Entwined

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 31 MAY 1993

London screenwriter LaPlante, whose beautifully nuanced TV drama Prime Suspect gathered praise on both sides of the Atlantic, batters her readers with this heavy-handed psychological melodrama about twins who were subjected to the experiments of Dr. Josef Mengele in Auschwitz. Rebekka, known also as Vebekka, is brought to post-wall Berlin by her wealthy husband for treatment of her violent, inexplicable rages, which threaten the lives of their children. Also newly arrived in Berlin is her twin Ruda, a lion tamer whose daring act is a visiting circus's main attraction. Separated since the war's end when they were preadolescents, Rebekka and Ruda have had very different lives: Rebekka was well cared for in America while Ruda survived by using her wits and by criminal behavior on the streets of post-war Europe. La Plante very gradually reveals the damage wrought by Mengele's experiments to induce telepathy in the twins (and also finally explains the surgical removal of Ruda's reproductive organs and the destruction of her genitals). While Rebekka begins her hypnosis treatment, Ruda's ambition moves her to further crime; as their histories are disclosed, the twins are led to a final overwrought meeting under a Berlin bigtop. No tension entwines in this tale.