Friday, December 02, 2022

FFB: IDENTICAL STRANGERS, Elysse Schein and Paula Bernstein (2007)

 

 


Jeff mentioned this book on here not long ago. I have always found "twins" an interesting subject. I know two sets of female twins. One identical, one fraternal. I have never known a male set of twins.

The same adoption agency that played the villain in THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS (Netflix doc) were involved in the adoption of these twins too. In their mid-thirties, Elysse and Paula learn of each other's existence. They quickly meet and their immediate elation is a feeling that comes and goes for each of them as they try to adjust to what they've lost by the separation and what they now have. Both women have had issues with mental illness, mostly minor but impactful ones. One has a husband and two kids (eventually), the other lives in Paris alone. One is more eager for a close relationship. There are similarities-they both have been involved with the film industry, but also differences. The two then try to find their birth mother and learn what happened to her--why she gave them up. An interesting book with its disappointments and successes.

11 comments:

Steve Oerkfitz said...

My father was an identical twin but his twin died around the age of twelve. He never talked much about him and I never recalled seeing a picture of them.

Margot Kinberg said...

This sounds interesting, Patti. There's just something about twinship...

pattinase (abbott) said...

Oh, that must have been very hard, Steve. Men so often don't discuss painful events.
There is indeed, Margot.

Diane Kelley said...

Jeff Meyerson always recommends good books! I don't know many twins but the concept is intriguing.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Certain Mengeles was fascinated with them. Horrible, horrible man. A monster of Hitlerian magnitude.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Yes, I found it interesting, as much for their differences as their similarities, but also for the - to me at least - unrepentant doctor who didn't mind playing with people's lives to test a theory about nature vs. nurture, and at least lying by omission when dealing with the parents. If I had to choose one, I'm say watch the documentary (THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS), but both are worth your time.

Jeff Meyerson said...

My grandmother was one of six sisters and the two youngest were fraternal twins, and they could not have looked or been more different. It wasn't until I was an adult that my mother dropped the tidbit that my grandmother had a twin brother who was scalded to death at age 2. She said her grandfather used to talk about his son. Jackie has cousins who are triplets but were actually two sets of identical twins, with one being stillborn. The non identical brother was "farmed out" to their (odd) grandmother and never really recovered. He was quite different from his brothers.

And of course Deb has twins, who seem more identical than the women in this book.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Wow, that cousin story is really unusual. My father had a set of twins, both who died. But with 19 kids two are bound to be twins.

TracyK said...

This sounds like a fascinating story. I will check around for a used copy.

Todd Mason said...

Wow. Twin sons are the 16yo survivors of a sister of one my closest, whose funeral is tomorrow.

Men of a certain age, and in certain circumstances still, were and are taught not to speak of their emotions...I remember a conversation I had with my parents when my (then not yet ex) and I were having a rough patch (I was in my late 20s), my mother asking a question and my father, I think feeling it was a definite thoughtless faux pas, said "Men don't like to talk about that kind of thing." I assured them both that I was all right talking about it, and I think he was a bit puzzled.

"Farming out" the already Odd Kid Out seems like a genuinely thoughtless act, in comparison. However "pragmatic"...while Mengeles does sound a bit too much like Mengele, in two senses (I haven't yet seen the film nor read this book but am glancingly familiar with this and similar cases).

Jeff Meyerson said...

Yeah, Todd, Jackie's grandmother was an odd duck. She lived in the projects and rarely left. Yet, we were shocked when she showed up at our wedding. I believe Jackie's aunt was overwhelmed so since they lived nearby, she had her mother take care of one of the boys. But I would say it definitely affected him.