Long before Dolly the sheep, there were Maxi, Minnie, and a clone called Middle. Maxi Dublin, a cat breeder, is thirty-four, single, and pregnant. She and her mother have been preparing for the birth of Maxi's first child for months, years even. But when the day arrives, something goes horribly wrong. Instead of delivering a healthy newborn, Maxi gives birth to herself-a clone. In the medical world Maxi becomes a cause c?lbre. But when her controlling, eccentric mother, Minnie, kidnaps the clone, all hell breaks loose. The doctors threaten Maxi with lawsuits, the media goes into a feeding frenzy, and the entire nation waits for the latest Maxi, Minnie, and Middle news. Angry but inspired, Maxi enlists the help of Cecilia, a clairvoyant therapist with an uncanny ability to impersonate the Duchess of York. Together they hit the road in hot pursuit of Minnie, so that Maxi can once and for all find . . . herself.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
In the final accounting of cultural merit, the insanely serious and seriously insane work of Laurie Foos will no doubt sit somewhere between Greek mythology and The Sally Jesse Raphael Show, with Freud's Interpretation of Dreams well within shouting distance. Earmarked as Foos's watershed novel, Twinship is a fine third brick in the foundation of an only-slightly-weirder-than-real-life literary tower. She isn't as interested in art as she was in her second novel, but has widened her focus a bit to encompass creation, biological and otherwise.
Like the protagonist of her 1995 debut, who loses her uterus in a shopping mall and wonders if this is karmic punishment for her ambivalence toward motherhood, Twinship's narrator also views her current predicament through a thick veil of guilt. Maxi Dublin, a childless, unmarried, 34-year-old Persian cat breeder, finally submits to her mother Minnie's tsunami-force will and gets herself pregnant. Alas, she fulfills Minnie's wishes a little too well, giving birth not to a baby but to herself--a clone who brings new meaning to the old standard "Don't they grow up fast?" To complicate already complicated matters, Minnie steals the clone out from under both Maxi and the research-dollar-signs-in-their-eyes hospital staff. Maxi has no choice but to enlist the help of a Fergie-impersonating psychotherapist to find her mother, her baby, and herself. Pun intended.
Foos is wonderfully adept at fully exploring the emotional cat's cradle associated with giving birth, and yet she does it with enough humor that the members of an entire gender won't scratch their heads, feeling like a bunch of stupid, bored guys. Her style is a testament to the subversive power of cartoons: tug reality by its edges and the truth tends to rise from the center. --Bob Michaels
From Publishers Weekly
As zany and preposterous as fans of Ex Utero and Portrait of the Walrus by a Young Artist will expect, Foos's new novel is another story of bizarre events related with deadpan humor. It's the lively tale of Maxi Dublin, who literally gives birth to herselfAor, at least, to what doctors contend is a clone of herself. Maxi and her mother, Minnie, have been concerned about the ticking biological clock for years, and Minnie finally comes up with a foolproof way for single, 34-year-old Maxi to get pregnant: Maxi must seduce bisexual Jerry, a cat-groomer in her Persian cat breeding business in Winfield, N.Y. The plan goes without a hitch until delivery day, when, instead of producing a normal baby, Maxi births a clone. Doctors clamor to examine the infant, whom Minnie dubs Middle, and the inevitable media swarm occurs. While still in the incubator, Middle is discovered to be growing at a super-accelerated rate: "in a matter of minutes, she'd grown to the size of a six-month-old." Then the more-than-unstable Minnie, deciding that she is the baby's rightful mother, kidnaps Middle from the hospital, and the chase is on. Maxi enlists the help of Cecilia, a therapist who bears a striking resemblance to Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York (Minnie is obsessed with the royal family and fancies she looks like the duchess, too), and hits the road in search of Middle (i.e., herself). She intends to use Cecilia, posing as the duchess, as bait to lure her mother. Then, she vows, she'll finally stand up to Minnie, and take back her life. Foos habitually repeats both phrases and ideas, as if she doesn't trust the reader to grasp the subtext, but that detracts only slightly from this endlessly inventive and wackily entertaining tale. Agent, Tony Gardner. Author tour. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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More About the Author
Laurie Foos teaches in the MFA program at Lesley University. Excerpts of her new novel, THE BLUE GIRL, have appeared in WRECKAGE OF REASON: XXPERIMENTAL WOMEN WRITING IN THE 21ST CENTURY and in the literary magazine, THE RAKE. Her story, "Moon Pies," another excerpt from the novel-in-progress, won 2nd place in the Italo Calvino Fiction Contest. THE BLUE GIRL is forthcoming from Coffee House Press. She lives on Long Island with her husband and two young children.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Laurie Foos, magician,
By A Customer
This review is from: Twinship: A Novel by the Author of Ex Utero (Hardcover)
Laurie Foos is a magician. There are scenes in "Twinship" that leave you dazzled, and wondering, "How did she pull that off?" Her vision is unique and exciting, and every sentence is clearly the work of a writer who's an artist. When a woman gives birth to a baby who turns out to be a clone, the plot takes off into territory most writers would not dare enter, but Foos goes in with courage and daring. Underneath the sometimes wild momentum of the plot are deeply realized, very human experiences, especially when Foos turns her attention to the layers and layers of a mother-child relationship that's comic and profound. Reading this novel is that rare thing: an excellent adventure.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Maxi caught in the Middle,
By Sherri Bucher (Worcester, MA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Twinship: A Novel by the Author of Ex Utero (Hardcover)
Laurie Foos delivers a howlingly funny send-up of ravenous research hospitals, overbearing mothers, and Royal groupies. Maxi is in her mid-thirties, unmarried, and desperate to please her mother, Minnie. With no spouse on the horizon, Maxi enlists the aid of her friend, Jerry--who may or may not be gay--to help "father" a child. Maxi and Minnie savor the gestation of "their baby," and eagerly await its delivery. But something goes wrong. Maxi gives birth to herself--a clone. Maxi goes into shock, Minnie goes into spasms of joy, and the frenzied medical community goes after the clone. Unfortunately for the research doctors, Minnie is faster, smarter, and more motivated than are they. Despite draconian security measures, she kidnaps the rapidly-growing Middle and disappears into the night. Will Maxi be able to recover from the shock and exhaustion of birthing herself to find Minnie and Maxi? What else will she discover along the way? Come along for the chase--by bus, by car, and by foot!I loved this story. It is smart, funny, and ultimately thought-provoking. American women of all ages and gestational-status will laugh with, worry about, and cheer for Maxi and Middle. Grab a cup of coffee, settle into a comfortable chair, and prepare yourself for a great read.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Foos Fan!,
By
This review is from: Twinship: A Novel by the Author of Ex Utero (Hardcover)
Somehow, Maxi-the heroine of Laurie Foos' brilliant and hilarious novel-gives birth to herself. The reader follows Maxi's zany fortunes as she tries to find her clone/baby who has been kidnapped at birth by her mother. Along the way, she meets a power-crazed doctor desperate to win a Nobel prize for delivering the world's first clone, a therapist who impersonates Princess Fergie, identical twins Candy and Sandy, and a slew of Persian cats that have been overbred to prize-winning perfection. Sound crazy? It is, unforgettably so. Foos' cast of characters are pulled straight from the pages of the National Enquirer and yet deliver heartbreaking truths about what it takes to birth an authentic self, and the spontaneous love and hate that can exist between oneself and one's mother, lovers, friends, and therapists. A memorable, funny read. Brava!
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