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Summary: this book is disturbing.
Review: regarding the kirkus review, whoever wrote that is mistaken. cecilia was the youngest daughter, not the eldest.
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Summary: A Haunting Debut
Review: Never before or since has there been written such a profound and hauntingly beautiful debut. Eugenides has crafted an intense novel exploring the lives of five sisters through the eyes of a group of friends, all of whom have been transfixed for years, even after the girls' suicides. The singular narrative voice for the boys/men is an interesting device, unique and surprisingly satisfying. While many have expressed opinion, usually negative, regarding the authors' lack of detailed motivation for the girls' suicides, the open-endedness is perfect, as any offering of such details would have appeared as simply providing an unnecessary closure. Thatvery lack of explanation lends the novel a lingering sense of melancholy, one that stays with the reader days after having taken in the last pages. Engrossing, fulfilling and appropriately chilling, one can only hope the forthcomng film adaption captures the novel's gothic sensibility and overwhelming impact.
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Summary: HAUNTING...POETIC...CAN'T RECOMMEND IT ENOUGH...
Review: I read this book after being drawn to the cover in a bookstore the year it came out (93 or 94), and was immediately enthralled. It really reads to me like poetry with a plot, so evocative. A sequence where the collective narrator(s) (itself a brilliant device) communicate with the enigmatic sisters via highly-personalized snippets of pop songs over the radio has more pathos and grace than any thousand self-conscious pop-culture references in Tarantino Land. The ending, somehow both a surprise and ominous, will stay with you for years after you read it. JEFF EUGENIDES: IF YOU'RE OUT THERE, WHERE'S YOUR FOLLOW-UP?
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Summary: empty
Review: When we think of this book, we can only remember the vast emptiness between the covers.
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Summary: Feeling Cheated?
Review: As I neared the end of The Virgin Suicides panic began to set in. I realised that there were not nearly enough words left to explain the true reasons why the Lisbon sisters commited suicide. Had Mrs Lisbon abused them their whole life? What of Mr Lisbon's distant relationship with each of his daughters? Did rock 'n' roll really corrupt these free young minds? Or was American suburban life so boring and superficial that these girls did what they did for kicks? If you're looking for answers, don't bother reading Jeffrey Eugenides compelling tale of oppressed teenage life. He presents a true representation of the world today as seen through the eyes of it's innocent youth. Sure you might feel cheated out of a solution at the end of the novel, but hey, whoever said life was fair? This isn't The Waltons you know!
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Summary: Surprisingly interesting
Review: I was assigned to read this novel in my liturature class. I was very surprised at the rate at which I read this novel. Normally I don't even finish the books assigned. I saw Eugenides using the Lisbon sisters as a parallel to the rest of modern day society. The events at school, the seclusion, ect... This was not the best book I have ever read, but it is definately worth making a trip to the library for.
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Summary: intruiging; Lux a memorable character
Review: The book was entertaining; light and dark at the same time. Ultimately, it was the story of the boys and their obsession with the Lisbon girls, their perceiving of the girls and their road to maddness, not necceserily what truly pushed these girls, whatever that may be. The best scenes were Cecilia's death, the first and most shocking suicide. Lux's luscious, depserate promiscuity rang the most real; making love in the snow on the rooftop in zero degrees hints at a maddness... Sometimes even lyrical, this novel is a rare story and has great characters. Lux, by far my favorite of the sisters, was a character purely developed by the memories of obsessed little boys grown up; an intruiging concept.
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Summary: Rubber-Necking Wonder and Sorrow
Review: Don't have time to write much about this book, but it struck me so profoundly I have to add my recommendation to the list. Though the narrative tells the story of the suicides among the Lisbon girls, the book itself tells the story of their lasting impressions on the boys, now men, who could not then, nor now, shake the five sisters and their actions from their conscience. Beautifully written and full of essential details and nuance that contribute clearly to the story of the Lisbon girls and, ultimately, to the plight of the collective narrative. Only complaint, as someone else mentioned, three of the sisters are left virtually untouched by the author, without personality beyond the one word distinctions made between them on the back of the book. Of the two sisters who are studied more closely, one is too young and too quickly gone to make much of and the other is revealed only in so much as her promiscuity. Granted, these generalities and vague notions of people are too often the most one can make of another, but in books of this genre a little poetic license is often expected. BUT READ IT ANYWAY!!! What you will get from this book far surpasses what you will be left still wanting.
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Summary: Boring? hardly. Genius? nearly.
Review: I did like this one. I don't think the style was anything breathtaking and I didn't think this book was deep and pensive but it told a nice story. Eugenides makes light of a rather serious topic and pulls it off.
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Summary: An amazing, most honest story
Review: When my sister gave me this book as a christmas present, I automatically thought it would be boringly tedious story that didn't see though the eyes of a teenager at all. What was intricately written in the first five pages changed my view on this author with a scarce effort. It is the most brilliant book I've ever read, both containing humour and sadness, shocking me into this intruiging story.
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