Phantom Twins and Double Trouble

When an artist is haunted by a phantom twin, the sense of loss must feel overpowering and certainly must influence perception, output and life choices. So it seems, at least, with Elvis Aaron Presley and his phantom twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley. "Return to Sender," "Teddy Bear," etc.

Or consider Philip K. Dick and his phantom sister, Jane: A Scanner Darkly, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Or Thornton Wilder's phantom brother, Theophilus: Our Town, The Bridge of San Luis Rey.


Then there's the double trouble of dual living and competing twins.

Caroline Knapp barely mentions her twin sister, but she's there somewhere: Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond Between People and Dogs; Drinking: A Love Story; Alice K's Guide to Life; Appetites: Why Women Want; The Merry Recluse.

How about Pauline "Popo" Esther Friedman (Dear Abby) and her sister Esther "Eppie" Pauline Friedman (Ann Landers)? Rather eerily, they had a dual wedding.

Finally, consider Anthony Shaffer (Sleuth, The Wicker Man, 1973) and Peter Shaffer (Equus, Amadeus).

Twins are wild, ain't they?

Today's Rune: Defense.

Forlorn in the City

In 1994, around the time Candace Bushnell started writing the "Sex and the City" column that formed the basis for her book and the HBO series Sex and the City, a collection of Caroline Knapp's "Out There" columns from the The Boston Phoenix was published as Alice K's Guide to Life: One Woman's Quest for Survival, Sanity, and the Perfect New Shoes. Because Knapp evidently mixed fiction with real life, Plume/Penguin evasively characterized her work as "Humor" on the back cover of the book. If so, it's dark humor. Sad humor. Made all the more poignant after reading Knapp's subsequent four books beginning with the outright memoir Drinking: A Love Story (1996), let alone her death from lung cancer at age forty-two in 2002.

Alice K's Guide to Life is divided into a prologue, epilogue, and ten chapters, each further subdivided into smaller bits: The Grown-up Years; Alice K. in Love, Part I: Meeting Elliot M.; How to be a Girl; Alice K. in Love: Meeting Mr. Danger; How to Feel Good about Yourself; Alice K. in Love, Part III: Chaos; How to Live in the Female Body; Alice K. in Love, Part IV: Cruel Realities; Life in the Office; Alice K. in Love, Part V: Resolution (Maybe).

This all may seem superficially to fall under another category besides Humor -- Chick Lit. But it's far sadder and grittier, more like Mary Tyler Moore in Purgatory. In other words, it's more like an often grim reality for many reflective working women (in this case an editor/writer) living in the city.


Further back, there's another Mary-Tyler-Moore-in-purgatory, and that would be the protagonist in Gail Parent's Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York (1972). If this feels familiar, that's because Ms. Parent actually worked on episodes of Mary Tyler Moore and its spin off, Rhoda. (Valerie Harper, who played Rhoda, later appeared in Sex and the City, tying everything together very nicely). For an earlier post on the novel, please see:
http://eriklerouge.blogspot.com/2006/12/sheila-levine-is-dead-and-living-in.html

Today's Rune: Harvest.

Caroline Knapp

Before Candace Bushnell (b. 12/1/1958) wrote Sex and the City (1997) or Helen Fielding (2/19/1958) finished Bridget Jones's Diary (1996), Caroline Knapp (1960-2002) delivered Alice K.'s Guide to Life: One Woman's Quest for Survival, Sanity, and the Perfect New Shoes (1994).

Drinking: A Love Story (1996), Knapp's second book, allowed her to emerge from her Alice K. alter ego and delve into memoir. This was the first one of hers that I read, and it's still to me the best overall. On the other hand, it's enlightening to read or re-read all of her books within the span of a couple weeks. I'll spend a little more time delving into them by way of posts at some point.








Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond Between People and Dogs (1998), Knapp's third book, was the last to be released before she died at age 42.

The two posthumous releases: Appetites: Why Women Want (2003) and The Merry Recluse: A Life in Essays (2004) fill in other aspects of Knapp's experiences and worldview.

Caroline Knapp, by self-description a high-strung twin, suffered from anorexia, alcoholism, smoking, and relationship "issues." Difficult life but a compelling writer.

Today's Rune: Strength.