Rating: 
Summary: The Virgin Suicide Review
Review: Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides is an artistic masterpiece. It has a plot that will keep you guessing to the end of what will happen next. It is a real life drama that grasps adolescent tribulations. Even with the main idea of the book already inferred the mystery of why is never solved. This book hits home so hard to people because the problems that these girls deal with is what goes on in everyone's own backyard. What Eugenides achieves in this novel is portraying the young teenage girl's life to how hard and difficult the stresses of growing up really are. Eugenides goes well into detail with every aspect of what is going on throughout the story. He lays down every vivid aspect of the places and people to let the reader be inside the book knowing exactly what is going on.
The story is told in first person with the narrator speaking of the events from sometime in the future. The story revolves around the five blond Lisbon girls, aged 13 to 17. Throughout this book, the time span being a couple of years, these five sisters cope with death staring them in the face. They must also deal with their overprotective parents and their new interest in teenage boys. Boys from all over school and in their neighborhood yearn to gain their affection, but most end up unsuccessful to court any of them. Among these boys is the narrator who lives on their street spying on them whenever the chance is available. One boy caught the eye of Lux Lisbon and his name was Trip Fountaine. The girls flock over him because of his western-style shirt and thin puka-shell necklace. He succeeds in being invited to the Lisbon house to sit on the couch with the parents and watch television. After leaving she sneaks to his car as he is about to leave and this gets Lux into trouble. She is then confined and caged to the dark, somber house. Lux then just becomes rebellious by sneaking out and committing sexual acts on men that the narrator sees from across the street. Since the sisters confinement their deaths seem to be coming closer and closer with everyday. With the title it is inevitable.
The story is very enlightening in that it gives the reader a reason to believe that life can be dark and tragic in the most happy and wonderful years of life. One can only wonder how this can be and ultimately be so unlivable to strive for death. This book attempts to explain why but it still seems a real mystery why these girls did commit suicide. Even though their lives at home were unbearable their lives in the outside world are fun just like every other adolescent. They could have easily attempted escape from this prison of there's but the don't. They almost runaway but then they kill themselves on their sisters suicide anniversary. Euginides does an excellent job in showing the decay in the Lisbon home after the first daughters death. The prose and vivid details draw out a painting of how their house would actually look. You can feel the tone and the mood cast over the house. The house seems as if the grim reaper lives there himself waiting to strike the girls with his wrath.
The way that the story is told makes it different than other books that I have read before. As the narrator tells the story he refers back to interviews taken years later of the people in the story. It shines more detail on the events that took place during the girls stressful lives. It also shows how the characters actually felt at the time and how they felt about the events now that they have had time to reflect on them throughout the years. He presents evidence through actual articles but we never actually get to see them.
Overall this book is awesome and it takes you through a roller coaster ride through the depressing and hard tribulations of the Lisbon girls. It is so nicely done in the way that it presents a real life issue and ends with no real solution just like life can be sometimes. I would give this book three stars on a scale from one to five. I would suggest reading this book and tell a friend about it.
Rating:
Summary: A very good read
Review: Usually, when I am reading a piece, I often find myself daydreaming as my eyes are skimming the words on the page. My only answer for why I do this is because the material I am reading isn't of any interest to me. When I sat down to read this book however, I paid close attention to what was going on and it was not hard for me to follow the scene. The overall way it is written helped me to understand what the author was portraying. A group of boys who have a very strange obsession with a group of sisters that live a crossed the street wonder what goes on inside their house. It is stated that the girls are very attractive and they arn't very social. This is the reason for the boy's obsession. They often plan ways to spy on the sisters to see what goes on. The boy's are also the narrators and remain unidentified. I have never really read a book with narration in such a mannor but I found it to be an interesting way to write a novel. In the opening parts of this book, the narrator hints that the sisters commit suicide one by one. He kind of gives away the whole story. I didn't quite understand why he did this. I would think that if he did not do this it would have been a more thrilling read. Instead, the constant descriptions of the girls dead bodies was very depressing. What made it depressing was how wonderfully it was written. So much emotion was put into words, and if you've ever felt depressed, you can relate. This was a very intriguing read and I highly recommend it.
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Summary: Overview
Review: The Virgin Suicides is different from any book I have ever read. The narrator writes in a nonchalant tone but also writes about very serious and unusual events. The reader knows that the narrator is an older male reflecting on his past observations. He recalls not only his memories but also rumors that he heard as a child.
I enjoyed how the book jumped from thought to thought. It gave it more personality and seemed as though I was in the narrator's mind as he remembered each detail, moving from story to story and going back to add more to the first one. I thought the parts about the boys discovering things about girls were hilarious. I especially loved the passage on page 43, including when he states, "...sometimes, after one of us had read a long portion of the diary out loud, we had to fight back the urge to hug one another or to tell each other how pretty we were." It just lightened the mood a little.
The parts dealing with Cecilia were a little disturbing at some points. It is heartbreaking to read about an individual like herself. I have had two friends that attempted suicide and one that achieved it so I could somewhat relate to this. When I read the section about how normal she was that day, I couldn't help but remember how normal my friends were on their particular days.
Suicide is a harsh and horrible idea. I was almost dreading the rest of the book. The more I read it, the more disturbed I was by it. I tried not to be judgmental but I really disliked the mother. Her character is a horrible person. To lock up her children and to not allow them to experience life resulted in their deaths long before their suicides. The father does not really help the situation much because of the fact that he deeply wishes that one of his five wonderful girls was a boy. It is obvious to the readers that he is upset and he tries too hard for a normal life-going to work and supporting his family. He is doing what he believes is his part. Unfortunately, he is wrong. He started to stick up for his daughters in the story about the girls' homecoming but that was about it. I am assuming he did not argue when his wife told him that the girls would no longer be going to school. This shows that the mother does not even trust her husband to watch the girls in the short time that they are away from home. I know that the parents are not to blame for their daughters' suicide but with this case, it is easy to see they have a huge part in it.
The other part that I found interesting was about the homecoming. I thought it was really strange and at the same time really neat that Lux was crowned Homecoming Queen. This illustrates that even though the girls may seem withdrawn from the social world, they still were the center of attention and not necessarily disliked. This made me want to read the rest of the book to figure out why they would do something so drastic as to take their own lives. The only reason that I could think of is that they knew their lives were over far before.
The night the four remaining Lisbon girls died took me by complete surprise, as did the rest of the book. Again, this story is like no other that I have read. It defines one particular family's life but presents many questions. Why these girls? Why these parents? Why were the boys so completely obsessed with these girls? Why did they gather all this evidence about each life? The author isn't much help. The answers are found within each reader's mind.
Rating: 
Summary: The Virgin Suicides
Review: "The Virgin Suicides" is a lyrical novel written by Jeffrey Eugenides about five doomed sisters in a sleepy suburban town. On the outside they look normal, the mother is a housewife, the father a math teacher, and they are all blonde beautiful girls who seem to have a lot going for them. Cecilia is thirteen, Lux is fourteen, Bonnie is fifteen, Mary is sixteen, and Therese is seventeen.
The story is told from the point of view of obsessed neighborhood boys reminiscing about the girls. They are infatuated with any object or person who came in contact with them. Whether it was a travel magazine, or someone who may have picked up a book they dropped, they wanted everything that they could gather. Cecilia is the first to go, and the story continues on leaving you wondering even more about each of the girls.
It is wonderfully written, as though someone was recalling the story then and there. It jumps from thought to thought, and Eugenides proves to be a wonderful storyteller. He keeps the reader in constant wonder of when and why the suicides will take place, and his descriptions of the house almost make you feel as though you were there.
This novel brings up the subject of teen suicides in an easy to read way. This novel is gothic while humorous, tragic while tender, and will live in the hearts of its readers for a long time. The interesting characters, the shady suburban town, the run down Lisbon house, all play a part to make this novel so realistic and abnormal all at the same time. This novel was poetic and mesmerizing, I didn't want to put it down. Each girl seems to blend into the other, and each person seems to be telling a mix of what they had already heard before. This book, to me, was like being there, experiencing it firsthand. The sights, the sounds, the smells, the feelings, they all immersed me into a world of love, anger, confusion, and death. It was a tale of the plight of young girls everywhere, the ups and mainly the downs, taken to an extreme most girls do not. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a wonderfully humorous, thought provoking, and magical book telling the tale of 5 doomed sisters, who leave their mark deeply on schoolboys, and readers alike.
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Summary: Darkly comic, sardonic, but heartfelt drama
Review: This book is darkly comic and disturbing. However, Eugenides skillfully interplays the darkest moments with light comic farce to keep the story from dipping too deep into a macabre well. Each character, from the narrators to the teens themselves, are masterfully, and ultimately, emotionally characterized. I love the dark side; but let's face it, if the book doesn't provide revelation but merely provokes, it isn't a worthy read. "The Virigin Suicides" does provoke, shock and prod the reader, but in a way that sheds light on the universal pain and sadness shared by adolescents and of course, the child in all adults.
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Summary: emotionally charged
Review: This is the best book I've ever read. For anyone that's known someone that is depressed or that is depressed themselves, this is a wonderful story. When I read it I couldn't put it down. You want the girls to be okay. You want the neighbor boys to help them through their pain, to let the girls see that someone does care. I got to the last page and realized the author summarized everything I've tried to say but that no one has heard. This is my favorite book of all time, even beating out many amazing classics. There has never been a book so wonderfully written with so much emotion and originality. I would recommend it to anyone.
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Summary: Five Girls' Lives are as Inconsequential as Fish Flies!
Review: Book Review: The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides Why would five teenage sisters, growing up in an affluent suburb in the Midwest in the '70s need to kill themselves? That is the question posed at the beginning of this novel and it is a question that remains with the reader after the novel is finished. As the story unfolds, we are introduced to the Lisbon family, with its five daughters. Mr. Lisbon is a teacher at the local private school and lives in this wealthy area where his school's students reside. The apparent care and regard for others in this neighborhood is superficial and unsettling because as the story unfolds the deterioration of the Lisbon family is so obvious, but everyone in the neighborhood appears to ignore the warning signs. A nameless man, recalling a tragic time in his adolescence narrates this disturbing story. By reminiscing with his friends about this period in their youth, and by interviewing others who came into contact with the Lisbons, he tries to piece together what happened during the last year of the remaining four Lisbon girls' lives. The five Lisbon girls are Cecilia, who dies at the beginning of the novel, and Lux, Therese, Mary, and Bonnie, the four who die at the end. Because they have so much mystery and misery surrounding them, the characters remain two-dimensional. However, the reader does care about them. This book is about a group of boys that try to gain as much knowledge as possible to figure out the mysterious Lisbon girls. Paralleling the Lisbon family tragedies, it is also a story about a group of teenage boys trying to grow up and figure out life, girls, rules, and fantasies. At the start of the story, Cecilia has a failed suicide attempt, and then three weeks later when the neighborhood boys are at the Lisbon home for a party, she jumps out of a window and impales herself on the fence. The family, strange at the start, becomes more odd and more isolated. This adds to the boys' fascination. "Added to their loveliness was a new mysterious suffering, perfectly silent, visible in the blue puffiness beneath their eyes or the way they would sometimes stop in mid-stride." They begin to fantasize about the girls. "...we lay on a strip of leftover carpeting and dreamed of all the ways we could soothe the Lisbon girls." This fascination becomes an obsession as they collect things that the girls owned and began to watch them more carefully. But, we find out that they never really know the girls at all, just as I would probably not know an acquaintance well who decided to commit suicide. If you don't really talk about personal issues, it's hard to know any thing important about them. There is suspense throughout the novel as the reader keeps waiting to find out why the girls are driven to kill themselves. We never do find out, though and that is what is really alarming. You're left with the same questions at the end of the book. "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...and where we will never find the pieces to put them back together. Symbolically, there are inconsequential fish flies that plague the neighborhood. They're everywhere, they annoy people, only have a one-day life span, yet get killed by people, cars, etc. Everyone in the neighborhood goes on living their lives, basically ignoring the flies, and every so often sweeping them up. That seems to be how they live with the whole tragedy of the Lisbon family, too. One theme of this book is that a neighborhood can appear to be caring and concerned, yet a family can totally unravel and lose five children, and the neighbors can miss all of the clues. The neighbors try to help the Lisbons at times, with yard work, etc. yet when the adults come together to talk about it, they're more concerned with "the negative publicity the suicide scare would bring to our town, as well as the subsequent fall in commercial activity." Another theme is that sometimes there is no explanation for why things happen. People can gather information, try to analyze it, and still feel stumped. I feel that Mr. Eugenides does an excellent job in depicting the disconnected, sad lives of the Lisbon girls. The reader can make predictions along the way as to why the girls are sad and depressed. Their parents seem strange and out of touch with teenagers, even though the dad is a teacher. At the end he leaves you frustrated that there is no clear answer. At first I felt gypped. Then I realized that that was the theme-that's life.
Rating:
Summary: haunting but beautiful...
Review: Eugenides really bursts onto the scene with this magnificent novel (adapted into an equally amazing film). The novel captures adolescence from the male and female perspective so perfectly, the awkwardness, the obsession, the rebellion, the temptation. The novel's use of 70's musical references works greatly to Eugenides favor. It's not a pick me up by any means, but it is truly a great read.
Rating:
Summary: Recommended
Review: This book is charming , darkly humourous and at times saddening . The tale of the Lisbon girls is a tragedy that is told as if you were a next door neighbour . It does tell you how or why the girls had committed suicide . The way they were locked up in the house 24/7 shows the frustration at how strict Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon were . One to enjoy if you like this sort of thing
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Summary: An emotianl, funny, and heart breaking story!
Review: The Virgin Suicides was a amazing novel of emotion and suicide. The book goes into teh characters fantasticly and really gets you to relate to someone you know. The story starts off when the youngest of the 5 Lisbon sisters commits suicide. Torn the family tries to go on with there lives. Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon are very strict and have cetain rules: no dating involving a car, no make up-perfume. Ordinary close ect. When Lux 14, is invited my the stud of teh school Trip, she knows she can't date. Trip strikes a deal with Mr. Lisbon and teh 4 sisters go to a school dance. Something happens and the girls are band from kind of communiction. They are taken out of school and locked in there house. This and others things lead to the mass suicide at teh end. I loved this book and get mad when people say its dark and glorifies suicide. It does the oppistie. It is truly a fantastic novel!
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