The Virgin Suicides

Apr 28, 2011 K.D. Oliveros rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006-2010)

Shelves: 1001-core

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. For me, what makes this novel different from those that I’ve read so far is the narrator’s voice: first person plural and the brilliant way Jeffrey Eugenides (born 1960) made use of it. Since the story is about 5 teenage sisters and the narrators were interested on them, readers presumed that they were narrating from the viewpoint of schoolboys with raging hormones and think of sex almost every hour of the day. Until the last sentence when Eugenides revealed that the narrators are already middle...more For me, what makes this novel different from those that I’ve read so far is the narrator’s voice: first person plural and the brilliant way Jeffrey Eugenides (born 1960) made use of it. Since the story is about 5 teenage sisters and the narrators were interested on them, readers presumed that they were narrating from the viewpoint of schoolboys with raging hormones and think of sex almost every hour of the day. Until the last sentence when Eugenides revealed that the narrators are already middle-age men with thinning hair and soft bellies. My perception of the story as a reader made a complete turnaround. Being a middle age man myself and having a teenager daughter, the last page upped the story’s impact on me.

The collective voice of the narrators who are voyeurs of the Lisbon family oozes with innocence (of being young and sexually curious) and guilt (of being voyeurs who did not do anything to save the sisters). If you read this novel in a superficial manner, this is just about 5 young sisters (13-year-old Cecilia, 14-year-old Lux, 15-year-old Bonnie, 16-year-old Mary, and 17-year-old Therese) who killed themselves because of their very strict mother and workaholic submissive effeminate father. They probably lost all hopes of having a good future like finishing school after they were pulled out just because Lux missed the curfew or finding a rich man to marry since they were not allowed to go out anymore.

But Eugenides, having an M.A. in Creative Writing from Stanford University, knew better. It would have been too simple for a story to be all about that. In the narration, the boys said that the suicides were act of “selfishness” as the girls were at the brink of adulthood, pretty hence possible sexual preys. They fantasized about having sex with them and even kept with them the “exhibits” that even in their mid-lives still remind them of how they felt towards those pretty young things. The boys thought that they were innocent but the fact that they were watching the Lisbon house through their binoculars, they were communicating with them via songs played on the telephone, the girls were leaving notes posted on the bicycle wheels or in the mailboxes did not give them the inkling to help to prevent the eventual group suicides. They just watched and did nothing. In effect, the boys were the selfish ones and the guilt that permeates in them in their middle-age is what Eugenides, in my opinion, wants to communicate with this novel. Cecilia’s suicide forewarned the narrators. Forewarned the people of small town of GrossPointe, Michigan. Some paid attention: the priest, the social worker. But in the end those were just not enough. The Lisbon sisters committed suicide with the blood left on the hands of the boys and the whole town.

And the creepiest thing there is that since Eugenides used "we" and "us" and realizing in the end that those narrators were not teenage kids but were middle-age men, gave me the feeling that I, now a middle-age man myself, was with them watching Lux making out with faceless boys and men on the rooftop making me equally guilty.

For me, this is a sample of a novel that seems to be a simple story but very rich in terms of interpretation. It just made me think of my role as a father to my teenage daughter. How I should deal with her especially during those times when we misunderstand each other, she locks herself in her room and cry. Fatherhood is trial and error and they say that one has to only follow his heart and everything will turn out right in the end. I wish it is that simple. Not that our family has the suicidal gene running in our blood but I just have to more sensitive and not bury myself in my office work and books and hope that times like that will go away once she's 20 and no longer an adolescent.

Now I have enough motivation to read Eugenides’ Pulitzer-winning novel Middlesex. One hell of a writer.(less)

71 likes · like · see review

Jul 01, 2007 nicole j. wroblewski rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

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 Sofia Coppola had done a remarkable job adapting 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.

So...more

51 likes · like · see review

Jan 03, 2011 Mariel rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: sing me to sleep

Recommended to Mariel by: suicidal blonde

A caveat: I've not read Jeffery Eugenides novel The Virgin Suicides since 1999. I did watch the film soon after, and that movie is a dullish carbon copy of the book (of course, this is all subjective like how one song gets to one person and inspires nothing in another). Put that way it was like I'd read it twice, I guess. My memory isn't always reliable. I don't feel particularly teenagerish in the memory of reading, though. Maybe 'cause I've carried it along with me over the years. (I didn't ev...more

18 likes · like · see review

Jan 15, 2008 Matt rated it 5 of 5 stars 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 they r...more 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 they retell their story). they've never fully recovered from the events of that year, as evidenced by the carefully catalogued and numbered evidence they've collected over the years (faded photographs, scraps of paper, newspaper clippings, etc). it's as though their growth and development from boys to men has been permanently stunted, and it's something of a tragedy to read. euginedes' use of a vague narrator allows the reader to actively participate in the mystery and confusion as the boys try to come to terms with the deaths. the narrator(s) alway refer to themselves as "we," and never "i," drawing the reader in with them. we don't know who's speaking. it could be any of 10-12 boys. it's a particularly useful way of letting the reader experience the same gamut of emotions as the boys. by the end of the book i was every bit affected the same way the boys were and are.

beyond the subject of suicide, there's also some very insightful social commentary on how death (particularly suicides) affect not only specific individuals, but communities as well. the narrator(s), for example, notice how all the leaves went unraked during the fall after the first four sisters kill themselves. there's also mention about a day of mourning and an assembly at school, and one boy comments how he felt like they were supposed to feel badly for everything that ever happened...ever. how do adults explain suicide to children? eugenides expertly taps into what it's like to try to grapple with and understand something completely beyond understanding. how do we process suicide and death? can we? should we? i don't think it's beyond reason to make comparisons to 'hamlet' or other literature where 'ghosts' figure prominently. for all intents and purposes, these men are still boys under the spell of five ghosts. it's a thought-provoking novel and one that stays with the reader well after closing its pages, just as the lisbon sisters still haunt the memory of the neighborhood boys.

perhaps the most impressive aspect of the novel is the prose itself. mr. eugenides can write. my copy of the book is nearly worn out from all the markings i've made. there are passages that made me jump off my bed and shout at the sky. his prose is as shiny as a newly minted coin. it's as though every word were precisely chosen, every sentence carefully constructed (and i imagine they were). the novel reminds the reader of the printed word's power. i don't know how much eugenides got for his soul (for surely there was *some* sort of bargain with the devil), but i hope it was a hefty sum.

unfortunately quality literature seems to be in short supply these days. however, i think it's safe to say that after two books jeffrey eugenides has joined a gradually declining crop of truly great, living, american authors (roth, delillo, morrison, updike, among a few others) and is well on his way to an illustrious, prolific, literary career.

this is one of the few books i read more than once. each time i read it i hope to glean some insight into the 'why' of suicide, yet knowning it will never be so. so i'll just keep reading it over and over and try to understand, just as the boys continue to congregate, go over the evidence, seek closure and try to become men. (less)

103 likes · like · see review

May 03, 2011 Linda rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who like pretentious books

I simply didn't get this book. I was so desperate to find hidden meaning in it, but there was nothing. Why waste 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 white picket fences are supposed to render such neighborhoods impermeable to tragic teenage death. In the end, all I got from this book was th...more

83 likes · like · see review

view all 27 comments

M.C. Hewins Michael wrote: "Yay! I believe you and agree on nearly all points. Sincerely. Your response is constructive, erudite, focussed, cogent and...um...and...more
May 05, 2013 01:47am

Michael *from* your anus - priceless

Well, I guess when one is my age and still paddling around in the same depth as many younger, hesitant, unsure minds that...more
May 05, 2013 08:56am

Dec 23, 2011 Bonnie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Bonnie by: 1001 Books to Read Before You Die

Shelves: 1001, contemporary, adult, literary-fiction, tough-subjects

"With most people," he said, "suicide is like Russian roulette. Only one chamber has a bullet. With the Lisbon girls, the gun was loaded. A bullet for family abuse. A bullet for genetic predisposition. A bullet for historical malaise. A bullet for inevitable momentum. The other two bullets are impossible to name, but that doesn't mean the chambers were empty."

This was a strange read for me, yet still managed to be… I wouldn’t say enjoyable. Maybe intriguing is more like it. This book filled me w...more

16 likes · like · see review

Jul 24, 2011 Stephen M rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobook

Prose style: 4
Plot: 3
Depth of characters: 5
Overall sense of aesthetic: 4
Originality: 5
Entertaining: 5
Emotional Reaction: 5
Intellectual Stimulation: 4
Social Relevance: 4
Writerly Inspiration: 2

Average = 4.1
Click here

I picked this up on something of a whim from the library, audiobook format. Because what the heck? I wanted to mix it up a bit. Because besides my tendency to zone out while listening, it's fun to listen to someone tell you a story isn't it?

I was scanning the aisle of worn-out plas...more

19 likes · like · see review

Feb 09, 2013 Chiara Pagliochini rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: letteratura-americana

« Non abbiamo nemmeno cominciato a palpare il loro dolore che già ci ritroviamo a chiederci se una determinata ferita era mortale o no, oppure (nella nostra diagnosi cieca) se si tratti davvero di una ferita. Potrebbe anche essere una bocca, altrettanto calda e bagnata. La cicatrice potrebbe coprire il cuore o la rotula. Impossibile stabilirlo. Possiamo solo risalire a tentoni le gambe e le braccia, su per il morbido tronco bivalve, e raggiungere un viso immaginario. Ci sta parlando, ma non lo s...more « Non abbiamo nemmeno cominciato a palpare il loro dolore che già ci ritroviamo a chiederci se una determinata ferita era mortale o no, oppure (nella nostra diagnosi cieca) se si tratti davvero di una ferita. Potrebbe anche essere una bocca, altrettanto calda e bagnata. La cicatrice potrebbe coprire il cuore o la rotula. Impossibile stabilirlo. Possiamo solo risalire a tentoni le gambe e le braccia, su per il morbido tronco bivalve, e raggiungere un viso immaginario. Ci sta parlando, ma non lo sentiamo. »

Non è facile circoscrivere le sensazioni suscitate da un romanzo come questo. Parlo, non a caso, di sensazioni – e non di emozioni, considerando l’emozione come un sentimento attivo, che prevede da parte del lettore la risposta a un stimolo – sensazioni, come il fastidio di una cosa che si attacca, il disagio di avere un braccio premuto contro il proprio su un autobus, un’aderenza fisica e spirituale come quella delle crisope, i cui fragili corpi di insetto restano appiccicati ai vetri di casa Lisbon o si frantumano con un odore forte tra le dita del lettore.
Perché il punto non è – e l’incipit del romanzo (“La mattina che si uccise anche l’ultima figlia dei Lisbon”) parla piuttosto esplicitamente – sapere che le sorelle Lisbon, tutte e cinque, si tolgano la vita. Il punto non è scoprire come o quando. E l’abilità di Eugenides non sta nell’indagare i motivi che spingono le Lisbon a questo gesto, quanto piuttosto nel tacerli.
Il punto è la fascinazione esercitata dalle Lisbon sul gruppo di narratori loro coetanei – ai tempi dei fatti, giovani dall’ormone facile – e, per tramite loro, sempre più fortemente sul lettore. Tanto da raggiungere tragicamente un paradosso e, per vie segrete, quasi esoteriche, instillare nel lettore la certezza che le Lisbon non possano uscire di scena, non così, non come è stato detto fin dalla prima riga, non adesso, non adesso. Come i narratori prolungano, col loro racconto, la permanenza delle sorelle Lisbon su questa terra, così il lettore si tende nella speranza, nel capriccio che qualcosa si possa salvare ancora, che il suo desiderio di toccare per una volta Cecilia, Lux, Mary, Bonnie, Therese possa trovare soddisfazione.
Come i narratori, il lettore assiste al disfacimento di casa Lisbon e dei suoi occupanti in un misto di attrazione e di repulsione. A simbolo di questa complessa mistura si erge il lezzo che la casa stessa e i suoi abitanti sembrano emanare, “talmente denso che sembrava liquido, e a entrare nella sua scia si aveva l’impressione di esserne spruzzati”. “Stranamente, per quanto l’odore fosse nauseabondo, non ci venne mai l’idea di trattenere il fiato o, alla peggio, di respirare con la bocca; e in capo a pochi giorni aspiravamo quella fragranza come un poppante che succhia il latte della madre”.
Leggere delle sorelle Lisbon è essere inzuppati da capo a piedi in questo odore. È la curiosità e il disagio con cui si guarda per la prima volta un corpo nudo, con cui si studia una nuova anatomia. È il lieve disgusto che si prova a uscire in un giorno di pioggia, quando intorno tutto è verde e putrido, eppure così puro. Qualcosa di grottesco, qualcosa di sublime, qualcosa di profondamente, misteriosamente sacro.
Se ne esce con la sensazione – sensazione, ancora – di aver letto un incantesimo più che un romanzo, di aver preso parte a un rito di iniziazione. Qualche antica corda dentro di noi è stata toccata e vibra. Nel più minuscolo dettaglio si scova una torbida, dolciastra sensualità. Persino i corpi delle Lisbon, stesi aperti sui tavoli dell’obitorio, vivono di uno sconosciuto magnetismo: “i loro cuori, lisci e blu, sembravano palloncini pieni d’acqua, e anche gli altri organi avevano contorni chiari e ben definiti, come in un trattato”.
Con una penna – soltanto una penna – si fa tutto questo?
(less)

12 likes · like · see review

Apr 26, 2013 Lynne King rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I’ve always been intrigued by suicides, and the way in which individuals decide to take their own lives. Some methods are really gruesome. The suicides of Seneca, Virginia Woolf and Dora Carrington immediately spring to mind.

I've often wondered if this capability for suicide is inherent in all of us. And so when I read the reviews on this book, I had to read it even though I wasn’t too sure that I would necessarily like it.

As I slowly progressed through this book, I felt as if I were on a voyeur...more

16 likes · like · see review

Mar 25, 2013 Scarlet rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, depressing-endings, made-up-stories-on-real-issues, off-the-beaten-track, really-good, it-stays-with-you, saw-the-movie

"When she jumped, she probably thought she'd fly."

The Virgin Suicides, on the surface, promises to be a sad, morbid tale of teen suicide – The Lisbon girls, the eldest being 17, kill themselves over a span of thirteen months. But Eugenides constructs the story so peculiarly that the conventional reaction you expect to have goes flying out the window. The content is depressing. Yet it’s treated in a way that makes it seem surreal and magical, almost romantic, and even darkly funny at times.

I’m s...more

"When she jumped, she probably thought she'd fly."

The Virgin Suicides, on the surface, promises to be a sad, morbid tale of teen suicide – The Lisbon girls, the eldest being 17, kill themselves over a span of thirteen months. But Eugenides constructs the story so peculiarly that the conventional reaction you expect to have goes flying out the window. The content is depressing. Yet it’s treated in a way that makes it seem surreal and magical, almost romantic, and even darkly funny at times.

I’m still not sure what I feel right now. I’m sad, intrigued, a little frustrated, but accompanying everything is a weird sense of detachment and indifference. I feel like I must grieve for these poor girls and their tragically short lives, but I can’t because I’m not moved enough. And strangely, that’s exactly what the book sets out to achieve. You are supposed to know about the girls but not get to know them. You are supposed to know what happened, but not why it happened.

The story is narrated from the perspective of a bunch of boys who lived in the Lisbon’s neighborhood at the time of the tragedy. Now in their mid-thirties, the boys are still haunted by the enigma of the girls’ suicides. The tone, in many ways, is like a criminal investigation – the boys have collected a series of evidence and interviewed people (including the girls’ parents) in a desperate attempt to understand what might have happened during those terrible thirteen months.

This style of narration is what keeps you detached. The Lisbon girls are never really the protagonists, even though the book essentially tells their story – or at least, tries to. Their lives unfold like a patchwork of recollections and assumptions; a collage of many different, tiny details that when put together only forms a vague impression of five depressed sisters.

More than the grief, this book stirred an intense curiosity in me. It’s like I’ve contracted the boys’ collective obsession; like I’ve myself lived across the Lisbons and seen them being consumed by rot and ruin. And just like every other person privy to the tragedy, I find myself making assumptions and theories about what the girls must have felt and thought during the last few months of their lives.

Sad. Dreamlike. Weird. I really liked The Virgin Suicides. It's a great piece of literature and its status as a cult classic of sorts is justified. Definitely worth a read, even if you don’t like it.

"It didn't matter in the end how old they had been, or that they were girls, but only that we had loved them, and that they hadn't heard us calling, still do not hear us, up here in the tree house with our thinning hair and soft bellies, calling them out of those rooms where they went to be alone for all time, alone in suicide, which is deeper than death, and where we will never find the pieces to put them back together."

(less)

9 likes · like · see review

Sep 11, 2008 Debbie Petersen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

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 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 suburban neighborhood--the trees are being cut down because of the threat of Dutch Elm disease; there are dying flies everywhere that are described by the first sister to commit suicide as not even having time to eat before their lives are over. There are so many themes in the story--going through the layers is akin to peeling an onion. The writing is so lovely that it induces a dreamlike state in the reader. Everything is described so perfectly that you can not only see clearly what is being described, but smell the various smells and recall with clarity everything from that time period. Eugenides did not throw this book together; in my mind's eye I see him sitting at his desk turning each phrase over and over in his hands until he gets it exactly right. Yet, the writing is not strained at all--in fact, it seems to have flowed effortlessly from his pen. This is a gifted writer whose work will be read for generations to come, long after Eat, Pray, Gag is in the remainder pile. Elizabeth Gilbert, Chris Bohjalian, Jodi Picoult, Robert James Waller, John Grisham, read this and weep. To this list I add myself, since I would give anything to be able to write half as well as Eugenides. As for those who look for a conventional plot line like all of the other books out there and do not find it (why EXACTLY did the girls kill themselves?) In the real world, not everything in life can be explained.

I loved the book so much that I immediately rented the movie. It was awful, with the exception of James Wood who nailed the part of the father beautifully.(less)

39 likes · like · see review

Mar 23, 2013 Ariel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult

I don't even really know what to say. I think maybe a few people are going to be disappointed that I didn't give this five stars, and I mean, I'm upset that it wasn't five stars either, but hear me out.

The thing I liked the most about this book is the perspective. We're learning about 5 girls who commit suicide.. and we NEVER hear anything substantial from any of the sisters? It was genius. The way this book was written is brilliant. Honestly, every couple of pages I would think to myself "When...more

7 likes · like · see review

Jan 27, 2008 Tara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: peaked-my-interest

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I just finished reading this book and have to say that I was bothered by it. I saw the movie quite some time ago and was bothered by it as well, and thought that maybe by reading the book I would gain a little more insight. Well, I guess in some ways I did gain a little insight.

The book is about the 5 Lisbon sisters: Lux, Mary, Therese, Bonnie and Cecilia, one of whom commits suicide fairly early in the book (Cecilia), and then aftermath from her suicide which leads to the suicides of the remain...more I just finished reading this book and have to say that I was bothered by it. I saw the movie quite some time ago and was bothered by it as well, and thought that maybe by reading the book I would gain a little more insight. Well, I guess in some ways I did gain a little insight.

The book is about the 5 Lisbon sisters: Lux, Mary, Therese, Bonnie and Cecilia, one of whom commits suicide fairly early in the book (Cecilia), and then aftermath from her suicide which leads to the suicides of the remaining sisters. The story is told from the point of view of the teenage boys who observed the sisters over the course of the year between the first suicide and the last, and all of the "evidence" they gathered which they were hoping would help explain to them why these girls did what they did. These boys (who are grown men as narrators) were just as bewildered as I was after reading this. The 4 remaining sisters are made into prisoners in their home, which can drive any teenager to do rash things (like runaway for one), but not these girls. They were prisoners of parents who thought by protecting them from the world, they would not have the same fate of the first suicidal sister.

Jeffrey Eugenides has written an interesting book. I enjoyed his book "Middlesex" and found that this book had a lot of the same issues of angst and acceptance that the character in "Middlesex" had to deal with. That's where the similarities end. Eugenides has written a book that discusses teen suicide which is always a shocking event when it occurs, and it leaves all of us wondering "why?", "what was so wrong that they chose this way to deal with their problems?". That's exactly what the narrators in this book are asking themselves, even with all of the knowledge they had of the girls and the neighborhood at the time, these men still (after all the years that had passed) ask themselves "why did the Lisbon girls do this?". The reader is also left with that question gnawing away at the end of the book. I have no idea, given everything that is laid out in the book from the POV of these men, why these girls felt this was the way out from under their overly protective and domineering parents. The parents were only trying to protect them, and that protection made them feel like prisoners who felt there was only one way to escape. I think that's what bothered me most, that these girls thought there was no other way out from under their parents and therefore, they had no other choice.(less)

8 likes · like · see review

Jul 19, 2007 Brandon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 three stars...more

7 likes · like · see review

Sep 29, 2007 Jen rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: books_i_listened_to

This book is like a preface, where the real book never feels like it begins. Endless foreshadowing mixed in with various teenage boy obsessions about what a home with five daughters must entail...boxes and boxes of tampons, etc. I couldn't wait for these girls to kill themselves just so the book would be over.

50 likes · like · see review

May 08, 2011 Blair rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-on-kindle, past-and-present, overrated

Honestly, I really wanted to fall in love with this. I've long been aware of its status as a cult classic and many people I know, as well as people I don't know but whose taste seems to correspond closely with mine, have professed to adore it. So I feel a bit uncomfortable about revealing that I disliked it - I'll admit, I have been guilty of judging people a bit if I see they've slated a book I really love, and this seems to be a book that has a lot of meaning for many readers - but, there you...more Honestly, I really wanted to fall in love with this. I've long been aware of its status as a cult classic and many people I know, as well as people I don't know but whose taste seems to correspond closely with mine, have professed to adore it. So I feel a bit uncomfortable about revealing that I disliked it - I'll admit, I have been guilty of judging people a bit if I see they've slated a book I really love, and this seems to be a book that has a lot of meaning for many readers - but, there you go, I can't help it.

I DO 'get' a lot of the things people love about the story - the hazy, filmic quality of the writing, the sense of indefinable loss and nostalgia for childhood, the effective use of first-person-plural narrative, the clever structure with the obsessive boys cataloguing every shred of information they can find about the Lisbon girls and collating it into a sort of testament. But I didn't get much enjoyment from reading it. The tone reminded me a lot - A LOT - of The Lovely Bones, which I also disliked, and I presume this book must have been a major infuence on Alice Sebold's style. Some of the descriptive language seemed identical(ly ridiculous), for example the inventory of items thrown out from the Lisbons' house including 'blankets sopped with the picnic of the girls' spilled sleep' - what?! I felt repulsed by a lot of it - the descriptions, the characters - and the general queasy atmosphere made me feel quite ill. I know this is probably a part of what some appreciate, but I couldn't get into it at all. With the narrators seeming so odd, and the Lisbon sisters so distanced from them through the way they are idolised and analysed, I didn't feel a connection with anyone or anything in the story.

Thinking about it, this also might be because the characters' everyday experiences were so completely removed from anything I remember about being a teenager, so I didn't find any of it to be something I could relate to either. I know you're not supposed to understand why the Lisbons killed themselves, but as someone who was severely depressed and at times suicidal at that age myself, it all rang so hollow to me and I couldn't shake the feeling that the book itself (as opposed to just the narrators) was romanticising suicide. This is particularly evident in a passage towards the end, discussing the girls attending a debutante party after the suicides: 'they were bound for college, husbands, child-rearing, unhappiness only dimly perceived - bound, in other words, for life.' So the Lisbons got the better end of the deal, I suppose, by escaping from this predestined boredom and misery early? I also couldn't suspend my disbelief enough to accept that ALL THESE MEN would remain so obsessed with the Lisbon girls for the rest of their lives - the bits about always thinking of Lux during sex, etc. Yes, it's believable that being a witness to the suicides of five young sisters would haunt them for a long time, but surely by middle age at least some of them would have moved past it? Surely they wouldn't still be continually fantasising about the early fumblings of a 14-year-old as grown men?! And if any of this is supposed to be at all romantic, I just found it downright weird. By the end I was so, so sick of their tedious obsession.

Not for me. (less)

32 likes · like · see review

Aug 12, 2012 Angus rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed-and-blogged, 5-stars

Original post at Book Rhapsody.

***

The girls just want to live

I first got acquainted with the writer through his Pulitzer winner, Middlesex, so I am pretty much familiar with his terrain. It’s an understatement that I’m looking forward to reading his début novel, The Virgin Suicides, which is about the story of five sisters who committed mass you-know-what. I’ve seen the film adaptation of this before reading, even before knowing about the literary prowess of Eugenides. Despite this familiarity,...more

3 likes · like · see review

Feb 10, 2008 June rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

9 likes · like · see review

Aug 29, 2007 Abby rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 remembered somewhat enjoying the kind of awful movie; I remembered reading voraciously through Middlesex. It was $6.

I bought it,...more

5 likes · like · see review

Oct 30, 2010 Malbadeen rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people that want to think well of adolescent boys.

#3 DONE and I loved it! Despite the macabre subject matter I felt that the book was really uplifting. The boys pursuit of unraveling the mystery of why the girls committed the suicides was so sweet. They were curious and infatuated but not stupid, overly confident or sex obsessed (like many other books about boys at this age). I saw one review wherein the person said "another story about unhappy females" but I felt like the females were definitely secondary to the boys. Damn - I love those boys!...more

8 likes · like · see review

Aug 22, 2012 Kristilyn (Reading In Winter & Winter Distractions) added it · review of another edition

Shelves: physical-book

I had already read Middlesex (also by Eugenides) before I bought The Virgin Suicides. Loved Middlesex and assumed I would love this book as well.

Despite the heavy topic (which I was prepared for), I loved this book. Eugenides has a way with storytelling which I really agree with. Shortly after finishing the book, I watched the movie and was disappointed - the book was way better.

3 likes · like · see review

Dec 22, 2012 Toni rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, young-adult, novels

На нас просто ни се живее. Стига някой да ни позволи.

Това е една от онези книги, за които искаш да напишеш много, да кажеш много, но не можеш, защото чувстваш много. В такива случаи, аз не мога да придам на мислите си подходяща словесна форма, защото сякаш не намирам достойни думи, които да съответстват на това, което искам да напиша, което искам да кажа и на това, което чувствам.
description

Книгата е написана изключително силно и покоряващо; думите на Юдженидис ми се сториха толкова точно подбрани, че с...more

На нас просто ни се живее. Стига някой да ни позволи.

Това е една от онези книги, за които искаш да напишеш много, да кажеш много, но не можеш, защото чувстваш много. В такива случаи, аз не мога да придам на мислите си подходяща словесна форма, защото сякаш не намирам достойни думи, които да съответстват на това, което искам да напиша, което искам да кажа и на това, което чувствам.
description

Книгата е написана изключително силно и покоряващо; думите на Юдженидис ми се сториха толкова точно подбрани, че сякаш нямаше нито едно изречение не на мястото си, напротив, всичко беше интелигентно и провокиращо не само въображението, но и размислите у читателя.

Не мога да не спомена една от символиките, които ми направиха най-силно впечатление. Целият квартал, в който се развива действието, е изпълнен с малки мушици, които тормозят хората. Те са навсякъде, те дразнят всички, но обитателите на квартала опитват да живеят живота си така, сякаш мухите не съществуват. Това е като огледало на реакцията на хората към трагедията на семейство Лисбън и показва колко по-лесно е за всички просто да игнорират очевидното.

Разказът за петте сестри първо ми подейства хипнотизиращо, а на финалът - крайно отрезвяващо, сякаш се събудих от много дълъг сън - болезнено красив и мрачно завладяващ, като самия роман, който ще остане в съзнанието ми дълго време.

...жестокостта на човешкото същество, на девойката, която мисли само за себе си. Нейният мозък се затваря за всичко наоколо, но лумва право в огнищата на болката и в наранената личност, и в пропилените мечти.
...
Вторачването ни в тях е било толкова съсредоточено, че сме пропуснали най-важното – погледите им в отговор на нашите... Вътре в собствения си дом те са били затворници. Навън – прокажени. И ето скрили са се от света, в очакване някой – ние? – да ги спаси.
...
Момичетата взеха с свои ръце решения, които е по-добре да бъдат оставени на Бог. Станаха прекалено могъщи, за да живеят сред нас, прекалено заети със себе си, мечтателни, слепи
...
Подириха самотата за вечни времена, сами в самоубийството, чиято бездна е по-дълбока от тази на смъртта...

А на тях им се живееше, стига някой да им беше позволил....

Поздравления за "Жанет 45" - първо за прекрасния превод и второ за уникалната корица, които направиха преживяването още по-приятно. :)
(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Jul 16, 2011 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

The Virgin Suicides is one of those books that you wish you could erase from your memory after finishing just so you can experience it all over again.

Jeffrey Eugenides has the unique ability to transform a very simple story into one of complete beauty. Suicide isn't the most pleasant of topics, especially when it's the suicide of five adolescents, but Eugenides writes it so well that it is impossible not to appreciate it. He blends just enough dark humor in to keep it tasteful and incorporates...more

10 likes · like · see review

Feb 24, 2010 Katherine rated it 3 of 5 stars

I saw the movie about five years ago and hated it - thought it was insufferably pretentious, inappropriately clean, and vaguely anti-girl. But a friend convinced me to give the book a chance, and oh wow, have I ever misjudged The Virgin Suicides.

It's 1970s Michigan, and a quiet suburb suddenly becomes the center of national attention when five sisters commit suicide in succession, leaving everyone else to desperately search for the exact source of the Lisbon girls' unhappiness. And that's what m...more

6 likes · like · see review

Sep 20, 2008 Juushika rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: status-borrowed

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 surreal im...more 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 surreal image of familiar, ordinary teenage life twisted by stifling overcrowding and overprotection. The narrators never quite determine why the girls commit suicide, but this unanswered question opens up a world of thought for the reader. At pieces sweet and claustrophobic, humorous and unsettling, The Virgin Suicides is strangely engrossing and stands in a class of its own: a unusual novel that investigates without judgment. I highly recommend it.

The novel opens with the suicide of the last Lisbon daughter, and only after revealing the ending does it go back to the beginning and explore the journey through each of the five suicides. The narrators, now-grown neighbors of the sisters, speak across the distance of time and a suburban street. They've pieced their story together through memories, interviews, and mementos collected from the Lisbon house. Needless to say, The Virgin Suicides is an unusual novel from the onset, but these unusual aspects are all strengths. The uncommon first person plural of narrators, which stand at a distance even as they watch the sisters in the privacy of their joint bathroom, captures the reader from the onset, moving swiftly through the plot yet pausing for intimate detail that brings the characters (the sisters, their parents, and even the narrators) to life. It creates a surreal and haunting atmosphere which maintains a sense of mystery despite the blunt introduction of the suicides. The intriguing journey back to the suicide which open the text keeps the book interesting to the last page. As such, the novel's ingenious storytelling makes it hard to put down.

The text is swiftly readable but never disintegrates into a cheap thrill; instead, it is an intelligent, thoughtful book. The suicides are both hook and climax to the story, but the book itself is a journey to and between the suicides. There are a dozen possibilities, but neither the narrators nor the author ever pinpoint what drives Celia, Therese, Mary, Bonnie, and Lux to kill themselves. At some level, this unanswered question is frustrating and makes the end of the book almost teasingly brief. However, the cause of the suicides is essentialand yet somehow irrelevant. What matters is the Lisbon sisters: their life as fractioned representations of modern suburban adolescence, smothered under the protective care of their parents, left forever unfinished by their suicides. The Virgin Suicides is exploration without judgment, opening a world to the reader for him to think on it himself.

I'm was not sure what to expect when I first picked up this book. I was aware of its success and intrigued by the unusual concept, but wasn't quite sure how the latter could lead to the former. Now, having read it, I'm impressed by the connection: Eugenides writes an extreme scenario into the most mundane setting, and so by exaggerating reality he in fact explores it. The sisters are real personalities and also archetypes, images of adolescence which is constrained even as it begins to blossom. The Virgin Suicides is quite brilliant, haunting, readable, intelligent, and thought-provoking. I'm impressed, and glad I had to the chance to read it. I highly recommend this book.(less)

9 likes · like · see review

Sep 14, 2008 Stephanie Marie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: all-times

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" communal narrator a...more

9 likes · like · see review

Jul 18, 2008 Steven rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 circuitously forw...more 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 circuitously forward, returning to the beginning, and along the way, we become obsessed, along with our narrator, with the Lisbon girls, a quintet of suburban daughters caught in the tense net of 70's feminism, when there was a wave of female sexuality blossoming, but Midwest values weren't shifting, yet. The backdrop is a city just east of Detroit, Michigan, Grosse Pointe, and Eugenides paints a clear picture of this neighborhood and its inhabitants, whose observances and histories fill out the novel's otherwise spare, central mystery. Since I'm from the area, I loved all the details, the dying Elm trees, the dense infestation of fish flies, the bleak, gray winter, and it never felt inauthentic. Eugenides is master of well-chosen details, and finding humor in the mundane instances of life, and it is this talent that got this first novel such praise.
The issue that I've been hinting at is that because of the simple plot, this short novel sometimes drags, when the beautiful descriptions and side characters' dramas stray too far from the central theme. Because of this, it loses a little steam by the end, which is too bad, because it is the last chapter where Eugenides has much to say about the nature of obsession, how although its gaze is focused outward, it actually reveals more about the ideals and egos of the watchers than the observed, and how this contributed to the isolation and despair of the Lisbon daughters. Luckily, because of the success of this first book, the author was able to work these kinks out in the superior Middlesex, where setting and history play a more important role in the novel's plot and main characters.

(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Jul 14, 2008 Ryan rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I cannot even express how much I hated this book. This book made me really appreciate how important dialog is to storytelling, as nearly this entire book is narration.

I really liked the movie - and was probably in the minority. But it made me want to read the book, and probably because I enjoyed the movie so much, kept me reading the book to the end, which was painful.

I actually kept from reading Middlesex for a while because I hated this book so much. But finally a friend whose opinion I trust...more

10 likes · like · see review

Nov 26, 2009 Chloe rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-list, fiction, not-owned, families_suck, i_am_in_love

It’s always a dicey prospect whenever a film studio options the rights to adapt a book into film. Very few works of literature survive first contact with Hollywood. There are those adaptations that excel with help from the author, like Cider House Rules and there are those where the author refuses to have anything to do with the bastardization of their work, which I like to refer to as the Alan Moore approach. There are those films whose adaptations, arguably, best their source material, as in t...more It’s always a dicey prospect whenever a film studio options the rights to adapt a book into film. Very few works of literature survive first contact with Hollywood. There are those adaptations that excel with help from the author, like Cider House Rules and there are those where the author refuses to have anything to do with the bastardization of their work, which I like to refer to as the Alan Moore approach. There are those films whose adaptations, arguably, best their source material, as in the case of Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity and then there are those who makes the pages of their books curl up in shame, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and Love in the Time of Cholera being two of the most egregious examples. Considering how often readers are faced with this last example, I’ve taken to refusing to read books whose adaptations I’ve seen until long after I’ve forgotten the film so that I can better view each as a stand-alone work.

Seeing as how it’s been nearly a decade since Sofia Coppola was lauded and fêted within an inch of her life upon release of her adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides’ first book, The Virgin Suicides, and seeing as how my goldfish-like memory often leaves me unable to remember what I watched last week, let alone ten years ago, I figured that now, fresh on the heels of finishing Eugenide’s Pulitzer-winning Middlesex, was the perfect time to read this bittersweet tale of first love.

Recounting the last year of the lives of the five Lisbon sisters, ruled over by an imperious and hyper-protective mother who ends up as the de facto warden of the girls in her attempts to protect her from the slings and arrows that life will throw at them. Attempts that will, ultimately, lead to the girls taking their lives. That's not a spoiler. The book admits it in the title and the first few pages. To recount this tale of adolescent despair ("Obviously, doctor, you have never been a 13 year old girl," says the youngest Lisbon sister, soon before taking her life) Eugenides employs an unnamed narrator who could be any one of, or all of, a group of neighborhood boys whose first stirrings of love are directed toward the enigmatic blonde girls who live down the lane.

By scavenging through the girl's garbage and the anecdotes of various schoolmates these boys construct an idea of the girls and the loneliness that surrounds them. Through this collection of found history the boys formulate a constantly changing portrait of the girls and what their various hopes and dreams may be. The way in which Eugenides fleshes out these histories could easily be called precious, if not for the impending doom that the reader knows is always coming. It is this underlying atmosphere of dread that kept the story moving for me, the knowledge of how the girls' deaths would impact the boys and forever alter their relations with the fairer sex, and when the penultimate moment finally arrives nothing of the impact is robbed by knowing that it is coming.

More than anything, though, I think that it is Eugenides' ability to connect with that sense of childhood mystery and endless possibility that makes this book such a resounding success. The way in which each high school boy had a different perception of each of the girls based on their various ideas of what love struck home to me and how I once concocted stories for each of the houses on my paper route and populated them with romantic and headstrong characters.

Ultimately, I ended up loving the Lisbon girls as much as their youthful stalkers. Throughout the entirety, I kept hoping that the boys' dreams would come true and that they'd be able to whisk the Lisbon girls away from their pain and despair, driving into the sunset in Trip Fontaine's GTO, worlds away from the reactionary behavior of their parents. But the title can not lie and this tale was doomed to tragedy from the start. Regardless, though, the ride along the way is what makes this story one of the absolute best that I've read this year.(less)

18 likes · like · see review

Jan 21, 2009 Lisalit rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"On the morning the last Lisbon sister took her turn at suicide--it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Therese--the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beams in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope."

Thus begins one of the strangest novels I have read, but one that is remarkably captivating. The book is narrated by a group of now-grown, but then-adolescent boys who lived on the same block as the Lisbo...more

3 likes · like · see review

topics	posts	views	last activity
i just read this book and wondered what peoples overall veiw of the book is	6	111	Mar 17, 2013 10:34am
The Filipino Group: [Buddy Reading] The Virgin Suicides (Ang mga Donselyang Nagpatiwakal) by Jeffrey Eugenides (Angus, Kwesi, Maria, Monique). Makikitsismis: Lynai. Start Date: August 6, Monday	50	46	Aug 09, 2012 08:33pm
got EMO???	8	148	Feb 26, 2012 02:00am

title link	preview: The Virgin Suicides
avg rating	preview: The Virgin Suicides Goodreads rating: 3.79 (90469 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10956.The_Virgin_Suicides?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1319032910l/10956.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10956.The_Virgin_Suicides?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides[/url]

The Virgin Suicides

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (72)

Genres

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Jeffrey Eugenides

Books by Jeffrey Eugenides

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About The Virgin Suicides

Quotes from The Virgin Suicides