One favored design in psychological research is the trope of identical twins separated at birth and reared apart. The primary goal of such an impromptu genetics experiment is to tease apart the influence of nature versus nurture in human development. In this setup, “nature” means inherited DNA: Identical twins always share 100% of their genome. Meanwhile, “nurture” refers to environmental influences of parents/caregivers/family. In this case, “reared apart” means presumably zero overlap post partum. Simple, see?
Alas for the aspiring psych researcher, such occurrences are exceedingly rare and never perfectly realized in the real world. But hey, it beats running Norway rats through a maze, or sticking your firstborn inside a Skinner Box for the first couple years of infancy – right?
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I recently finished reading two memoirs written by two brothers: Geoffrey and Tobias Wolff. Although not twins, these brothers were separated – by divorce – early in life. They spent their childhood years at opposite ends of the country under very different socio-economic circumstances. Almost like a psych experiment? Well… maybe.
The elder brother (“Jeff”) grew up relatively privileged in New England with his father. After high school Jeff went to Princeton. The younger brother (“Toby”) lived a more hard-scrabble life with his working mom on the West Coast. After high school, Toby joined the Army and served in Vietnam.
As fate would have it, both brothers ended up becoming authors. And both wrote memoirs of their early years. The elder brother’s was called “The Duke of Deception.” The title is a reference to their father’s checkered career as a con artist and perpetual ne’er-do-well. Yet that very character flaw – inherited by both sons, btw – didn’t prevent Pere Wolff from living the high life as an aeronautical engineer in the heyday of 1950’s Cold War military-industrial-complex America.
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For my money, though, the better writer of the two turns out to be the younger son. His memoir is titled “This Boy’s Life.” It follows a mother and her son on their journey from Sarasota, though Salt Lake, and finally to Seattle. The mom tries to make ends meet on a secretary’s salary. Meanwhile Toby tries to figure out his tenuous place in the world with various abusive stand-ins for his absent biological father.
It’s fascinating to follow the life paths of these two boys, especially when those paths finally cross again near the end. I won’t spoil it for you with a big reveal. But suffice it to say, it’s positively uncanny to hear their convergent accounts of identical events after two young lives spent mostly apart.
Nature versus Nurture? You be the judge. But as for finely-spun fiction, I’ll recommend Toby’s novel “The Barracks Thief” and his short story “Bullet in the Brain” – one of my all-time favorites – in preference to anything his older brother wrote. Then again, as a youngest son, maybe I’m biased? Could be, could be…. After all, come what may genetically speaking, we youngest siblings have to stick together.
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A really fine archival account called “The Brothers Wolff” (from way back in 1989) is here if you’re interested. Read it and save yourself reading two memoirs: Just sayin’.