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A review by mxcopmy
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Spoilers ahead.
This is the kind of book where you can only make assumptions about the story and will never know 100% the meaning of it. You can compare it somewhat to a work of art where each gives their own hypothesis and perspective and each also contributes to the whole.
'The virgin suicides' is about 5 sisters who each commits suicide, starting with Cecilia. They grow up together in a traditional Christian family where it becomes clear that the mother and father have strict rules about hanging out with boys, going away to parties, wearing revealing clothing, ... This is one of the assumptions raised as to why the girls would have committed suicide. They felt trapped in their own home, their own family. However, the title and synopsis are a bit misleading (in my opinion) where you think you will delve into the Lisbon sisters' characters and really find out why they ended up committing suicide. However, this is not the case. Rather, the story is written to show how different perspectives can bring a different story, and each contributing to the overall picture. The entire book is written from the perspective of a group of boys where you sense through the written text that the female gender is still unknown territory with them. In the end, they narrate how they experienced the sisters' suicides. A lot of stereotyping and traditionalism comes into play here.
You should definitely read this book if you want a story that keeps you thinking after you read it. As I wrote at the beginning of my review, you cannot grasp this book 100% and you can only have a hypothesis at the end of the story. So what my personal conclusion is, is that the author wants to give the reader an experience of 'the male gaze'. You notice immediately in the story that the boys view the Lisbon girls mainly from a sexual perspective and especially start stereotyping them in the sense of: "oh well, they are girls who only care about their looks anyway" or start viewing them mainly as objects. This is very powerfully brought by Jeffrey, just because you would almost fall into it yourself to start sneaking into this line of thinking. Next, the boys have a pathological obsession with the sisters throughout the story. For instance, they literally watch them with binoculars from their room. Why? No clue... and this is one of those pressing questions I am left with after reading the book. one of so many....
The interesting thing about this book is that so many different opinions and stories are shared about the sisters' deaths that you can never be sure whether the characters are telling the truth or not. This still kept me glued to the book (for as much time as I had at times). It follows that the book was therefore also a very smooth read. In fact, the ideal book to read in one sitting!
Moving on to those pressing questions, I experienced them both positively and negatively. On the one hand, positive because it remains mysterious and exciting. You really want to find out for yourself why and what it all actually means. Because of this, you genuinely feel that humans are creatures who keep looking for explanations and allow themselves to be drummed up by all sorts of fantasies if they don't get these explanations on a piece of paper. On the other hand, negative because there are a lot of things I don't understand at all, like: what does the Virgin Mary have to do with it? What did Cecilia suffer that it eventually had to come to the point where she committed suicide as a 13-year-old? The boys often speak of "exhibit ..." as if they were conducting a police investigation, what does this mean? Or was this rather obsessional? There is also frequent mention of interviews with both the sisters' mother and father, again is this the boys' obsession that made them start talking to them or is this police, ...
These are all things that didn't seem to make sense in my head and why I was also confused at times. This sometimes made me feel that I had overlooked things in reading the book or that I was missing the essence of the story.
Despite the negative points, I was still surprised by the book! I was guided by people on tiktok who were very enthusiastic about it after reading books by Otessa Moshfegh. It definitely has the same dark side as her books! My review may not be very concrete, but that's because you really have to read the book yourself to understand what the mayhem (which is nonetheless structurally brought) to get through from these boys and the family. There is also a movie released of this that I definitely want to watch! Maybe that will give me answers to my questions?....
This is the kind of book where you can only make assumptions about the story and will never know 100% the meaning of it. You can compare it somewhat to a work of art where each gives their own hypothesis and perspective and each also contributes to the whole.
'The virgin suicides' is about 5 sisters who each commits suicide, starting with Cecilia. They grow up together in a traditional Christian family where it becomes clear that the mother and father have strict rules about hanging out with boys, going away to parties, wearing revealing clothing, ... This is one of the assumptions raised as to why the girls would have committed suicide. They felt trapped in their own home, their own family. However, the title and synopsis are a bit misleading (in my opinion) where you think you will delve into the Lisbon sisters' characters and really find out why they ended up committing suicide. However, this is not the case. Rather, the story is written to show how different perspectives can bring a different story, and each contributing to the overall picture. The entire book is written from the perspective of a group of boys where you sense through the written text that the female gender is still unknown territory with them. In the end, they narrate how they experienced the sisters' suicides. A lot of stereotyping and traditionalism comes into play here.
You should definitely read this book if you want a story that keeps you thinking after you read it. As I wrote at the beginning of my review, you cannot grasp this book 100% and you can only have a hypothesis at the end of the story. So what my personal conclusion is, is that the author wants to give the reader an experience of 'the male gaze'. You notice immediately in the story that the boys view the Lisbon girls mainly from a sexual perspective and especially start stereotyping them in the sense of: "oh well, they are girls who only care about their looks anyway" or start viewing them mainly as objects. This is very powerfully brought by Jeffrey, just because you would almost fall into it yourself to start sneaking into this line of thinking. Next, the boys have a pathological obsession with the sisters throughout the story. For instance, they literally watch them with binoculars from their room. Why? No clue... and this is one of those pressing questions I am left with after reading the book. one of so many....
The interesting thing about this book is that so many different opinions and stories are shared about the sisters' deaths that you can never be sure whether the characters are telling the truth or not. This still kept me glued to the book (for as much time as I had at times). It follows that the book was therefore also a very smooth read. In fact, the ideal book to read in one sitting!
Moving on to those pressing questions, I experienced them both positively and negatively. On the one hand, positive because it remains mysterious and exciting. You really want to find out for yourself why and what it all actually means. Because of this, you genuinely feel that humans are creatures who keep looking for explanations and allow themselves to be drummed up by all sorts of fantasies if they don't get these explanations on a piece of paper. On the other hand, negative because there are a lot of things I don't understand at all, like: what does the Virgin Mary have to do with it? What did Cecilia suffer that it eventually had to come to the point where she committed suicide as a 13-year-old? The boys often speak of "exhibit ..." as if they were conducting a police investigation, what does this mean? Or was this rather obsessional? There is also frequent mention of interviews with both the sisters' mother and father, again is this the boys' obsession that made them start talking to them or is this police, ...
These are all things that didn't seem to make sense in my head and why I was also confused at times. This sometimes made me feel that I had overlooked things in reading the book or that I was missing the essence of the story.
Despite the negative points, I was still surprised by the book! I was guided by people on tiktok who were very enthusiastic about it after reading books by Otessa Moshfegh. It definitely has the same dark side as her books! My review may not be very concrete, but that's because you really have to read the book yourself to understand what the mayhem (which is nonetheless structurally brought) to get through from these boys and the family. There is also a movie released of this that I definitely want to watch! Maybe that will give me answers to my questions?....
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Suicide, and Mental illness