Twins Chang and Eng Bunker (1811-1874), conjoined at the sternum by a band of cartilage and a fused liver, were discovered in Siam by a British merchant in 1824. Yunte Huang depicts the twins, arriving in Boston in 1829, first as museum exhibits but later as financially savvy showmen.
Their rise from freak-show celebrities to rich southern gentry; their marriage to two white sisters, resulting in twenty-one children; and their owning of slaves is here not just another sensational biography but an excavation of America's historical penchant for finding feast in the abnormal, for tyrannising the other - a tradition that, as Huang reveals, becomes inseparable from American history itself.
By:
Yunte Huang Imprint: Liveright Country of Publication: United States Dimensions:
Height: 244mm,
Width: 165mm,
Spine: 36mm
Weight: 725g ISBN:9780871404473 ISBN 10: 0871404478 Pages: 416 Publication Date:04 May 2018 Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format:Hardback Publisher's Status: Active
Reviews for Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History
In the follow-up to his Edgar Award-winning Charlie Chan biography, Huang uncovers ironies, paradoxes and examples of how Chang and Eng subverted what Leslie Fiedler called `the tyranny of the normal. -- Jane Ciabattari, BBC
Long-listed for Plutarch Award 2019
Short-listed for National Book Critics Circle Award 2018