The Virgin Suicides in Classics Without All the Class

May 30, 2008 Cecily rated it liked it

Shelves: usa-and-canada, miscellaneous-fiction

Sad, but occasionally amusing insights into the brief lives of five socially isolated sisters, as told years later by the boys who had fantasised about them in their teens. Although you know from the outset that they all commit suicide, it has plenty of insights and surprises to maintain reader interest.

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Nov 29, 2020 Matthew rated it liked it · review of another edition

So I got two things to say.

First, the prose. Some of the most striking I've read. Eugenides has a way with figurative language, of creating these similes and metaphors that are so fresh and new they stand out like stars on a clear night sky, and I love that. If I'm reading a sentence and I literally say, "Oh wow" because of word choice, that's a good thing.

Second, the point. I dunno. The book is not what I was expecting. I'm not sure what I was expecting, to be honest -- perhaps a more psycholog ...more

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Feb 01, 2025 Dioni rated it really liked it

Shelves: american

The hard copy of this book has traveled with me around the world in the span of perhaps 15-16 years: Singapore, Sydney, the UK, back to Sydney. So when I brought this book with me to China, I promised myself it shall be read, at all cost. I started reading it in China and finished it in the sunny backyard of my parents, again, back in Sydney. Having not read any Western literature almost the entire time I was in China (the past 15 months), the American suburban of the Virgin Suicides felt rather The hard copy of this book has traveled with me around the world in the span of perhaps 15-16 years: Singapore, Sydney, the UK, back to Sydney. So when I brought this book with me to China, I promised myself it shall be read, at all cost. I started reading it in China and finished it in the sunny backyard of my parents, again, back in Sydney. Having not read any Western literature almost the entire time I was in China (the past 15 months), the American suburban of the Virgin Suicides felt rather surreal, and refreshing.

I wasn't sure at the beginning what to expect of the book. Something with suicides. But I didn't know it would actually be about suicides. I thought perhaps the suicides would be a metaphor, a vehicle to tell a bigger, weirder fairy-tale like story. But it's actually about suicides, or for the large portion of the book, the effect of a single daughter suicide in the Lisbon family, and the community at large. The book uses first person plural narrator, which is unusual, but works well in my opinion. In this case, the narrators are the boys, neighbours, school friends, who are all fascinated by the Lisbon girls.

I'm certainly a bit biased, because Middlesex is one of my favourite books ever, albeit I read it about a decade ago, and this is only the second book by Eugenides that I read. I loved his writing in Middlesex, and I still loved his writing here in the Virgin Suicides. How else can you read an entire book about suicides? Though the subject matter is morbid, there's black comedy and cinematic quality to it. At times reading the book felt like I was watching some dark-comedy movies, American Beauty and the likes. Some people would refer to the Bell Jar or Catcher in the Rye in the same breath, all of which I can see some comparable elements on, the Lisbon girls and the plural narrators all being very young, between 13 to 17 years old when the suicides happen. The narration itself is a nostalgic one looking back, with benefits of hindsights, though the "mystery" of the suicides are never really resolved. Some things in life just can't be explained and at one point you have to find your own closure and let go, perhaps that's the moral of the story. But the book is also about decaying time, degradation of a community, remembrance of lost times, or the lost of innocence and youth, and about regrets. There's plenty to chew on.

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