The Virgin Suicides in Classics Without All the Class

Nov 17, 2012 W rated it really liked it

Shelves: drama, classics, adult

This is really an unusual, but surprisingly good book. I enjoyed the descriptions, the story and the mystery. It did creep me out, as it seems the boys were obsessed with the girls, but the point of view from the community and them made the story, as nobody actually knew why the girls all killed themselves.

Was it the over protective mother who drove them to it? Was there something more sinister happening? We never really get the answers, but from the start the girls were troubled. I found it to This is really an unusual, but surprisingly good book. I enjoyed the descriptions, the story and the mystery. It did creep me out, as it seems the boys were obsessed with the girls, but the point of view from the community and them made the story, as nobody actually knew why the girls all killed themselves.

Was it the over protective mother who drove them to it? Was there something more sinister happening? We never really get the answers, but from the start the girls were troubled. I found it to be depressing, but ironically there were some funny moments as well. The book focused a lot on Lux, the more rebellious one. Obviously from the start of the book, we know they all kill themselves, but if one had chosen to live, i believe it would have been her. She was doing all the things a rebellious teenager would do, smoking, drinking, casual boyfriends, etc.

From the view point of the boys, each girl had their own personality, and somehow made them out to be goddesses, something very special that only they shared.

My view of this is, is that they created characters out of the girls, we never see it from their point, so we can never really know what they were like. We only get a glimpse of them from the outside world, looking in. The dad, who does his duty each day. The mother, with her strict, religious rules. What pushed them to do this? And after the first suicide, the girls kill themselves on the anniversary of Cecelia's attempted suicide, not on the date of her succeeding. It is also mentioned in the book. There are more questions then answers, and that is what makes this novel so unique.

Also, we see how things go bad in the book, and everyone is witness to it, but strangely nobody does anything, as there was a year that someone could have helped them, but did nothing. That says a lot about the society we live in. Everyone is just minding their own business, and going along in life, and when something bad happens to someone, we feel sympathy, but yet, no action is taken to help. In this situation, someone could definitely have prevented this tragedy.

The book almost reads like a detective novel, where exhibits are displayed and interviews done about 20 years later. Including the mother and father, although i am not clear if they are still together, though evidence suggests they are no longer married, or they are separated.

I loved the book, it's sense of mystery and tragedy. We never know the true answers, but we can just guess as to why. And that is what the book leaves you with. ...more

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Jun 12, 2018 Karo'Line rated it liked it

I was reading this book for the second time when I heard of the recent suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. I almost set it aside and declined to finish it, given the sad news I was reading and seeing through the media. But I decided to persist with it, in an attempt to at least understand what drove the Lisbon sisters to their deaths, as fictional as it is.

The first time I read this book, I read it at the most basic level- the story of 5 girls who ends in their deaths, due to overprote I was reading this book for the second time when I heard of the recent suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. I almost set it aside and declined to finish it, given the sad news I was reading and seeing through the media. But I decided to persist with it, in an attempt to at least understand what drove the Lisbon sisters to their deaths, as fictional as it is.

The first time I read this book, I read it at the most basic level- the story of 5 girls who ends in their deaths, due to overprotective and out-of-touch parents who keep them locked up in their home with little contact with the outside world. This reading, I can see it is so much more than that; the book's prose taking centre stage, with the language used to great effect in depicting the deterioration of the Lisbon girls.

What really jarred me about this novel is the impersonal third person narrative viewpoint. While it was used to effect, personally I didn't really with the 'boys' ( middle-aged men) telling the story, and in many ways found it creepy. The story of middle-aged men pining for the girls of their youth makes for a slightly uncomfortable and disconcerting story. It leaves questions for me as to why these men are still hung up on these girls; is it the unabsolved guilt that these girls cried out for help throughout the novel yet no help came from these boys caught up in the superficiality of their teenage years? We also never really know *who* is telling the tale - whether its one boy or many, as there is no reference or 'I'; only 'we'. It has been used to effect though in depicting the Lisbon girls as 'untouchable' and out of reach yet also their increasing isolation.

It also prompted me to go googling 'fish flies', and I kind of wish I hadn't. With the book's language used to describe these creatures and their permeance of the town and their presence in it, it gives me more context as to why these descriptions were used. Layers and layers of them coating everything. In real life, these things are swarming, and just awful.

This book will go back on my shelf and maybe in another couple of years I'll be taking it back down for another re-read. I've got The Marriage Plot somewhere in a pile I haven't read yet, so that will be my next foray into Eugenides's work.

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