God's Fool ~ Mark Slouka (Gone) (24 of 24)

 Gone. The saddest word in the language. In any language.

~ Mark Slouka, God's Fool.

How about a pain gone? Would it be sad?

Would 'almost' be the saddest word?

You almost get or do something, but then don't get there. It's gone. 

The lost time, people, places, life. 

Time and Tide waits for no one, indeed. 

"If you can read 'God’s Fool' without being astonished and touched, then you’d better check to see if your heart is made of stone…simply brilliant. A book of the year." ― Dallas Morning News Born attached at the chest, Chang and Eng were considered a marvel, an act of God. By any standard, theirs is a history of epic variety and drama. Mark Slouka recounts their tumultuous story, from the docks of Vietnam to American fame, with intimacy and compassion. - So says the good read.

The narrator, Chang, is one of Siamese twins, joined to his brother Eng by a bridge of flesh at their waists. The story takes place in three different countries. Early in life they are forced by circumstances and bad luck to leave to Paris, where they are exploited for the profits of others and deserted in extreme conditions of poverty; and later to America, where they eventually settle down as farmers in North Carolina. Although they find some peace, it is short-lived, because the Civil War breaks out and disrupts life. In short, if something can plausibly go wrong for the main characters, it does. There isn't really a moment without some conflict or foreshadowing of conflict. Because of the book beginning with the narrator as an adult more than just hinting at unhappiness and tragedy, even moments of bliss during the "flashback" are not without the reader's awareness that it will not last. If the brothers are not in conflict with the outside world, then they are suffering from an emotional rift between themselves, which is most evident and troublesome as Eng embraces Christianity and Chang does not.

Eng clings to Christianity, I believe (and it seems his brother believes so as well), because of the idea that we are all equal in the eyes of God. It is natural that someone who has been mostly treated as inferior by his fellow men that he would long desperately for equality. Still, the losses the two endure are more than enough to justify Chang's disbelief. It is a wonder that two people, who experience practically all of the same external factors, could differ so greatly in their chosen responses and beliefs. The conflict between the two (as well as other instances) displays their stubbornness, their tempers, and that they are very much human, not just cardboard-cut characters vying for the reader's pity.

It isn't by any means a feel-good story, but the subject matter is intriguing, and the writing is, at times, very beautiful. The author manages to take characters who just by their condition alone will incite the readers' curiosity, and fleshes them out so that there is more to them than that condition. They are dynamic, three-dimensional characters, with pride and shame, just like anyone else, who strive to make their own place in the world, all the while witnessing the fickle nature of the public--one minute being praised as creatures of God; the next, being ridiculed as a monstrosity.

Based on the life of Chang & Eng, the 19th-century Siamese twins who became southern farmers after touring for a while with P. T. Barnum. This one was narrated by Chang, so his perspective, the one who became a drinker, focused more on their shared life; the other more on their individuality. This one was probably more introspective, so much so & in a way that seemed out of character that it was not always believable. But what's most remakable, given how little is actually known about Chang & Eng, is how similar the two stories are, despite a marked difference in tone. The writing was probably better here, but the several story lines didn't seem to have a common thread, & the closing section on the Civil War seemed particularly isolated from the rest. 

A historical fiction about Chang and Eng Bunker, the most famous pair of conjoined twins. Orginally from China they were sold as a curiosity to be shown to kings and the like, and then escaping to "freedom." Chang and Eng not only traveled extensively but also eventually settled in North Carolina, half a world away from their native Siam. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang_and_Eng_Bunker