What Are You Like - Anne Enright

I borrowed this book from the library a number of weeks ago but put off reading it after reading some not so good reviews about it on Amazon.com. I had really enjoyed her novel "The Gathering" but this one was supposed to be quite different.

According to Amazon.com "She tells the story of a Dubliner whose mother died in childbirth. Maria is now 20, living in New York, cleaning houses, taking drugs, sleeping with strangers, and generally being in a funk. In a lover's bag, she finds an old photo of a girl who looks just exactly like herself, dressed in clothes she's never owned, posing with people she's never met. But this isn't some gooey, alternate-reality identity fantasy. Maria has, in fact, a twin sister. Though each is unknown to the other, we learn both their lives inside out as they head toward a giddily inevitable meeting."

This book is hard to describe. I had a difficult time getting into it because the narrator and the time periods changed all the time. Sometimes Maria was in 1984 and next 1977, then it would be a nun's voice or maybe Rose in 1986. It made it hard to remember which life experiences the character had been through to get that point in the story. It was also a very sad book. Neither one of the twins feels excepted and both are suicidal. It was interesting that 2 women who have never met each other had so many similarities in their lives.

I don't think I would recommed this book. It really didn't leave me feeling anything except confused. And since I am pretty much confused all the time in my normal life - iıs not a feeling I need in my book life!