Book Title: The Virgin Suicides
Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
Date Started: January 31st 2014
Date Completed: February 8th 2014
Genres: Contemporary
Rating: Four stars
Review:
I was recommended The Virgin Suicides, and wasn't entirely aware of what it was going to be like when I opened it to the first page. Although this book was quite strange, it was actually startlingly realistic and very easy to immerse myself in. I did enjoy, but I think it made me think more than anything else.
The Lisbon girls have always been admired by the local neighbourhood of boys, but when the youngest sister slits her wrists seemingly unpredictably, it sets off a chain reaction that slowly transforms her family, and the entire community beyond anything 'normal people' would have imagined.
I've never read any of Eugenides' works before, but I found I really enjoyed his writing style. It's not exactly easy reading, but there is a simplicity that makes his story shine out. I also thought his choice of narrative was very clever: the story is told from an anonymous male member of the neighbourhood, as he (or they?) remember the Lisbon girls while they were alive. This gives an almost glamourised feel to the story - something that isn't uncommon in real life - and demonstrates how distorted real events can become over time and with various influences.
Eugenides' writing is extremely tense the entire way through the book. This puzzled me at first, since not a lot happens straight away, it started to grow more and more through the book and actually emphasised the fact that these girls were both incredibly secure and unstable in their lives. I'm not sure if that was the desired affect, but it worked amazingly nevertheless.
This novel has no clear storyline, because it's about the gradual affects of the youngest Lisbon sister's suicide on her family and the general community. It reminded me a lot of tThe Lovely Bones as I reading. I think this is very cleverly done because it keeps the Lisbon girls as a mystery throughout the whole book.
I think to fully appreciate this book, you really need to have quite a vast understanding of the topic before you go in. There are a lot of subtle details throughout the book that seem worthless, but actually hint to later events and to what really was happening to the Lisbon family.
In addition, the quick moves of focus in the story - from one of the sisters, to a boy in the local neighbourhood, to someone else entirely - demonstrated quite effectively that, even without meaning to, people naturally avoid the topic of suicide because it makes them uncomfortable and they don't really know how to deal with it. I think that's such a key thing in this book.
There aren't any specifically focused characters in this book. It's more about the widespread effects of certain actions.
Of course, the Lisbon sisters have a big part to play, but they're mostly involved through a curtain; we only know about them what the boys in the neighbourhood now - and a lot of the time, it seems they're in the dark. I do think this was very effective, as I've never come across a story that deals with these issues from the outside.
On top of that, there is the anonymous narrator who tells the story as if reciting details at a scene of a crime. Again, I liked the shadowed effect this had on the story, and I was constantly wondering who this person was to have their own distorted view of the situation. It becomes apparent that you don't need to know - and that in actual fact is almost the point of the book: situations like these can be manipulated into a whole manner of things from an unnamed persona's view, and once it's out and not fully understood, it can't be stopped.
I did have a little trouble with the pace in The Virgin Suicides. It is quite slow, and there are long periods of time that don't immediately seem to have any significance to the story. This did make it a little harder to keep reading, especially since the book only has five very long chapters. (It is a short book, but the writing does make you think, and therefore slows you down a little.)
Furthermore, the story is jumbled, to show how the events seemed to people outside their immediate area. Again, this did benefit the story, but just made it a little slower on the level of understanding.
I recommend The Virgin Suicides to older readers who are interested in this sort of topic. You definitely have to already understand quite a lot to be able to really get into the book, and you also have to be attentive and pick up little details as you go along to build up a bigger picture. It's definitely a book where you have to do a lot of the work and think as well, but it's worth it if you're willing to put in the extra effort.
Image Source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3eaN9Zm7Lto/TUVWvqUNKwI/
AAAAAAAAAIc/d-rWvn_FanM/s1600/thevirginsuicides.jpg
I was recommended The Virgin Suicides, and wasn't entirely aware of what it was going to be like when I opened it to the first page. Although this book was quite strange, it was actually startlingly realistic and very easy to immerse myself in. I did enjoy, but I think it made me think more than anything else.
The Lisbon girls have always been admired by the local neighbourhood of boys, but when the youngest sister slits her wrists seemingly unpredictably, it sets off a chain reaction that slowly transforms her family, and the entire community beyond anything 'normal people' would have imagined.
I've never read any of Eugenides' works before, but I found I really enjoyed his writing style. It's not exactly easy reading, but there is a simplicity that makes his story shine out. I also thought his choice of narrative was very clever: the story is told from an anonymous male member of the neighbourhood, as he (or they?) remember the Lisbon girls while they were alive. This gives an almost glamourised feel to the story - something that isn't uncommon in real life - and demonstrates how distorted real events can become over time and with various influences.
Eugenides' writing is extremely tense the entire way through the book. This puzzled me at first, since not a lot happens straight away, it started to grow more and more through the book and actually emphasised the fact that these girls were both incredibly secure and unstable in their lives. I'm not sure if that was the desired affect, but it worked amazingly nevertheless.
This novel has no clear storyline, because it's about the gradual affects of the youngest Lisbon sister's suicide on her family and the general community. It reminded me a lot of tThe Lovely Bones as I reading. I think this is very cleverly done because it keeps the Lisbon girls as a mystery throughout the whole book.
I think to fully appreciate this book, you really need to have quite a vast understanding of the topic before you go in. There are a lot of subtle details throughout the book that seem worthless, but actually hint to later events and to what really was happening to the Lisbon family.
In addition, the quick moves of focus in the story - from one of the sisters, to a boy in the local neighbourhood, to someone else entirely - demonstrated quite effectively that, even without meaning to, people naturally avoid the topic of suicide because it makes them uncomfortable and they don't really know how to deal with it. I think that's such a key thing in this book.
There aren't any specifically focused characters in this book. It's more about the widespread effects of certain actions.
Of course, the Lisbon sisters have a big part to play, but they're mostly involved through a curtain; we only know about them what the boys in the neighbourhood now - and a lot of the time, it seems they're in the dark. I do think this was very effective, as I've never come across a story that deals with these issues from the outside.
On top of that, there is the anonymous narrator who tells the story as if reciting details at a scene of a crime. Again, I liked the shadowed effect this had on the story, and I was constantly wondering who this person was to have their own distorted view of the situation. It becomes apparent that you don't need to know - and that in actual fact is almost the point of the book: situations like these can be manipulated into a whole manner of things from an unnamed persona's view, and once it's out and not fully understood, it can't be stopped.
I did have a little trouble with the pace in The Virgin Suicides. It is quite slow, and there are long periods of time that don't immediately seem to have any significance to the story. This did make it a little harder to keep reading, especially since the book only has five very long chapters. (It is a short book, but the writing does make you think, and therefore slows you down a little.)
Furthermore, the story is jumbled, to show how the events seemed to people outside their immediate area. Again, this did benefit the story, but just made it a little slower on the level of understanding.
I recommend The Virgin Suicides to older readers who are interested in this sort of topic. You definitely have to already understand quite a lot to be able to really get into the book, and you also have to be attentive and pick up little details as you go along to build up a bigger picture. It's definitely a book where you have to do a lot of the work and think as well, but it's worth it if you're willing to put in the extra effort.
Image Source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3eaN9Zm7Lto/TUVWvqUNKwI/
AAAAAAAAAIc/d-rWvn_FanM/s1600/thevirginsuicides.jpg
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