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Bezig met laden... Chang and Eng (origineel 2000; editie 2001)door Darin Strauss
Informatie over het werkChang en Eng door Darin Strauss (2000)
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. I really enjoyed the book, though I worry, as I always do when a real person is used in a work of fiction, that the lines will blur in some people's minds. I was always fascinated by siamese twins and the day to day minutiae of their existence and the psychological effect. I think this ios one possible rendering and it makes for an interesting read ( ) The writing is beautiful. The phrases and descriptions so evocative: "While the world is not a place of widespread kindness, a few oysters thrive in a sea of clams. Occasional grace exists. Mother, knowing my brother and me for more than one child, kept her calm." See what I mean? But the subject matter here is disturbing. (Chang and Eng were the "original" Siamese twins and became world-wide celebrities.) The book is narrated by Eng, and we see envy, pettiness, lust, sloth, and a deep unhappiness - always a desire to be apart and yet a great loneliness. Chang and Eng, the famous Siamese twins, were born in Siam (now Thailand) to a poor fisherman. They learned quickly how to adapt to one another and even to thrive. As teenagers, they were taken to America and toured in a circus/freak show act. After leaving their manager and striking out on their own, they ended up in a small town in North Carolina. They married sisters, fathered 21 children and made quite a life for themselves. I thought this was a pretty interesting book. I did grow tired of Chang and Eng's married life. I wish the story had focused more on their travels, shows and early years. Overall, not a bad read, one well worth picking up. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Prijzen
This stunning novel combines fiction with astonishing fact to tell the story of history's most famous conjoined twins. Born in Siam in 1811--on a squalid houseboat on the Mekong River--Chang and Eng Bunker were international celebrities before the age of twenty. Touring the world's stages as a circus act, they settled in the American South just prior to the Civil War. They eventually married two sisters from North Carolina, fathering twenty-one children between them, and lived for more than six decades never more than seven inches apart, attached at the chest by a small band of skin and cartilage. Woven from the fabric of fact, myth, and imagination, Strauss's narrative gives poignant, articulate voice to these legendary brothers, and humanizes the freakish legend that grew up around them. Sweeping from the Far East and the court of the King of Siam to the shared intimacy of their lives in America, Chang and Eng rescues one of the nineteenth century's most fabled human oddities from the sideshow of history, drawing from their extraordinary lives a novel of exceptional power and beauty. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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