The Virgin Suicides

What books should everyone read before they die?Add Book

The Virgin Suicides

Jeffrey Eugenides

Literature

Jul 30, 2018

That Jeffrey Eugenides has made something magical and rare out of subject matter on the one hand so sensational—a quintet of suicides all in the same family, all in the same year—and so banal—coming of age in a suburb of Detroit in the 1970s (complete with soundtrack by Jim Croce, Bread, Carole King, and their contemporaries)—is a source of lasting wonder. The story is told by a collective narrator, a “we” who speaks for a group of boys who, as adolescents, are besotted with the mystifying Lisbon sisters, and, as adults, have remained transfixed by memories of the girls’ mysterious lives and unfortunate ends. Summoning a voice that embodies with expressive exactitude a quality of growing up that has slipped through the sentences of most novels concerned with it, Eugenides captures its nature as a communal experience with breathtaking, heartbreaking sympathy.

Add Reply

Molly Bolton

Dec 30, 2018

Eugenides certainly makes my list and this book might be one of his more popular and approachable, so is certainly a worthy pick, so I wouldn’t want to say I disagree. I would however, if push came to shove, probably give this space on my list to Middlesex, which is one of my all time favorite novels.

Add Reply