I wasn't sure what to expect. I'd heard it was a classic, so I gave it a try. It's written from the perspective of the neighborhood boys and how they try to understand what happened.
The story didn't really align to my views about suicide. I think that kept me from feeling satisfied about the story. I couldn't find sympathy for the characters. For something that should be emotionally charged, it just felt detached.
'The Virgin Suicides' is one of those critically-acclaimed books that, after you read it, you stand back and say "Huh?" And then start beating yourself up for not being intellectual enough or perceptive enough to winkle out the deep and profound meaning, the extended metaphors, and the classical allegory of the novel.
Either that, or the emperor has no clothes.
Eugenides' debut novel, apparently set in the 70s (as determined by the pop songs and teen fashions being referenced), traces the story of five sisters in one family who all kill themselves over a one-year period of time. That's not a spoiler, as it's referenced fairly early on while the novel's structure is being set up. The story is told in flashback from the viewpoint of several young men (their exact number and specific identities are never clarified) who were hormone-laden contemporaries of the Lisbon sisters and lusted for them in various ways during the last year of their lives.
One could, I suppose, expound upon the fact that the interior lives and ultimate motivations of the girls are never shown from the girls' viewpoints. Perhaps this is intended to reflect the notion that women exist only to reflect the ideas of men, or that adolescents are routinely destroyed by the expectations of the adult world. Or maybe that modern families have become so insular that a community no longer sees, or is expected to step in (so much for "it takes a village") when one nuclear family begins to implode.
One could pretend that the metaphor of the gradual disintegration of the Lisbon home is a brilliant and original way to represent the disintegration of the family and their intertwined manifestations of obsession and madness, except that it's neither brilliant nor original. Most of the metaphors, in fact -- the brief lifespan of the fish-flies whose annual cycle of emergence and death bracket the year-long span of the story, the slow dying of the stately elm trees whose beauty and dignity enhanced the neighborhood -- are labored and obvious.
Or one could simply throw up one's hands and move on to a more satisfying read, where characters develop, interact, and advance the basic plot as they reveal themselves and their relationships. Because one will find none of those qualities in this book.
The prose in this book is some of the most beautiful I have ever read. I have read this book 13 times, and will read it a dozen or so more. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys romanticism and youth. Amazing.
The Virgin Suicides is a rather shocking novel about the suicides of five sisters in the Lisbon family living in suburban Michigan. The novel is narrated by one or more men who were teenagers at the time of the suicides which occurred in the 1970s. These men were infatuated with the Lisbon girls and have tried to piece together what really happened to them since the suicides happened twenty years earlier. The Lisbon girls had always been romanticized by the neighborhood boys while the Lisbon family had always seemed eccentric by the neighbors. When the youngest daughter, Cecilia, commits suicide on her second attempt, the reason for the suicide and the Lisbon family become the neighbor's main source of gossip. The remaining four girls become isolated and after 15-year old Lux misses her curfew following a dance, the Lux parents take the girls out of school and keep them in their home which slowly becomes derelict. Mrs. Lisbon is a strict Catholic and feels her daughters should not be exposed to any kind of pollution. No one visits the family and the Lisbons never leave the house. A year after Cecilia first attempted suicide, the remaining sisters successfully end their lives.
This was really a dark novel about a very shocking event. The novel is poignant and tragic and seems to reflect normal life in an American suburb until the unthinkable happens. Eugenides does an excellent job of portraying life at that time including what happens in the suburban environment. He talks at length about Dutch Elm disease and how healthy trees are destroyed because of the possible contamination of others. This seems to be a metaphor for what happened to the Lisbon sisters and the attitude of Mrs. Lisbon.
I really admire Eugenides writing and will probably be reading more of him. I read and really enjoyed his Pulitzer winning novel,
Middlesex, a few years ago. I'll also be on the lookout for the
1999 movie version of The Virgin Suicides which starred Kirsten Dunst.
Interesting look at teenage suicide and how it destroys a family. I was a little bit annoyed at times by the first person "we" but most of the time I overlooked it. Well written.
This is what fiction should be - lyrical, visceral, poetic, and universal. Set in the 70s, a tale of woe of one generation that somehow speaks volumes for us all.
A very interesting story. A little hard to get into, but well worth the time. I recommend this book. Wow, I didn't even know there was a movie.
Very sad story, I feel terrible for those girls. On a side note... it was kinda a weird feeling reading it since I live right by the area in this book! Fishflies are horrid creatures. ;)
