{"id":8845,"date":"2024-01-17T01:04:12","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T01:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=8845"},"modified":"2024-01-17T19:35:54","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T19:35:54","slug":"twin-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/17\/twin-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Twin A"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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An Array of Doubles<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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A mixture of poetry and prose mirrors author Amit Majmudar\u2019s twin sons, one born healthy and one with a life-threatening heart defect.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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By Betsy K. Brown<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Amit Majmudar\u2019s memoir, Twin A<\/em>, is a letter to the author\u2019s young son, Shiv, who was diagnosed with a potentially fatal heart defect in the womb. Shiv is a twin, and the book mirrors this fact by being itself an array of doubles: it draws inspiration from both eastern and western literature and is written in both poetry and prose; its author is both a poet and a medical doctor. Because of all of these pairings, the book sings with a dynamic, lovable energy. And, in spite of its eclecticism, it also maintains narrative unity, because it is at its core the simple story of a father who loves his son.<\/p>

Twin A\u2019<\/em>s narrative spans more than a decade, from before the conception of Majmudar\u2019s twins to the more-recent past, when the two boys are teenagers. It focuses mainly on his sons\u2019 infancy and the early years of diagnoses and surgeries that marked Shiv\u2019s (and the whole family\u2019s) life. By the end, I felt as though I too had sat up with Majmudar and his family late into the night, surrounded by feeding tubes and vitals monitors. The author never shies from the suffering inherent in parenting a sick child, nor the immense love. He has discovered the secret of looking life in the face and embracing it, even when in the midst of multiple open-heart surgeries. But this memoir is not grim. Majmudar is a playful, creative author, and his explorations and explanations of medicine and family life are lively, creative, and full of wonder at the gift that is life.<\/p>

Majmudar\u2019s medical knowledge is one of several facets that make this memoir unique. As doctor and poet, he is able to explain complex and often-overwhelming medical maladies using stories, verse, and analogies. For instance, he describes Shiv\u2019s heart defect with an extended metaphor of \u201cthe biggest pomegranate supplier in the country\u201d with roads that were never built, halting vital transportation. Other moments where medicine and art meet are shorter and more tender. At one point, Majmudar and his wife visit a genetic counselor to discuss running tests on their unborn son. Majmudar looks at a pamphlet of illustrations: \u201cI remember staring at the little fluorescent green chromosomes all in a row. They had the look of little Norse runes. The rune a human chromosome looks the most like is X, gebo<\/em>. The meaning of that rune is \u2018gift.\u2019\u201d<\/p>

Twin A<\/em>\u2019s prose is interspersed with poems that are windows into the mysterious and mystical moments of Shiv\u2019s early life. These poems provide necessary tone shifts, creating meditative room for readers before they return to prose, the proper form for the practical and urgent world of hospital and home. \u00a0One \u201cbreathing\u201d moment like this is right after Majmudar receives the news about his unborn twins. He writes:<\/p>

\u2026Identical! Identical save for the heart, the heart.
This, too, is art.<\/p>

I see, in asymmetry,
sublimity: the rightness of seas,<\/p>

mismatched couplets, fingerprints;
of continents, pianos, planets, twins.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Majmudar\u2019s \u201cannotations\u201d also shed light on the brilliance of his craft, and the effect is much like being led on a tour by the artist through his own gallery of paintings.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Later, Majmudar writes \u201ca pair of twinned poems\u201d at the hospital while sitting next to his unconscious six-month-old son, whose incision is still not closed due to swelling during the surgery:<\/p>

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 A<\/p>

I see your ribs\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 your ashen head
the chest tube wound\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 where you have bled
sacred blood\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 from your sacred heart
and it\u2019s beyond my hybrid art
to reawaken from his rest
the mountaineer snowed under\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 this
swirl of living funeral ash<\/p>

O Innocent atop Kailash
a private famine\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 your samadhi
instill now\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 in your still-life body
a will transcending mere desire<\/p>

Come rise & revel in a sphere of fire<\/p>

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0B<\/p>

I see your ribs\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 your fallen head
the chest tube wound\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 where you have bled
sacred blood\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 from your sacred heart
that all their science\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 all my art
can neither reach\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 nor resurrect
your scorchmark tongue\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 your thorax wrecked
ribs of a ghost ship\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 snapped & lost
planks of a Son\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 roped in a cross<\/p>

You bare your heart now\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 breastbone split
& I bear witness\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 to the twitch<\/p>

heart muscle\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 missle in a silo
Lift off\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 & thread your solar halo<\/p>

Before and after the poems he explains their structure: \u201cYou will see that the poems don\u2019t have punctuation marks. That isn\u2019t a lack or defect\u2026 This is just now these twins came out\u2026 In the first twinned poem\u2026 I see Shiva in you\u2026 In the second twinned poem, I see Christ in you.\u201d These explanations, much like Dante\u2019s in La Vita Nuova<\/em>, do not detract from the beauty of the poems themselves, but instead enhance them. This may be because they are written as heartfelt epistles to the son himself. Majmudar\u2019s \u201cannotations\u201d also shed light on the brilliance of his craft, and the effect is much like being led on a tour by the artist through his own gallery of paintings.<\/p>

Several gems are saved for the final part of the memoir, including excerpts written by Majmudar\u2019s wife, Ami, and Shiv himself. Shiv\u2019s piece\u2014an essay written for school when he was just eleven\u2014contains one of the most memorable images in the book: \u201cTo me, hospital bands signify my bravery in going through everything I\u2019ve gone through because of my heart condition. They are like paper scars from surgeries.\u201d In fact, all of Twin A <\/em>is a kind of paper scar, a literary scrapbook of hard-won victories and still-unanswered questions about pain and the future. It is a book about welcoming\u2014welcoming new life, welcoming suffering, and welcoming the stories that will become yours and your family\u2019s forever.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Betsy K. Brown<\/strong> is a teacher and chair of humanities at an Arizona high school, and a graduate of Seattle Pacific University\u2019s MFA in Creative Writing program, with a focus on creative nonfiction. Her published writing includes work for Circe Institute and Autumn Sky Poetry.<\/em> You can read more of her work at betsykbrown.com<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Twin A: A Memoir<\/strong> was published by Slant Books on August 15, 2023. You can purchase a copy from the publisher here<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A mixture of poetry and prose mirror author Amit Majmudar\u2019s twin sons, one born healthy and one with a life-threatening heart defect. 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