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Karen A. Wyle was born a Connecticut Yankee, but moved every few years throughout her childhood and adolescence. After college in California, law school in Massachusetts, and a mercifully short stint in a large San Francisco law firm, she moved to Los Angeles, where she met her now-husband, who hates L.A. They eventually settled in Bloomington, Indiana.
Wyle's childhood ambition was to be the youngest ever published novelist. While writing her first novel at age ten, she was mortified to learn that some British upstart had beaten her to the goal at age nine.
Wyle has been a voracious and compulsive reader as long as she can remember. Do not strand this woman on a plane without reading matter! Wyle has a degree in English and American Literature, but has in recent years developed some doubts about whether studying literature is, for most people, a good preparation for enjoying it. Her most useful preparation for writing novels, besides reading them, has been the practice of appellate law -- in other words, writing large quantities of persuasive prose, on deadline, year after year.
Wyle's voice is the product of almost five decades of reading both literary and genre fiction. It is no doubt also influenced, although she hopes not fatally tainted, by her years of law practice. Her personal history has led her to focus on often-intertwined themes of family, communication, the impossibility of controlling events, and the persistence of unfinished business.
Reviewed by Stephanie Dagg for Readers' Favorite
In "Twin Bred" by Karen Wyle, twins fascinate scientist Mara and have done all her life. Her own twin Levi died as a baby but he is a constant imaginary companion for her. Set this against a background where you have two species living together. There are humans and Tofa co-existing on earth. The Tofa are humanoid but with four arms and distinctive facial features. Though not enemies, the two races aren’t getting along and certainly aren’t integrating. Mara sees a possibility to use twins in bringing the races together. Human and Tofa women are asked to volunteer to mother a pair of twins each - one human, one Tofa. Since twins are thought to develop their bonds in utero, they will be devoted during their lives and surely bring a more harmonious future. However, there is support for the project for the wrong reasons from some quarters and so it is not going to be as straightforward as it appears.
This is a very thought-provoking and imaginative novel. It is well-written using a variety of styles - flashbacks, report entries, narrative. We encounter interesting, complex characters and, like the humans in the story, begin to understand the psyche of the Tofa better. The book explores the personal and scientific motivations that lie behind this controversial twin-breeding scheme in particular, and thus hints at what goes on in reality where groundbreaking measures may be taken, not always for the most altruistic reasons. Learning to live with decisions taken is another topic for consideration. "Twin Bred" is a provocative and absorbing read.
