The Golden Rope

I have been a huge fan of the author since the reading of the book, The Madness of a Seduced Woman. A look into the lives of a pair of identical twins. What makes this book intriguing is the disappearance of one of them. Being famous, the entire world, for twenty years plus, has an infatuation with her and what could have happened to the beautiful and talented woman. The newspapers, however, make no mention that Florence the famous painter, was a twin. Instead, they write that she was an orphan! This, amazingly, is no surprise to the other (living) twin. She has known all of her life the horror her sister Florence has felt because she was born a twin, plural, into this world. The unhappiness she felt becasue she was born with a constant companionship. Her hatred for the "sameness" that Doris always equated with security. Florence trying desperately to eek out an autonomous existence, even while very young, with the threat that she would take a knife and slash herself in the face just so people would be able to tell them apart from one another.A very different take on the lives of twins. A story told by the master of description. The chapters short and the book is impossible to put down. A must read for any Susan Fromberg Schaffer fan.

I read the book in 3 days. I was disappointed by the ending. But I very much enjoyed reading it anyway. It's a sort of psychological mystery. Maybe identical twins would get more out of the book. It certainly made me consider how it would have been if I had been born with someone who looked exactly like me. I recommend the book to people who like "belly-button contemplation" books. Readers that like more action would (I think) be disappointed. But it is a book that gives a glimpse into a world from which most of us are excluded - and a world that I believe most of us would not want to live in.

It's one of those books where nothing ever quite "happens" but there is so much distance covered. I found the book evocative of those relationships I've struggled to get into and those I fought to get out of.