The Virgin Suicides

Rating:
Summary: The Virgin Suicides
Review: I have read the book about four times up to this point, and was initially attracted to it by movie trailors. As for the movie, it would be pointless to talk about it in a book review, but all in all, I felt it was a decent representation of the book.

The book concerns itself with the five Lisbon sisters and how they affected the surrounding boys in their neighborhood and school during their lives. All the sisters committ suicide, you learn this from the initial paragraph of the book, and yet it does not ruin the journey Eugenides takes you on. The meloncholy attitude throughout the entire story and the sense of something eternally wrong (beyond the obviousness of the coming loss of the sisters) is what intrigued me the most.

Eugenides also tells the story from the eternal 'we' instead of an 'I' for the narrator. The mysticism introduced by this adds to the allure of the book, and keeps you interested from the beginning.

Overall, I have chose not to delve into the details of the story for the simple fact that your own discovery will lead to your own conclusions. All I have to say is that if you read it, I doubt you will regret it, and I bet that you will read it again.

Rating:
Summary: Book was genius, Movie was disaster
Review: I have read this book twice now, cover to cover, both in one
sitting. This book astounds me with his vivid descriptions and
metaphorical writing style; it truly is captivating.

The movie, however was the biggest disappointment I can
remember, as far as book -> movie goes. It was just plain
horrible, as I watched it a few minutes after I had finished the
book the first time.

Bottom Line: Read the book first (as you should in most cases
anyways, but in this case, a must) -- and if you are in need of
visual representation, or just curious as to how poorly this
movie was fashioned, view it afterwards.

I await with anticipation any future books Jeffery Eugenides
writes (Middlesex, and The Memoirs and Confessions of a
Justified Sinner are the two coming shortly!!) -- his writing
style is intense, exciting, and most importantly, written
withoutly the slightest twinge of dull drivel that comes from
most books these days.

cheers,

kyle

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written, and even more evocative than the movie
Review: Ever since seeing the movie adaption about a year ago, I have been longing to read the book that inspired it. Unfortunately, this novel was strangely absent from my local bookstores, and so I gave up on the idea...until my friend gave it to me as a Christmas gift. I am so glad she did.

I immediately delved into the book, and I did not come up for air until I had reached its striking conclusion; yet still I was left breathless. The aforementioned film left me stunned, dazed, and with many difficult questions, and I had hoped to clear my confusion by reading the book. However, the wealth of description and details serves only to enhance the air of mystery -- which is not a bad thing. Through his provocative and skillful writing, Eugenides not only draws you into the story, but surrounds you with a tangible atmosphere -- you are there with the boys, piecing together photos and trying to make sense of what seems a senseless tragedy. You go through the memories, struggling to see what signs you missed, what you could have done differently. You feel the poignance of their obsession and, eventually, their grief...

There is a profoundly disturbing quality to this novel, one which could not be captured in the movie. Necessarily, certain parts were excised to fit into a few hours worth of film, and it actually worked out quite well. Yet if you want to fully indulge your senses -- to immerse yourself in this irresistable and intoxicating haze -- this is the only way. Allow yourself to be lost in the swirling sentences and enchanted by Eugenides' literary magic. Discover the glittering nuances, discover the increasingly perplexing secrets of the mesmerizing Lisbon girls, and -- like the confused boys who carried their frustration into their adult lives -- see if you can find yourself able understand this spellbinding enigma, or even tear yourself away from it.

Rating:
Summary: A Twisted Look into 1970's Suburbia
Review: Eugenides creates an interesting look into a family of young sisters through the eyes of an obsessed boy. The Virgin Suicides is an excellent novel. All of the characters are well developed yet each one seems to have a mysterious quality to them that intrigues the reader. Not only are the characters well developed, but so is Eugenides style. The Virgin Suicides is written in an interesting and relaxed manner. Eugenides allows the reader to get to know each character and he welcomes you into the strange and mysterious world of the the Lisbon girls as well as the obsessive boys who watch their every move. I highly recommend this book to all, it is an intriguing and thought provoking novel that everyone can enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful
Review: This one gives you pause for thought. Appearances can be so entirely deceiving.

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing
Review: Ever since that day, when the Lisbon sisters each took their turn at suicide, the lives of men have been changed. They never really figured out who killed themselves first, or why, but one thing will always stay fresh in their mind. How they loved each and every one of them, and the sick feeling they got whenever they looked at that house. Whether it was immediatley after the deaths, or 20 years later. They would never forget.

"The Virgin Suicides" takes us back to the seventies. When protests were still going strong, and smoking pot was a natural occurence. Five sisters were born into a family, where strict was beyond strict. They couldn't wear what they wanted, go to school dances, or listen to rock music. There was Cecilia-13, Lux-14, Bonnie-15, Mary-16, and Therese-17. Raised in a home where parents had to accompany you everywhere, and the only time you socialized was at school.

After a mishap thanks to Lux, the girls are soon prisoners in their own home. Not going to school, or even outside. Soon their only sanctuary is playing music over the phone with the boys who loved them.

This book is filled with tragedy, love, humor, and provocativeness. Eugenides is truly a literary genius. This is a must read for all.

Rating:
Summary: An elegy to rice never eaten.
Review: Sticky could use words like elegiac, haunting and cathartic to describe this book - but instead he prefers to use just one:

rice

as in sticky rice, as in if the Lisbon girls' dirty mother had fed them rice maybe then they would have had something worth living for. Especially Kirsten Dunst, she was hot...

Rating:
Summary: depressing yet fascinating plot
Review: The Virgin Suicides is about the 5 Lisbon sisters, beautiful, blond, secluded by their teacher father and their housewife mother in 1970s suburban Michigan... the parents throw a party and invite the neighborhood boys who have always admired the girls but have never gotten close enough to befriend them...

The story traces the next year of the Lisbon girls' lives, how they are allowed to go to one school dance, where one of them sneaks off with a boy. Afterwards, they are secluded from everything and everyone -- even school, where their father teaches and doesn't notice they are absent.

It all culminates into a horrible ending that you can't quite believe.

Rating:
Summary: The thing about suicide is........
Review: .....that you never really can know "why?" because the one person who can answer that question is now dead. That is really the underlying theme of this powerful, timely and depressing book. The characters were well-developed, the plot was strong and the group narrative was unique. You never knew which one of the neighbor boys was telling the story at any given moment. My fear is that maybe this book romanticizes the act of suicide a little more than it should. In the hands of the wrong teenager this regretful solution to life's problems could look appealing. This is a must read for every adult, but I wouldn't recommend it to my children until they are in their 20's. If they choose to read it before then it will end with a very open discussion with their mother and me. SAD, is the one word that best describes my feelings after finishing this book, but it is worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Eugenides' Suicides
Review: Jeffery Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides is so richly charged with emotion to which everyone can relate. Everyone can see a piece of themselves in this book and in the Lisbon girls. He flawlessly takes you through the teenage psyche and whether you're a teenager now, or were thirty years ago, the feelings are universal. From sweaty palms, to first kisses, to slamming doors, to domineering mothers. Eugenides covers it all. You struggle with the girls as they struggle for freedom as well as widely-craved adolescent individuality and self-expression. It's a coming, and, in this case, going of age story of teenage obsession and how far it will go.