Wednesday, July 11, 2007


Jul. 11, 2007 (McClatchy-Tribune News Service delivered by Newstex) -- WALNUT CREEK, Calif. -- A familiar old adage tells aspiring novelists to write what they know, but author Lori Lansens rejects that advice with award-worthy results.
Visiting the Bay Area recently to promote her novel 'The Girls' -- a work of fiction disguised as an autobiography written by twin sisters who were born fused at their skulls -- Lansens revealed that she doesn't have a sister, much less a conjoined twin, and in fact views her novel as a symbol of her 'sister longing.'
When Lansens introduces us to Rose and Ruby Darlen, they are 29 years old and living in the same southwestern Ontario town that was nearly leveled by a tornado on the day of their birth.
Rose, who considers herself the more literary of the pair, explains that she's decided to write her life story punctuated by excerpts from Ruby, who by virtue of their conjoinment has shared at least indirectly in all of her experiences.
Of course, like any sisters, the Darlens' accounts of the past aren't always identical, and Rose decides early on that it would be best if neither sister read what the other has written until their tale is complete, leaving the reader to compare each woman's account of her life as a conjoined twin.
Lansens, 44, was nursing her second child when she wrote 'The Girls,' and said the experience was a great jumping-off point to get inside the minds of the Darlen sisters.
She said she had her children in 'fairly rapid succession' after having spent a great deal of time alone.
'And I was suddenly -- quite suddenly it felt like -- this person who was never alone,' she said. 'I didn't feel in any way that my children were a burden, but I didn't feel singular. I felt like I was completely attached.'
That sense of attachment prompted Lansens to delve more deeply into her interest in conjoined twins in literature.
Through her research the author, who already had her novel ,'Rush Home Road,' published, read the story of Ladan and Laleh Bijani, craniopagus conjoined sisters from Iran who died in 2003 after undergoing surgery they hoped would result in their separation and the ability to look into one another's eyes. It's a sentiment Lansens attempts to invoke, through the voice of Rose, in the novel's opening:
'I have never looked into my sister's eyes. I have never bathed alone. I have never stood in the grass at night and raised my arms to the beguiling moon. I've never used an airplane bathroom. Or worn a hat. Or been kissed like that. I've never driven a car. Or slept through the night. Never a private talk. Or solo walk. I've never climbed a tree. Or faded into a crowd. So many things I've never done, but oh, how I've been loved. And, if such things were to be, I'd live a thousand lives as me, to be loved so exponentially.'

Years ago, when Lansens first embarked on a career as a writer, it was at the advice of her husband, screen director and producer Milan Cheylov.
Knowing that Lansens was unhappy with a job she took after college selling advertising for a Canadian newspaper, Cheylov suggested she quit and explore her dream of a career in writing.
'And that's what I did. I took a waitress job in the evenings, and I started writing short stories. And I also wanted to write for the stage. (My husband) was an actor, and I wanted to write something for him,' said Lansens.
'We ran a theater company for a little while, and we have kind of ridden this artistic roller coaster for 25 years together.'
In the process of writing for the stage, Lansens was bit by the acting bug herself, and she spent a year as an actress in Toronto. In the end, however, the writer says she couldn't resist the call of her keyboard.
'I didn't want to go to auditions, and I wasn't very interested in hair and wardrobe. I just wanted to be at home, in my pajamas, writing.'
The home-based nature of Lansens' career recently made it possible for her family to move to Southern California, where much of Cheylov's work is, from downtown Toronto, where the pair had been living for more than two decades.
Though Lansens said she initially had reservations about moving to the Los Angeles area, she feels like she's found her people in the Santa Monica Mountains.
'I love it. ... My tribe is in Topanga Canyon,' the author said of the area just outside of Malibu.
'I think it's wonderful -- lots of artists, lots of very committed, environmentally conscious people.'
Los Angeles is far way, both physically and figuratively, from Lansens' roots in southwestern Ontario, where 'The Girls' is set. And though Lansens considers herself a city person, passages in her novel make it clear that the country town where the Darlen sisters live is the perfect place for them.

The sisters are well-known by the community, most of whom see them for the dissimilar individuals they are.
And in parts of each woman's story, written in the first person, Lansens is able to express some of her own feelings about writing, at times speaking directly to the readers using her characters' voices:
'I can't go on writing about my past without sharing my present with you. Along with my fears. And my regrets. And my delight that you've cared to read this far.'
'I really found through this book,' Lansens said, 'my relationship with readers as an author and with authors as a reader. So I wanted to reach, I literally wanted to reach out through the page.'

As is the case with 'The Girls,' Lansens' first novel, 'Rush Home Road,' is a tale far removed from her own life, as its main characters are an abandoned 5-year-old and a 70-year-old descendant of slaves.
'My books are all seemingly very outside of myself and very outside of my personal experience,' Lansens acknowledged.
Nevertheless, as she embarks on her third novel, with a protagonist she describes as 'a middle-aged woman in transition,' Lansens finds herself moving from life as the mother of very young children to the life of a full-time author with two school-age kids.
Of her own journey Lansens said, 'I see the path, and I'm not afraid of it. I like it, but transition is always rife with conflict and drama, so, here we are.'
------
(c) 2007, Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.).
Visit the Contra Costa Times on the Web at  http://www.contracostatimes.com.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email  tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Newstex ID: KRTN-0011-18050694


Delivered by Newstex LLC
via theFinancials.com