Identical Strangers

Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited
By Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein
Published by Random House in 2007

Let me just start by saying I don't read a lot of nonfiction, especially biographies and the like. It's not that I don't enjoy them, it just never seem to find one that can keep my attention throughout the whole thing. I always start with the good intention of reading it cover to cover, and 'bettering' myself. Instead, I end up getting half way through, skipping the boring parts, read the end and give up. So I was feeling skeptical when my Mom recommended that I read this book for my challenge. But the concept of identical twin sisters meeting each other for the first time since their were separated at birth lured me in.

At the start of the book Elyse and Paula are both 35-years-old and living their lives completely oblivious to the fact that either of them are twins. Both of the women were adopted as babies to Jewish families from an prestigious Jewish adoption agency. Neither the girls or their adoptive families are made aware of the fact that they are twins. Throughout their childhoods and early adult years both sisters are plagued with similar emotional and mental issues. Both go through periods of deep depression and struggle with a inexplicable sense of loss. Elyse, in particular, dealt with feelings of abandonment and a sense that someone or something was always missing from her life.

At age 35 Elyse decides to contact the adoption agency to request information regarding her birth mother. She finds that the agency is in the process of shutting down due to extensive law suits. The agency notifies her that she has a twin (Paula) and that they unknowingly were in a twin study about nature versus nurture.

The rest of the book deals with the sisters getting to know one another and dealing with fitting each other into their lives. The two of them constantly struggle with their own identities and how different their lives would have been if they hadn't been separated. The sisters try to remain individuals while attempting to learn more about themselves through each other. Together they attempt to find out more about their birth mother and the 'study' that they had been subjected to.

Overall I would recommend this book to anyone who ever wondered what it would be like to have a twin somewhere out there. Also, I found myself really like Elyse and Paula not so much, she seemed to whiny to me. The story of their reunion was touching but also sad because of all the time they lost growing up, and the life that could have been.