Irish Twins
Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (09/10)
I am not a twin, Irish or regular, I do not have children and as far as I know, my family’s secrets are nowhere near those described in Michele VanOrt Cozzens’ Irish Twins
The story begins with a death. Anne Catherine Monaghan Shields, a wife and a mother of five living children, suffers a stroke while waterskiing, which at the age of 80 is quite an amazing thing by itself. Entering a new existence, she finds herself in a beautiful place called Ohr, where she is greeted by her own Irish twin, Molly, who passed many years before. Over numerous cups of tea they follow the life of those Anne left behind, particularly her own Irish twins, Jenny and Caylie, who by now are middle-aged women themselves. Many family secrets are revealed, and Anne realizes that as much as she did not know about others, she also did not realize quite a few things about herself.
“It shines with an undeniable honesty.”
It was the very last page, the Acknowledgements, which brought some light to my questions. It was the author’s mother who actually passed at the age of eighty while waterskiing, and although the rest of the story is not biographical, at least not intentionally, it shines with an undeniable honesty. Stories that come from the heart are always special, and there was no doubt in my mind that this book was one of them. When we add the life lessons learned by Anne and her family, the undeniable truth that love makes one live on in others, the fact that everybody makes mistakes and still manages to live a good life, as well as many others, it becomes clear that this is a book that will be cherished by many.
I have thoroughly enjoyed Irish Twins