The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

 “Basically what we have here is a dreamer. Somebody out of touch with reality. When she jumped, she probably thought she'd fly”

                                                                                                 ― Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides

Synopsis

In a quiet suburb of Detroit, the five Lisbon sisters--beautiful, eccentric, and obsessively watched by the neighborhood boys--commit suicide one by one over the course of a single year. As the boys observe them from afar, transfixed, they piece together the mystery of the family's fatal melancholy, in this hypnotic and unforgettable novel of adolescent love, disquiet, and death.

Review

Rating: ★★★★★

Suicide is a hard topic to read, but mostly to write about. But, I think Jeffrey Eugenides did it perfectly. I thought it was interesting how the story is narrated from the boy's point of view, instead of the Lisbon sisters. The story pretty much romanticizes and idealizes the sisters, but this isn’t a flaw in the book, because it is totally on purpose. These boys saw the sisters as beautiful objects who could never do anything wrong, and they don’t understand why they killed their selves. It is a really original way of showing how these guys have a deep obsession with the girls, and they are still obsessed with them after their deaths.

Also, the prose in the book is so beautiful. The writing style is SO GOOD, and I definitely want to read more by the author.

This book is one of those books that you absolutely love, but maybe won’t read it again. This is definitely one of my favorites, and I hope to read more books by Jeffrey Eugenides very soon.