Paulo's Book Club: "Entwined Lives"

"Consider the case of the so-called Jim Twins, which appears in the book Entwined Lives by Nancy L. Segal, director of the Twin Studies Center at Cal State-Fullerton. Split up at four weeks and then living separately for 39 years without knowledge of one another, the men, both named Jim, married women named Linda, divorced them and then married women named Betty. They gave their sons the same name. The twins smoked the same brand of cigarettes, drank the same brand of beer. They vacationed at the same Florida beach and drove light-blue Chevrolets."



That's the paragraph (from a Sports Illustrated article on the Sedin Twins), that made me interested in reading "Entwined Lives" by Nancy Segal.
If that paragraph doesn't intrigue you then you are either dead or not very smart.
And the book was well worth it. Beyond just the Jim Twins there was the fascinating story of identical triplets, reared apart, who were reunited later in life and eventually went to work at the Concierge's favorite restaurant, Sammy's Roumanian, before starting their own, Triplets' Roumanian.
The chapter on twins reared apart was probably the most intellectually fascinating because that's Segal's area of expertise.
For instance, identical twins reared apart are more alike than even fraternal twins who were raised together, showing the impact of nature vs. nurture.

And that really is the main theme of the book, by looking at twins, especially identical twins reared apart, we can see how much of behavior, and physical appearance is influenced by genetics, and how much by environment.

The universiality of that theme makes the book a great read for singletons, but the book is a must-read for twins and parents of twins.

I know several families raising or expecting twins and I think they all would benefit from Segal's perspective on how to raise the kids, as it pertains to treating them equally while encouraging and preserving their own identities. Every parent of twins will someday be confronted with the following conundrum: when the kids are old enough to enter school, should they be placed in the same class, or separated? Nancy Segal has an answer.

There is one drawback in this book. Nancy Segal is a doctor, a researcher and an expert who has spent her entire career studying twins. She is not a writer. The book is somewhat hard to read because it is written with a lot of medical jargon. It goes heavy on the numbers and the research, and light on the anecdotes. You can skip some chapters, like the one on twins in the animal kingdom, but I wouldn't suggest that because you can learn great things such as: armadillos have kite-shaped uteruses.

I recommend this book whole-heartedly to twins and singletons alike. It is a must for people with twins and people with curious minds.