Twins : an uncanny relationship /

Starting with the sensational media accounts of separated-in-infancy twins, London Times writer Watson reviews the folklore, current findings, and speculations on the closeness of twins and on the nature of coincidences. All that talk, in short, of separated twins driving the same type of car, wearing the same clothing or jewelry, giving their children the same names. The result is a book that makes for high-interest reading in many sections: the clinical case histories;, the test batteries that twins undergo at the specialized Univ. of Minnesota facility; the incidence of twinning by race; the problems of birth and development. In other sections, Watson's juggling of probabilities gets out of hand; and his faithful reporting of current and past twin studies--often showing widely varying, even contradictory conclusions--does no service to the reader in search of enlightenment. Watson's major concern is to dispel any illusions about the uncanny; in regard to the supernormal, he does a fine job. (If the astrologers were right, for example, fraternal twins ought to demonstrate the same degree of closeness and coincidence as identical twins; obviously, they don't.) As he proceeds to deal with coincidences in general, Watson first takes the tack that rare events do happen. Then he notes that such things as choosing the same model car or the same jewelry reflects socioeconomic status, IQ, physical beauty, etc., for which genetic arguments can be made. (If you have long pretty hands, you might naturally wear rings and bracelets.) Other coincidences are explained away as being fairly common in the population as a whole (like drinking vodka). Still, there are so many unknowns, and the probabilities are often such crude estimates, that the ice gets a bit thin. But even if Watson's all-in-the-genes explanation for behavioral similarities isn't the whole story, much of what he imparts is intriguing indeed. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.