≫ Download The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides 9780747560593 Books

The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides 9780747560593 Books

Download As PDF : The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides 9780747560593 Books

The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides 9780747560593 Books

This is my single most favorite book of all time. It is beautifully written. Eugenides' style is unmatched by anyone. I could almost not care less about the plot, but his writing style is so.... I can't even describe it! But as for the plot, it is a strange and intriguing story that I have read over and over and over again. The movie pales in comparison, although the story is basically the same. Read the book, and you will see the world in a different light.


Tags : The Virgin Suicides [Jeffrey Eugenides] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The shocking thing about the girls was how nearly normal they seemed when their mother let them out for the one and only date of their lives. Twenty years on,Jeffrey Eugenides,The Virgin Suicides,Bloomsbury Pub Ltd,0747560595,Fiction

The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides 9780747560593 Books Reviews

The Virgin Suicides. The title alone grabs you - a sexually charged word used as an adjective to describe a dark, mysterious, and ungodly act. How interesting. But everything I thought this novel might be, it wasn't. It wasn't a crime story. It wasn't a love story. It wasn't a coming of age story. Instead, it was a lyrical, atmospheric, and evocative piece of art.

The novel opens with the attempted suicide of Cecilia, the youngest of the five Lisbon daughters, and closes after all five girls have committed suicide. Since the novel is told from the point of view of the boys across the street, that is, an outsider's point of view, the reader fully experiences the curiosity, the obsessiveness, and the constant wondering of those boys. You only get to know the five girls as the boys get to know the girls, and you are left longing for more information just as the boys are.

As with many pieces of fine art these days, this work risks leaving its readers confused with question marks over their heads, wondering, "I don't get it," at the end. If you are strongly opinionated against abstract art, then this book is likely not for you. But you don't have to totally get abstract art to get this book either. It's not that intangible. I'd say the novel is accessible to most people who are at least open to exploring literature that is not just about the plot.

With that said, I found that to be the downfall of this novel - the lack of a plot. I was particularly disappointed because I had read Middlesex prior to this piece and Middlesex's strength was its storytelling. By far, this novel was not as good as Middlesex; there were points in this novel that dragged for me.

Nevertheless, I recommend The Virgin Suicides for the experience. Also, Eugenides paints some unexpectedly haunting scenes in this novel that are truly worth reading. Not that haunting scenes would be unexpected in a book entitled The Virgin Suicides, but rather that what Eugenides depicts are not the ones you would expect. Or at least, not the ones I expected.
The Virgin Suicides is one of those books I wish I could erase from my memory just to read it all over again. The author does a wonderful job in making the uncomfortable topic of suicide seem not so vile and to bring some beauty out it. Eugenides writes the story so well it is impossible for you not to appreciate it. The mix of dark humor and melancholy passages throughout this story definitely keeps it tasteful. What drew me into the story the most was the plural narration. Eugenides used “we” and “us” to narrate the story, which made it very unique. He makes you feel as if you are one of the neighborhood boys being obsessed over the lives of the Lisbon girls. It is impossible to express the beauty of this story just through a review.
I absolutely love gothic and mildly depressing stories which are poetic but go nearly nowhere. Coming of age tales where the ending could be anything? Love it. Tragedy on a Shakespearean level where barely anyone is left breathing at the end of the tale? Adore it.

I read this book at least once a year and I haven't gotten tired of it. It's beautifully written, but it's a short novel, and a simple tale.

I became obsessed with The Virgin Suicides when I saw the commercial for the movie on television at age 10 or 11. I begged my parents to let me see it. They forbid it. I wasn't able to watch it until I was fully grown and married, I read the book afterward. I'm now thankful for that because I think if I'd seen the seen the movie and read the book as a tween/teen, it would have definitely negatively influenced my adolescence. I did have severe depression and my parents kept watch over me much like the parents in the story. I was definitely the Lux type as a teenager and luckily I grew out of it.

Since I see the parallels in my past reflected in the story, when I read it I feel like the sister who lived. Eugenides writes the girls so realistically that I can't help but feel so connected to them, like they are my family. I grieve for them at the end of the book after each reading. Especially since I see so many teen girls damaging themselves the same way the sisters did, over bullying in school or other problems. This book definitely shows how suicide can rip families apart. I read somewhere that suicide affects a family for 10 generations. That's a long time, and I do believe its true.

I don't feel this is a YA book, though I've seen it classified as one. It's far too dark, and while condemning suicide, Eugenides simultaneously glorifies it. Yes, the survivor's hearts were broken. But more is made of the fact that the sisters will be young and beautiful in their memories forever. How irresistible for a young girl is that? Yes, I'll be dead, but I'll have impacted an entire town for years to come with my death. Yes, my boyfriend will move on and marry, but he'll discuss me and my death with his friends at high school reunions.... He'll never get over me. To be immortalized is every teen girl's wildest dream. If one has to kill herself to do it, she will. For an already depressed and impressionable teen girl, this book is a loaded gun.

I have a beautiful blonde daughter of my own now. I'm hiding this book from her until she's at least 25.
This book is beautifully written and I loved the fact that you couldn't really understand the Lisbon girls any better than the narrator because how much can we ever truly know or understand about the innermost feelings of others? On the other hand I had a hard time with the misogyny in the book and the frequent dehumanization of the girls through the lens of the boys' perceptions of them. I'm glad I read it and I really loved the style and the dreamy quality of the writing but it was too frustrating a read to rate it any higher.
This is my single most favorite book of all time. It is beautifully written. Eugenides' style is unmatched by anyone. I could almost not care less about the plot, but his writing style is so.... I can't even describe it! But as for the plot, it is a strange and intriguing story that I have read over and over and over again. The movie pales in comparison, although the story is basically the same. Read the book, and you will see the world in a different light.