She and I [Hardcover]

Eileen Lottman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1991

“Unforgettable...I read this book a number of years ago and just can’t get it out of my mind...The story of how these twins...grow up and become women is fascinating...if you have a super curious mind and enjoy a story quite odd, you will LOVE this book.”
5 stars Reader’s Review (hardcover edition) from Amazon.com

“I found myself laughing out loud at some of the incidents, and also found it very interesting. Once I started reading it I couldn’t put it down. I have loaned it to all of my friends who like to read, and they also found the book a very good read. Buy it! You won’t be sorry.”
5 stars Reader’s Review (hardcover edition) from Amazon.com

“The novel lives up to the wit of its premise... hilarious situations...Yet there’s a touching story here too...an entirely recognizable sense of how hard it often is to live in a world with other people.”
Cosmopolitan Magazine

“...if you just want a satisfying, mind-bending reading experience, you will find what you are looking for in She and I...”
Mindi Dickstein, St. Petersburg (Florida) Times

“The questions that She and I make us ask are the endlessly fascinating ones...where is the real freakishness? In being a Jew? A woman? An intellectual? In not being pretty? In being desperately in love? Or is it really in being tied by a band of flesh to The Other, to the worst...nightmare any of us have?”
Amy Wallace, Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review

“Through Lottman’s masterful handling of her material, suspense is maintained...to the last page.”
Barbara Rich, Women’s Review of Books

“...an extraordinary book. I read it months ago and the impression stayed with me so long that I’ve decided I must read it again and recommend it to all my friends (many of whom are writers, as I am).”
Dale Rhonda Burg, by unsolicited postcard to the author

“I was in stitches reading She and I. The use of the title is a howl in itself. There are so many funny scenes—the baseball game—all that sorority stuff that rings so true to an old ‘sister.’ The absurdity of the situation heightens, if anything, the ring of authenticity...a great read.”
Michele Lapautre, literary agent, Paris, France

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sandy Lazarus, the narrator of Lottman's ( The Brahmins ) third book, is a Siamese twin. Joined at the hip to her surly, much-disliked sister Sheila (nicknamed "She"), Sandy hones a sharp tongue and a sardonic sense of humor while struggling to forge both a measure of independence and a genuine emotional connection with her closest kin--a struggle that turns dark and finally violent as the twins grow older. She and I begins promisingly: in opening chapters, Lottman makes of Sandy and her sister a pointed, sometimes wrenching metaphor for the often maddening indissolubility of family ties. And she displays a wonderfully warped wit in depicting their daily lives as both flamboyantly bizarre and mundanely inconvenient ("She just pushed off on the skates and of course I had to go along," Sandy tells us). But unfortunately, when Lottman's characters discover their sexuality, the author gets sidetracked by it--and while there is an undeniable fascination in just how Siamese twins might manage sex, Lottman is not nearly so eloquent in describing emotional intimacy. The book itself mirrors Sandy's progression from charmed childhood to difficult adolescence and disappointing adulthood. For both rprotagonist and novel, a charming childhood leads to a difficult adoles cence and a less-than-ideal adulthood. Literary Guild selection.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Eileen Lottman, whose previous novels include After the Wind and The Brahmins, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, raised in Sioux City, Iowa, and studied at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She lives in an apartment with a view she describes as “exactly like the one Clark Gable once showed me in the dark of the Orpheum Theater in Sioux City, saying, ‘Someday all this will be yours.’” --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (March 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688101755
• ISBN-13: 978-0688101756
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,414,605 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars unforgettable, June 15, 2000

By 

Colette Cohan (Baltimore, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: She and I (Hardcover)

I read this book a number of years ago and just can't get it out of my mind. Eileen Lottman is a master writer who is unbelievably adept at getting into the mindset of her characters. She writes as if she herself has experienced the excruciating life of a siamese twin. The story of how these twins (both girls) grow up and become women is facinating. We even hear of their first sexual experiences. If you have a super curious mind and enjoy a story quite odd, you will LOVE this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read the first release, 1991, March 19, 2008

By 

Rust Belt Rebel (Rust Belt, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: She and I (Paperback)

Originally read the book in 1991. I was on a mission to read all the new releases at the library that summer, so I came across this one by chance. Recently, I looked this book up, then couldn't find it, so I thought maybe I'd misremembered its existence. Hard to find before it's paperback release. This was a book before it's time! Very strange and engrossing, like a David Lynch movie.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars funny and realistic, February 28, 2002

By 

Linda D Halliburton (Geneva, Florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: She and I (Hardcover)

I got this book on sale and found it to be a very good book. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the incidents , and also found it very intersting. Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. I have loaned it to all of my friends who like to read, and they also found the book a very good read. buy it! You won't be sorry.