Chang and Eng - Softcover

Darin Strauss

3.3

2,011 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0749005262 ISBN 13: 9780749005269

Publisher: Allison & Busby, 2001

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'Chang and Eng were born on the Mekong River in 1811, bound together by a ligament between their chests which gradually lengthened to allow them to stand and live side by side. Kept locked up by the King of Siam, then taken to Europe and America as freaks, they settled in the American South, marrying two sisters, fathering 21 children and living into old-age. Strauss has taken the historical evidence and the myths and turned them into something extraordinarily immediate; he has Eng as his narrator, bringing the reader right inside the head of a man bound to another and with sympathy, imagination and sharp writing, he has made it work rather well.' The Times 'This striking, evocative story, with its subtle language and word-play, is told from the perspective of a man seeing the world from a unique position - with his brother always looking over his shoulder Scarlett Thomas, Scotland on Sunday 'Strauss has produced a book which gets beyond the freak show of reportage to explore, in depth and with compassion, issues of union and separation, of individual identity, and of the ways in which humans share or protect their inner selves ... It is as if we are being shown the world through a different set of eyes ... this is a rare feat.' Financial Times Strauss writes movingly and perceptively from the heart of a man who has spent the first half of his life dreaming of freedom and the second craving an impossible romantic intimacy.' Daily Telegraph Wondertullv evocative' Daily Mail

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Review:

Narrated by Eng, one of a pair of conjoined twins, Chang and Eng is a daring novel that constantly threatens to lose its balance. It's also one that would be hard to believe were it not rigorously grounded in historical fact. Like the (literally) inseparable protagonists of Darin Strauss's debut, Chang and Eng Bunker were born in the early 1800s in a rainy village on the shores of the Mekong Delta. Achieving instant fame as the "Siamese double boy," they toured freak shows throughout China, Europe, and North America. Eventually they settled in North Carolina (of all places), married a pair of sisters, and fathered 21 children between them.

This fictionalized version of their story is narrated by the stronger, more circumspect twin, Eng, who must continually urge Chang to restrain his tears, his burning sexual desires, and his fear of the King of Siam (who has promised to "kill the double-child, the bad omen"). From the beginning, Strauss masterfully delineates the brothers' differences. Yet it's the porous nature of their relationship that will fascinate readers even more. The twins, after all, must always sleep face to face, connected by a fleshy band and the knowledge of their shared monstrosity. The fact that they are neither "he" nor "we" allows the author myriad opportunities for wordplay and psychological riddles. Does Chang love his brother, or does he love himself? When he hates his brother, is it only a piece of himself he is hating? Might the connecting band be its own entity, a pet that the brothers must tend to and feed? When they were children, Eng recalls, the band

was about two inches long, and Chang loved it. He called it Tzon, or ripe banana, and wailed if ever I mentioned severing it. It was more taut then, and would crackle like an old knee when we inched closer or farther apart (no one had any idea the thing would grow with us, and one day allow lateral positioning). I often fidgeted with a stretch of brown leathery skin--a hairy birthmark--midway across it, and also a little brown dot, a charming dinky island that lived, insolently, just free from the shoreline of the larger birthmark.

The novel's agile prose is like a smooth, strong current, pulling the twins away from their awkward lives. To his great credit, Strauss spends very little time dwelling on Chang and Eng as monsters, and their freak-show existence surfaces only in short, painful flashbacks--a jeering interlude that the narrator would sooner forget. And Eng's voice is a compelling one, full of quips, insecurities, and jealousy. Indeed, at some moments he seems like a standard-issue Renaissance man, reading Shakespeare in the afternoon, dreaming about pretty women, recounting his extensive travels. Yet the tragic fact remains: no matter how many countries this cosmopolitan visits, he will never have a room to himself. --Emily White

About the Author:

Darin Strauss is the award-winning author of the national and international bestseller Chang and Eng, as well as its screenplay for Disney Films and director Julie Taymor. His work has been translated into 14 languages and he teaches at New York University and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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