One And The Same: My Life As An Identical Twin And What I've Learned About Everyone's Struggle To Be Singular (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
I am fascinated by and a little bit scared of twins. They have their own language and relate to one another in a way inaccessible to us singletons, or so it seems at any rate. Pogrebin, an identical twin, confronts this idea from various angles.This book has its flaws. The author comes to the subject with a strong prejudice. I mean, obviously, she is a twin, but she also feels that the twin magic is real and overridingly important, so perhaps there is some confirmation bias in the information she chose to present. The book is also a weird love letter/supplication to her twin that is just a little too insecure and personal to be comfortable or enjoyable.That said, it does contain interesting tidbits, bringing it to the 3 star level. Given my interest in science and medicine, the discussion of epigenetics was fascinating. Looking into the reasons one twin gets a chronic disease and the other doesn't have given such as insights as that multiple sclerosis is more likely to affect the more fastidiously clean twin. The section on dealing with a twin's death was also very well done (and very, very sad). The most interesting was her takeaway from the studies of identical twins reared apart. I'd read about the studies before, and thought it was sort of a novelty that they end up so similar. But her point should be reassuring to every parent out there: provide a basically nurturing environment, and your kid will turn out how the kid turns out. A surprising amount of who we are is written in our genetic code, free will be damned. I've always wondered how completely different my life would be if I'd chosen a different college, or moved somewhere other than DC after law school. Turns out, it probably wouldn't be much different at all. If you're raising twins or have some in your life (I have twin nephews), this might be a useful read. For the average reader, it's probably not good enough to bother. I really enjoyed this book and found it very interesting. The author looks at "twinship" from so many different angles including love, loss, separation and estrangement. I appreciated her input as an identical twin as it lent an air of authenticity to her opinions. Some of the subject matter (death of a twin, twins lost in 9-11, the Holocaust, genetic diseases) were difficult to read, but I feel the book would not be complete without them. One of the things I appreciated most about this book was that the majority of the info was about identical twins. Most books I've looked at focus more on the majority of twins (fraternal). As an expectant mom of twins I appreciated this informative and thought provoking read.
What do You think about One And The Same: My Life As An Identical Twin And What I've Learned About Everyone's Struggle To Be Singular (2009)?
Very interesting! Learned all sorts of twin info that I never would have known otherwise.
—Vee
Interesting stories and and some thought-provoking questions.
—ClassyGrl
Fundamental book for parents of identical twins
—justrenn
