Doubly Good

At first blush, a novel about a pair of twins yoked together at their chests by a 7-in. band of cartilage sounds like one of those ideas more intriguing in the conception than the execution. Once the unusual premise has been established, what's left to do? A number of good answers can be found in Darrin Strauss's Chang and Eng (Dutton; 323 pages; $23.95), a fictionalized account of the real-life, and eponymous, Siamese twins (1811-74) who were widely exhibited as touring oddities and who then settled in rural North Carolina, married a pair of sisters and fathered, between them, 21 children.

Strauss hands the narrating chores to Eng, the twin on the right-hand side of the pair, who gradually emerges as a convincingly persuasive and heroic presence--intelligent (he reads Shakespeare while Chang sleeps, sometimes resting the book on his brother's forehead) and refreshingly matter-of-fact about his preposterous physical fate.

The most winning--and moving--chapters of Eng's tale involve the love that blooms, reciprocally, between the brothers and Adelaide and Sarah Yates. Readers curious about the conjugal gymnastics required during the marriages that ensue will not be disappointed, but Strauss, an impressively skilled and subtle first novelist, devotes a minimum of space to prurient concerns. The double wedding is the novel's high point, with the words of the preacher--"Eternal Jesus, that joinest them together that were separate"--gaining new meaning in the context. Eng looks at his bride and wonders, "How did I believe I could go through life alone?"