August 14, 2008

Identical Strangers

Rating:
Awards:
Author: Elyse Schein, Paula Bernstein
Narrator: Alma Cuervo, Effie Johnson
Category: Biography
Publisher: Recorded Books
Release Date:
Length: 9 hours and 55 min.
Unabridged

An Overview:
A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited, Identical Strangers Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein were separated and reunited after 35 years.

Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein are both incredibly talented women. Paula is a published author and formerly a reporter for CNN. Elyse directed award winning short films. Both of them graduated from respected universities on the East Coast of the United States. They were also both adopted as infants. But that isn't all they had in common. Unknown to them, they were identical twin sisters, separated before a year old.

In 2002, Elyse decided to contact the New York State Adoption Information Registry to learn about her biological parents. Months later, they replied by letter to tell her that she was the younger of twin sisters and the daughter of a Jewish single woman. Of course, this information changes her life. Paula, in the meantime, was a busy stay at home mother of a toddler. Elyse's news comes as a shock to her as well.

How this came to pass was rather a shock to both women. If this was a novel, I would have expected this twist, but to learn that the psychologists and social workers in the 1960's were deliberately separating twins and triplets in order to perform psychological experiments on them without their families' consent was disturbing.

The Narration:
This audio was narrated by two readers, one for each of the women. I enjoyed listening to the two readers interacting with each other through the book, naturally expressing the calm nature of Paula playing against the more effervescent Elyse.

Reviewed by Sarah Gross