Product Description

This beautiful and sad first novel, recently adapted for a major motion picture, tells of a band of teenage sleuths who piece together the story of a twenty-year old family tragedy begun by the youngest daughter's spectacular demise by self-defenstration, which inaugurates 'the year of the suicides.'

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2823 in Books
• Published on: 1994-06-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Eugenides's tantalizing, macabre first novel begins with a suicide, the first of the five bizarre deaths of the teenage daughters in the Lisbon family; the rest of the work, set in the author's native Michigan in the early 1970s, is a backward-looking quest as the male narrator and his nosy, horny pals describe how they strove to understand the odd clan of this first chapter, which appeared in the Paris Review , where it won the 1991 Aga Khan Prize for fiction. The sensationalism of the subject matter (based loosely on a factual account) may be off-putting to some readers, but Eugenides's voice is so fresh and compelling, his powers of observation so startling and acute, that most will be mesmerized. The title derives from a song by the fictional rock band Cruel Crux, a favorite of the Lisbon daughter Lux--who, unlike her sisters Therese, Mary, Bonnie and Cecilia, is anything but a virgin by the tale's end. Her mother forces Lux to burn the album along with others she considers dangerously provocative. Mr. Lisbon, a mild-mannered high school math teacher, is driven to resign by parents who believe his control of their children may be as deficient as his control of his own brood. Eugenides risks sounding sophomoric in his attempt to convey the immaturity of high-school boys; while initially somewhat discomfiting, the narrator's voice (representing the collective memories of the group) acquires the ring of authenticity. The author is equally convincing when he describes the older locals' reactions to the suicide attempts. Under the narrator's goofy, posturing banter are some hard truths: mortality is a fact of life; teenage girls are more attracted to brawn than to brains (contrary to the testimony of the narrator's male relatives). This is an auspicious debut from an imaginative and talented writer. Literary Guild selection.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Eugenides's remarkable first novel opens on a startling note: "On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide... the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope." What follows is not, however, a horror novel, but a finely crafted work of literary if slightly macabre imagination. In an unnamed town in the slightly distant past, detailed in such precise and limpid prose that readers will surely feel that they grew up there, Cecilia--the youngest and most obviously wacky of the luscious Lisbon girls--finally succeeds in taking her own life. As the confused neighbors watch rather helplessly, the remaining sisters become isolated and unhinged, ending it all in a spectacular multiple suicide anticipated from the first page. Eugenides's engrossing writing style keeps one reading despite a creepy feeling that one shouldn't be enjoying it so much. A black, glittering novel that won't be to everyone's taste but must be tried by readers looking for something different. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/92.
- Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
What if all the pieces in the kaleidoscope were black? Meet the Lisbon daughters. Cecilia is first to end her life, followed not long after by Lux, Bonnie, Mary, and Therese. The girls, shielded from life by overprotective parents, leave everyone wondering--why? Jeffrey Eugenides, who won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Middlesex, reminds listeners that sitcom suburbia is a facade, that troubles lurk just behind the pretty paint. Narrating from the point of view of the town's collective consciousness, Nick Landrum makes the ethereal feel real and the unusual, commonplace. Whether voicing the sisters, reading their diaries, or revealing the secrets of "boy-think," his voice nudges the listener into a strange place that seems oddly familiar. Eugenides's haunting debut novel gets a top-notch reading by Landrum. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Brilliant start, lags a little in the middle
The Virgin Suicides gets off to a morose but brilliant start and while its ending holds no real surprises, the tragic inevitably of the final chapters is poignant and disturbing. Where The Virgin Suicides falters is in the middle. Despite the relatively light page count, Eugenides' debut novel becomes monotonous to read after a while. But I think this was a conscious decision made by the author.

Between suicides, very little happens. Life in suburbia carries on while the Lisbon home falls into disrepair and the Libsons themselves fade from view. The greatest crime in Suburbia is the failure to maintain the façade. The Libson's neighbours initially feel sympathy for the family's plight, but over time, the Libson home becomes a blight on the neighbourhood. The Libson home is a microcosm of suburbia which in turn is a microcosm of America. Happiness and the American Dream are a thin veneer, a lie that we feel obliged to propagate. We ostracize those who fail to maintain the facade.

Eugenides may be making a literary point but the result is my interest in the novel (after such a strong start) began to wane. Still, this is a powerfully affecting and disturbing novel. Its premise (the suicides of five teenage sisters) and other elements of the novel (notably the self destructive promiscuity of 14 year old Lux) may be unsettling for some readers.

Despite its flaws, this is an insightful and original debut novel.

Don't bother with this one -- read Middlesex instead.
If you haven't read anything by Jeffrey Eugenides, skip the Virgin Suicides and head right to Middlesex. VS was slow paced and dull. The characters were merely charicatures -- shallow and unrelatable. By the end, I couldn't wait until all the girls were dead -- just to put this painfully boring story out of its misery.

Thank goodness I read Middlesex by Eugenides before I read this one. Middlesex was a very interesting story -- one of my recent favorites. If I had read VS first, I wouldn't have even bothered with Middlesex.

My recommendation -- skip The Virgin Suicides and head right to Middlesex. VS should be put to rest. It's going right into my Goodwill box -- not even worthy of passing to one of my many book-loving friends.

Death in Suburbia
With "Suicides" (implying more than one) in the title, talented author Jeffrey Eugenides' debut "The Virgin Suicides" promises to be somewhat depressing, and it delivers. Plot becomes unimportant as the only mystery is just how many of the five daughters in a suburban Michigan family of the 1970s will kill themselves and how. Suicide number one by the youngest happens in somewhat spectacular fashion. The rest of the novel is given over to a third person description of how the family handles the tragedy as told by someone (an unnamed neighborhood teenage boy) who can only infer much of the action through closed drapes, rarely opened doors, and a collection of objects that is eerily archaeological--artifacts of a culture that has died right before his eyes.

All of this can be a bit confusing and a lot depressing to the reader, but I expect that such a reaction is exactly Eugenides' point--sharing the outsiders' view of what has to be an intensely personal tragedy for any family. Then again, perhaps the suicides and parallel ongoing extinction of elm trees by Dutch Elm disease are metaphors for the death of the American suburban soul.

For me, "The Virgin Suicides" was better in the analysis (four stars) than in the reading (three stars), during which it reminded me greatly of another depressing, but well-written tale of suburban life, Rick Moody's The Ice Storm: A Novel. I'll round up to four stars. Readers would be better served to start with Eugenides' amazing 2002 offering Middlesex: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club), a definite five-star book all the way.