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A review by lunabean
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
3 stars⚖️ Initially I was like, what in the male gaze am I reading???? Who thought it was a good idea to let a man write about the suicides of 5 sisters? And then toward the end I’m like……. OHHH. Although I still think the title is stupid.
This book is about the Lisbon sisters, but also not really. The youngest Lisbon, Cecilia, commits suicide first, commencing the obsession and indecorous speculation of the family from the neighbourhood. They watch the sisters at school or from the house across the street, consumed with their fantasies of what the girls were doing and who they were.
What is key to this entire book is the NARRATOR!! It was written by a collective narrator “We”: the boys who went to school with the girls, lived on the same street as the girls, who dreamt of “saving” them. Initially I was appalled by the way the sisters were described- unnecessary sexualisation, the girls’ shared bathroom with hanging brasserie and tampons, accounts of them sleeping with some of the boys. After Cecilia’s death, we never find out (and were never meant to) why she died, but instead see how the boys fetishised this trauma so much so that they reconstructed the incident into a case they could solve, with exhibits. I realise this was done purposefully to critique how society views suicide: with detached, romanticised lenses. What we know about the sisters throughout the entire book is only from what the boys could see, and for all the time they spent trying to find the reasons behind the suicides, they never knew the sisters at all.
The account is meant to be flawed, and fallacious, but a double-edged sword this was… the writing felt odd and overdone to me at some parts, with unnecessary names (unmemorable) and long depictions of side characters (useless). In trying to create a one-dimensional perspective from the boys’ fixation, we never get to know the Lisbon sisters, which I think is sad. It’s a short read, a fresh take on how criticism can be written, and I can see how you could either love or hate this book. Never trust a man who says he loves this book though.
This book is about the Lisbon sisters, but also not really. The youngest Lisbon, Cecilia, commits suicide first, commencing the obsession and indecorous speculation of the family from the neighbourhood. They watch the sisters at school or from the house across the street, consumed with their fantasies of what the girls were doing and who they were.
What is key to this entire book is the NARRATOR!! It was written by a collective narrator “We”: the boys who went to school with the girls, lived on the same street as the girls, who dreamt of “saving” them. Initially I was appalled by the way the sisters were described- unnecessary sexualisation, the girls’ shared bathroom with hanging brasserie and tampons, accounts of them sleeping with some of the boys. After Cecilia’s death, we never find out (and were never meant to) why she died, but instead see how the boys fetishised this trauma so much so that they reconstructed the incident into a case they could solve, with exhibits. I realise this was done purposefully to critique how society views suicide: with detached, romanticised lenses. What we know about the sisters throughout the entire book is only from what the boys could see, and for all the time they spent trying to find the reasons behind the suicides, they never knew the sisters at all.
The account is meant to be flawed, and fallacious, but a double-edged sword this was… the writing felt odd and overdone to me at some parts, with unnecessary names (unmemorable) and long depictions of side characters (useless). In trying to create a one-dimensional perspective from the boys’ fixation, we never get to know the Lisbon sisters, which I think is sad. It’s a short read, a fresh take on how criticism can be written, and I can see how you could either love or hate this book. Never trust a man who says he loves this book though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm and Suicide