One of Us

Wisconsin Bookwatch, Sept, 2004

One Of Us

Alice Domurat Dreger

Harvard University Press

79 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

www.hup.harvard.edu

0674012941 $22.95 1-800-448-2242

Conjoined twins, ambiguous genitalia, and birth defects are some of the issues considered in Alice Domurat Dreger's One Of Us: Conjoined Twins And The Future Of Normal, a hard-hitting analysis of children born with anatomical abnormalities, and the lives they lead. Unusual here is the viewpoint of those living with these anatomies, as well as the larger social and political perspective of what Dreger terms 'anatomical politics'. Chapters consider the results of separation on the hearts and minds of kids, and the elements which make for 'normalicy' in their lives in the intriguing study One Of Us, recommended especially for college-level collections strong in health and sociology.