The Wedding of the Two-Headed Woman

by Alice Mattison

Book Overview

For years, following an early first marriage, Daisy Andalusia remained single and enjoyed the company of men on her own terms, making the most of her independent life. Now in her fifties, she has... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0066213789
• ISBN13: 9780066213781
• Release Date: August 2004
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 275 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Something Different

A very original if flawed book. The character is obstinately real, honest, even as annoying as some people we know. Auden's line, "You will love your crooked neighbor with your croooked heart" comes to mind. The parallel story of the play-within-a-novel doesn't work terribly well, and it doesn't begin to resonate with the depths of the dimensions in Mattison's The Book Borrower. September 11 jumps in, a Deus Ex Machina, to save the plot with Something Really Important. Still, a very compelling and refreshing read.

An extremely unique treat.

I am in the middle of the book and totally love it! The author has done an amazing job of writing the way women think.... overthinking, justifying, overanalyzing. The author also has done an amazing job of writing how we behave.... sometimes illogical, both good and bad. I am finding the book fascinating and often see myself in the main character. I am looking forward to reading the author's other books

One of the best writers I had never heard of before

Unlike most of the other people who wrote reviews here, I was racing home from work each day to devour more of this book. I love Mattison's writing, and the voice of her complicated main character in this novel is easy to hear and endlessly interesting to listen to. Although I'm not sure I would like Daisy in real life, I couldn't put this book down because I loved having access to the internal struggles and seeing how they often contrasted with her actual actions. Although I sometimes found Daisy's choices illogical or hard to understand, I think that is the point of this sort of book: it's a specific character study, as much as it is a collection of observations about human nature in general. The slightly fragmented style of the story didn't bother me at all, because I had no trouble keeping up, and in general I like nonlinear stories. (note: LA Confidential, the movie, was way too fragmented for me). Daisy is a fragmented, complicated person, and she is the one telling the story, so it makes sense that the stories are a little bit fragmented and interwoven. That's how real women are! I think Mattison has real insights that more readers should enjoy.

Filled With Meanings Deeper Than the Obvious

Daisy Andalusia is in her fifties but may be as fickle as a twenty-year-old as far as romance goes. Pekko, her former lover turned slumlord husband, has the unfortunate honor of having only half a wife. Daisy's preoccupation with sex makes her a fairly undesirable life mate, because the wind blows her this way and that. She organizes clutter for other people. And, in the process, she makes herself just available enough to satisfy her own curiosity about the lives of her so-called clients. At least one of those clients helps her with her sexual addiction as Daisy goes about cheating yet remaining unfulfilled. The title of the story, The Wedding of the Two-Headed Woman, is taken from a tabloid but says so much about the life Daisy has created for herself. Will her risky behavior leave her with nothing in the end? The reader will consider this book either a collection of symbolism or a book of foolishness. This book is worth the read and worth a bout of quiet reflection.

Engrossing and Insightful

I really might have given this book a four-star rating, because I would be inclined to save the five-star ratings for Faulkner-level fiction, but I wanted to offset the tepid reviews of other readers. I liked this book a lot. I picked the book off the shelf for its bizarre title, and I was very glad that I did. This book works wonderfully on a number of levels---I will be thinking about it for quite some time. It's not your typical easy-read mystery novel, but it is nonetheless extremely engaging. It's deep enough to satisfy my English major origins, and accessible enough to hold me to the end, despite my overloaded lifestyle and constant interruptions from my children. This is an extremely insightful book that rings very true, both emotionally and philosophically. The themes---or, rather, what I perceived as the themes---are complex and thought-provoking. The author doesn't dole out easy answers to moral and philosophical questions---life doesn't work that way, and neither should literature. What are some of the themes, as I perceive them? Oh, well........Personal moral responsibility, loyalty, the interconnectedness of human beings, moral relativity, emotional intimacy, how one judges the "goodness" of another human being, the emotional fall-out from keeping (or not keeping secrets), intellectual snobbery, the purpose of art..... I may be completely off base, but these are the issues that this book raised in my mind. Oh, and I disagree with the person who found the book bizarre. The characters, and even the plot, rang very true for me. Whether you like or dislike this book, I predict that it will be very memorable for you.