Best Books of the Decade: 1990's
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The Virgin Suicides
by Jeffrey Eugenidespublished
October 7th 2002
(first published 1994)
by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
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binding
Paperback, 224 pages
isbn
0747560595
(isbn13: 9780747560593)
description
This beautiful and sad first novel, recently adapted for a major motion picture, tells of a band of teenage sleuths who piece together the story of a ...more
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recommends it for:
everyone
suicide isn't the happiest of topics. the suicides of five sisters is even less pleasant. how do you recommend a book to someone on such a grim topic? easy: just read it.
what eugenides does so well is capture the mystery of secluded sisters, as seen through the eyes of neighborhood boys. this is important in reading the novel. it's not necessarily the lisbon sisters' story, but rather the boys' story, and how the suicides affected them all the way into adulthood (the boys are now men and th...more
what eugenides does so well is capture the mystery of secluded sisters, as seen through the eyes of neighborhood boys. this is important in reading the novel. it's not necessarily the lisbon sisters' story, but rather the boys' story, and how the suicides affected them all the way into adulthood (the boys are now men and th...more
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Read in June, 2008
In American suburbia, the five Lisbon sisters, ages 12 through 17, commit suicide. The youngest goes first, and after their parents sequester the family within the house, her sisters follow a year afterward. Their story is told by a group neighborhood of boys, now men, who in their fanatic obsession with the Lisbon sister have pieced together the events leading up toand possibly causingthe suicides. The unusual narrative voice is at once distant and invasively familiar, and paints a ...more
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Read in January, 2008
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Read in September, 2008
Where to begin. I have read some of the reviews of others who did not care for or get this book. I admit that the plot/storyline, though unique, is not what makes this story great--it's the prose. The writing is luminous and reads more like poetry than a novel. We don't even know exactly who the narrators are--it is narrated in first person plural and the name and even number of narrators is left vague. Eugenides uses metaphor to describe the deaths of the sisters as the disintegration of a subu...more
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Read in July, 2008
I read Mr. Eugenides' Middlesex before this first novel, and it was very interesting to see some of the seeds for that longer, more engrossing and expansive novel in this one. On its own, this dark tale is held together completely by the novelist's style, which is formidable and captured perfectly in the novel's opening line, an exemplary introduction of tone, point-of-view, and plot all in one sentence. From there, the novel jets back to the beginning of its story, and floats circ...more
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Read in August, 2007
So, I am still halfway through the Omnivore's Dilemma. A few things got in the way of digging back into its meaty, not-exactly-grabbing flesh: moving across the country, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the fact that my subway ride every morning is pretty short, etc. And then this weekend I took a touristing friend to the Strand and saw The Virgin Suicides. I re...more
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Read in January, 2005
So much better the second time around (and I loved it the first, so...)
Gorgeous, creepy. A suburban mythology. At first, I couldn't shake images from the film, which I thought might detract from really appreciating it as a novel, but in the end it didn't. I think that's because I realized how perfectly Sofia Coppola translated the text. I mean, holy shit, it's pretty much perfect. Such a moody novel with sparse dialogue, but what is there, is so right on (and often funny)... GUSHHHH.
Some...more
Gorgeous, creepy. A suburban mythology. At first, I couldn't shake images from the film, which I thought might detract from really appreciating it as a novel, but in the end it didn't. I think that's because I realized how perfectly Sofia Coppola translated the text. I mean, holy shit, it's pretty much perfect. Such a moody novel with sparse dialogue, but what is there, is so right on (and often funny)... GUSHHHH.
Some...more
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Read in April, 2008
Having seen the movie, I feel somewhat robbed of my initial response to this story, but I don't think it makes me love it any less. I read about 40 pages last night, and it was really only by sheer force of will that I was able to retire it to my nightstand at a decent enough hour that I won't be nodding off at my desk this afternoon.
I love the Lisbon girls. I love their extra teeth, their singularity and one-ness, their inability to try to escape the purgatory of their slowly decomposing li...more
I love the Lisbon girls. I love their extra teeth, their singularity and one-ness, their inability to try to escape the purgatory of their slowly decomposing li...more
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you know, i was dragged by a girlfriend at the time to see this movie when it first came out. thumbs sort of down. it was late, she was with her friends, i'd had too much to drink at dinner. i actually fell asleep and barely remember it.
then, a friend of mine in grad school taught it as a perfect example of writing, or something like that, so i picked up a copy of the book, sat myself down in my favorite east village cafe and read it in a couple/few hours.
it was pretty okay. whatever thr...more
then, a friend of mine in grad school taught it as a perfect example of writing, or something like that, so i picked up a copy of the book, sat myself down in my favorite east village cafe and read it in a couple/few hours.
it was pretty okay. whatever thr...more
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7 comments
Read in March, 2008
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Read in February, 2008
Here as a ring.
I suppose that Middlesex is simply a hard act to follow (although I gather this was written first?). Having read that first, I was blown away by it, and unfortunately this didn't capture me the same way. I've just read the other JEs (I usually avoid reading them in detail until I've actually read the book) and see I'm not really alone.
Eugenides has an astounding way of describing people and situations and his metaphors are terrific, but for me the content of this story just di...more
I suppose that Middlesex is simply a hard act to follow (although I gather this was written first?). Having read that first, I was blown away by it, and unfortunately this didn't capture me the same way. I've just read the other JEs (I usually avoid reading them in detail until I've actually read the book) and see I'm not really alone.
Eugenides has an astounding way of describing people and situations and his metaphors are terrific, but for me the content of this story just di...more
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Read in March, 2008
First off, to any would-be authors? Never let the person doing your cover blurb use the word "portentous", no matter how glowing the quote, because at first (and second and third) glance -- in fact every time I picked this book up -- I read, "a stunning first novel, lyrical and pretentious".
And wow, it would be so easy to use that phrase as my review, because that pretty much sums it up. It's gorgeous in places, incredibly descriptive, but almost self-consciously s...more
And wow, it would be so easy to use that phrase as my review, because that pretty much sums it up. It's gorgeous in places, incredibly descriptive, but almost self-consciously s...more
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Read in April, 2008
The Virgin Suicides was overall an interesting book that kept me hooked throughout the entire story. The story is of five sisters who all commit suicide; not at the same time, but throughout the course of a year. It starts out with the youngest sister, Claudia, and the others follow shortly after. The parents keep the four remaining girls “locked up” in order to protect them. This ends up backfiring in the long run and causes them to loose all the girls.
The story is told from the po...more
The story is told from the po...more
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Read in July, 2008
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Read in September, 2008
This book was, as a reviewer noted, "intoxicating" to me. Over the few days it took me to read it-- when I was able to snatch moments to immerse myself in Eugenides' captivating prose-- I found myself dreaming of the Lisbon girls and their suicides. Weird? Yes. Intoxicating? Definitely.
I am one who has the most random assortment of 5 stars, and I debated for a while before I followed my gut and gave this the full 5. Not only was the story itself captivating, but both the "we&q...more
I am one who has the most random assortment of 5 stars, and I debated for a while before I followed my gut and gave this the full 5. Not only was the story itself captivating, but both the "we&q...more
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Hey! It's a book about suicide! AW-some!!!
No,seriously, I really liked this book, and I think a lot of it had to do with the writing style.
It also did not depress me surprisingly. I can understand how some people would find it unpleasant, but I truly did not think this was a depressing story.
Maybe in part because you know what it's about before-hand. If you were just led to believe that it was a normal story, then it ended in suicide...I can see not liking that.
I thought Jeffrey E...more
No,seriously, I really liked this book, and I think a lot of it had to do with the writing style.
It also did not depress me surprisingly. I can understand how some people would find it unpleasant, but I truly did not think this was a depressing story.
Maybe in part because you know what it's about before-hand. If you were just led to believe that it was a normal story, then it ended in suicide...I can see not liking that.
I thought Jeffrey E...more
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
people who like pretentious books
I simply didn't get this book. Despite the fact I was so desperate to find hidden meaning behind Jeff Eugenides' words, there was nothing. What was the point of wasting so much paper and ink on something so overtly pretentious and so utterly meaningless? A group of oppressed sisters kill themselves after flirting with the neighborhood boys. How horrible that it happened in the middle of suburban America, where the white picket fences render the neighborhoods impermeable to something as tragic as...more
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Read in November, 2005
I finished reading this one last night and what a book. First of all, I love the collective point-of-view. The story is narrated by a group of men, an account of the events in their town surrounding the Lisbon sisters, years after their suicides. I'd seen the movie before reading the book and since I loved the movie, I had high expectations for the book -- which doesn't disappoint. It describes, in their own words, the obsession of a group of boys for these mysterious, sheltered girls. Every gli...more
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Read in February, 2008
Good read. Really interesting. Couldn't put it down. Started and finished it in 2 interrupted days. Interested to see the movie now...
This is such a story of adolescence, love, and over cautious parents. There's something in here for everyone to be able to identify with. It cuts you to the core and makes you hope for the best for the Lisbon girls. You want them to overcome; to leave. You hope that the end will be different than what the title promises. The movie was the same. I went into it ho...more
This is such a story of adolescence, love, and over cautious parents. There's something in here for everyone to be able to identify with. It cuts you to the core and makes you hope for the best for the Lisbon girls. You want them to overcome; to leave. You hope that the end will be different than what the title promises. The movie was the same. I went into it ho...more



































