3~27~09 Pages: Re-Hash

"Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you."
- Elbert Hubbard

Well, in the last post, I talked about how Chang and Eng ended. I was so, well, affected by it profoundly that I decided to omit the other ending. As I mentioned in the earlier posts in my blog, the novel bounces back and forth between Chang and Eng's teenage years and married life. In the novel, as Chang descends into alcoholism in the latter sections, things are just picking up for the young Chang and Eng. They left their current promoter, the oppressive Mr. Hunter in order to meet P.T. Barnum, who I mentioned a couple of posts ago. With Barnum, they learned of his luxurious and often jolly life but decided that it was not for them and left him as well.
After rejecting both of the promoter's who had been jockeying for their attention they wandered New York and eventually asked a small theatre for lodging in return for their show. This marked the start of Chang and Eng's solo career (did you see what I did there?). At this point, they are about 18 and it's been 4 years since they arrived in America. They have realized that they may never go home by now ENg still hopes that one day he may be separateted from his brother.
It is now that a man named Dr. Lau shows up. He is Siamese, and he'd had a short encounter with the boys earlier in their lives. He suggested that he new a technique to separate the two using special Siamese medical techniques. It is one of the most climactic moments in the book when Eng is dreaming of all the strength and freedom he would have after being separated. The response comes:

"no,no,no-it would not kill you," the doctor said, but he stared so sadly at our band, holding it with the slightest tough, as if he did not realize his palm was still against it. He looked at Chang and me, going from face to face-he must have seen one hestitant expression and one overwhelmed by anticipation-and very softly, he said, "It would kill you."

Eng then asks him about his mother who he left inside in Siam. and he learns that she is dead. It is such a blow to Eng that he loses his spirit and retreats to books and introspection.

What is remarkable about these scenes is that they are one chapter away from Chang and Eng's last humiliating show. There were two, simultaneous (as simultaneous as you can be in a novel) climaxes. Eng learning that Chang will be with him always and their last battle. Though these two parts of their life were decades apart, having them be juxtaposed was incredible and made reading it wonderful.
A Glog
Another One

All in all, Chang and Eng was a fantastic novel, and I recommend that everybody read it. :)