidly obese woman is abandoned by her husband and it snaps her out of a life of inertia. I still haven't read Rush Home Road, though it's actually the most highly-rated of her books on Goodreads. I hope that more people discover Lori Lansens, because her books deserve more attention. If you like character-driven novels with unusual story lines, I highly recommend trying her books.

The Wife's Tale : a review

On the eve of their 25th wedding anniversary, Jimmy Gooch leaves his wife. Mary doesn’t have a whole lot of self-respect and has been waiting for this day since they met. She has had a lifelong struggle with with her seemingly insatiable hunger, her self-esteem, and her desire for self-acceptance. When her husband leaves her, she is at her heaviest and has spent years isolating herself from others and passing up opportunities for travel and other pleasures because she is uncomfortable with how she looks and never, ever has anything appropriate to wear. But she is not content to stay at home and wait to see if Jimmy ever comes back. Mary embarks on a trip from her small town in Leaford, Ontario all the way to California.

After reading The Girls, I was eager to pick up Lansens’ newest book. It unfortunately sports one of the cliched woman’s-legs covers, which has been so overdone at this point that it’s laughable. Even more so for this book, because the main character is morbidly obese. These are not the legs of an obese woman. Who the hell designed this cover, and did they know anything about the book? But I digress. (Not surprisingly, this is apparently just the U.S. cover – the other versions are shown here.)

Mary Gooch is certainly less than perfect, and sprinkled through the novel are illustrations of ways in which she did not help her marriage at all. She spends a lot of time waiting in this novel, during which she thinks back to different parts of her life. It is very memory-heavy, and those memories sometimes seem more important than what is going on at present. Despite her many imperfections, I rooted for her. And this is certainly a novel of growth, in which she is forced outside of her comfort zone and realizes how much she has been missing. I don’t think I liked it as much as The Girls, but I was definitely content to spend every spare moment reading it.